BSA/AML Contextual Awareness of High Risk Customers

This presentation will provide the practical steps to enable your institution to meet both the letter and spirit of the law and regulation. Learning from real-world audit issues, the presentation will cover what many banks are doing incorrectly and what they should be doing instead.

• An overview of FinCEN and FATF requirements
• Defining and clarifying the written requirements with the spirit of the law
• Three common mistakes institutions make when identifying high risk customers
• How to ensure existing and new high risk customers are identified properly
• How to perform high risk customer reviews that have tangible benefits for the BSA Program
• How to efficiently and accurately leverage internal resources and knowledge for the benefit of the high risk customer program
• Real-life examples of high risk customer reviews with tips on how to use these in your operational environment
• How to avoid examiner and regulator criticism regarding high risk customer reviews
• Understand the tangible benefits and net effect of your institution’s efforts

• Background related to the need for information about high risk customers
• FFIEC guidelines for determining high risk customers
• FinCEN expectations for a good high risk customer program
• Items to include in your high risk program
• Current issues related to the high risk process
• Recent enforcement actions addressing weak high risk programs

Ongoing high risk customer reviews has been a requirement since the first FinCEN Exam Manual was published in 2005. The recent guidance for Customer Due Diligence/Enhanced Due Diligence (CDD/EDD) further defines the expected approach for institutions to properly identify and evaluate high risk customers. The regulators have not, however, detailed the day-to-day approach required to meet this required customer monitoring.

• Front line BSA/AML Staff
• Account Opening Staff
• Risk Managers
• BSA/AML Officers
• Compliance Officers
• BSA/AML Audit Staff
• Auditors
• BSA/AML Consultants

Thomas E Nollner has more than 35 years of experience in financial institution supervision and consulting. Mr. Nollner spent 30 years as a National Bank Examiner for the Comptroller of the Currency where he was a safety and soundness examiner and a compliance examiner. As a safety and soundness examiner he examined national banks for capital adequacy, asset quality, management issues, earnings concerns, and liquidity funding. As a compliance examiner, he examined national banks for compliance with consumer laws and regulations such as the Truth-in-Lending Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Flood Disaster Protection Act, the Community Reinvestment Act, and AML/CFT laws and regulations. His specialty was as an AML/CFT examiner, where he analyzed a bank’s AML/CFT program to ensure that it complied with applicable banking laws, rules, and regulations; he reviewed the bank’s suspicious transactions identification, monitoring, and reporting process; he traced proceeds and transactions through several layers of activity; and, he reviewed a bank’s processes and procedures to determine root causes of AML/CFT program weaknesses. Mr. Nollner currently works as a consultant for the Office of Technical Assistance (OTA), a branch of the U.S. Treasury that assists developing countries with banking issues. Mr. Nollner is assigned to the Economic Crimes Team that focused on training, assisting, and mentoring the staffs of the financial regulatory departments and financial intelligence units of various countries regarding AML/CFT compliance. In this capacity, he worked in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Viet Nam, Honduras, Guatemala, Guyana, Suriname, and Argentina developing AML/CFT examination procedures, providing AML/CFT training and mentoring, and updating local AML/CFT laws and regulations.