Newsroom

October 26, 2016

BSA Seminar Day 3: BSA enforcement, exam findings, compliance

Credit union professionals at NAFCU's BSA Seminar Wednesday attained a breadth of BSA knowledge, including what is next in enforcement, exam findings and how to create a culture of compliance at their institutions.

NAFCU's sold-out BSA Seminar runs through Friday in New Orleans.

Treliant Risk Advisors LLC Ross Marrazzo, managing director, and Stacey-Ann Williams, director, kicked off Wednesday's program with a discussion of what is next in BSA enforcement. The two discussed various BSA enforcement actions and penalties for violations of anti-money laundering laws; and industry trends and concerns, which included third-party relationships and payment processors. They also discussed terrorist financing and how it works, and they encouraged credit unions to periodically self-assess their BSA programs.

NCUA's Judy Graham, program officer with the Office of Examination and Insurance, noted BSA examination findings in her presentation Wednesday. She discussed compliance concerns, including information sharing, and the agency's supervisory focus. She also noted NCUA's due diligence expectation for money services businesses. She urged credit unions to review the BSA/AML program for MSBs and review results of their independent testing.

Lawler
FinCEN Senior Liaison Officer Tom Lawler presented Tuesday and Wednesday during NAFCU's BSA Seminar.

There was also a panel discussion Wednesday on how to create a culture of BSA compliance at a credit union. The panel included Lafayette Federal Credit Union's Lynn English, vice president of compliance and security; Transportation Federal Credit Union's Rusty Vellek, compliance officer; Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's Tom Lawler, senior liaison officer; and was moderated by NAFCU's Devon Lyon, director of education. They discussed the importance of a top-down compliance culture and expectations of BSA regulators.

Vellek also led a discussion on board-of-directors training and director responsibilities under BSA. English led a separate talk on automated transaction systems and how credit unions should select and program a monitoring system.

NAFCU's Elizabeth LaBerge, senior regulatory compliance counsel, presented on the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's BSA/AML handbook and related changes. She discussed risk mitigation, BSA suspicious activity report e-filings and BSA currency transaction report e-filings.

Today, during BSA Seminar, credit union professionals will, among other things, hear a panel discussion about serving marijuana businesses and BSA obligations; receive an FBI enforcement update from Jeff Sallet, special agent in charge of New Orleans Division; and learn about credit union service organizations in relation to BSA rules.

Follow the hashtag #BSASeminar for the latest information on the conference.