Since the late 1960s, Congress has enacted extensive legislation in response to national concerns over the involvement of criminal and terrorist-related activities perpetuated on or through commercial banks and other financial entities. Much of the legislation is aimed at strengthening the hands of federal criminal justice enforcement agencies as well as federal financial institution regulators. The laws and implementing regulations affect all financial institutions, requiring proper attention to the filing of reports and maintenance of compliance policies and procedures.
Although this section of the NBA Compliance Handbook cannot review in detail the extensive body of law that has been developed, significant laws and regulations are discussed here in order to provide bankers with guidance and direction to facilitate compliance and identify legal concerns these federal anti-crime and anti-terrorist measures create. Covered within this section are summaries and tools to assist in compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, OFAC requirements, SAR filings, USA Patriot Act and other anti-money laundering statutes.
The subject of security also includes protection of a financial institution’s human assets as well as physical assets. Articles in this section cover regulatory pronouncements regarding minimum security devices and procedures, employee conduct in robbery situations and a sample security program in addition to contingency planning issues.
Finally, there are often concerns regarding the security of transactions initiated by customers on both the deposit and lending sides of financial services. Authentication in an electronic banking environment, counterfeit currency procedures, powers of attorney and transactions with non-U.S. citizens are topics that may present security concerns to financial institutions, but they are also issues that would not fit neatly in other sections of the Handbook. For these reasons, such topics are intended to be included in this section.