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May is Older Americans Month, and CFPB focused on that and ways credit unions and banks can prevent the financial abuse of older consumers during a webinar Wednesday detailing findings and recommendations from a March report on the subject.

CFPB Director Richard Cordray, in opening remarks, said the bureau's report recommendations are to be treated as a set of best practices – and are not binding – as financial institutions work to incorporate them into their policies targeting elder financial abuse.

These best practices include:

• develop internal protocols and procedures for protecting account holders from such exploitation;
• train management and staff to prevent, detect and respond to abuse;
• use technology to detect elder financial exploitation;
• report all cases of suspected abuse to relevant federal, state and local authorities; and
• protect older account holders.

During the webinar, CFPB noted that 4.7 percent of older adults, 60-plus, living independently, report financial exploitation by someone they live or spend time with. Another similar statistic puts the figure at 17 percent for those 65 and over.

It cited estimates of annual losses from elder financial abuse ranging from $2.9 billion (MetLife Mature Markets Institute, 2011) to $36.48 billion (True Link, 2015).