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Bank Secrecy Act Considered Most Challenging Compliance Issue of 2007 |
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The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and USA PATRIOT Act continue to rank among the most challenging compliance issues facing the nation’s community and regional banks, with 98 percent planning a risk-based assessment of their anti-money laundering (AML) programs in 2007.
These are the results of a December 2006 independent survey conducted on behalf of Metavante Corporation by Leede Research Group, a marketing research and information firm. Metavante is the banking and payments technology subsidiary of Marshall and Ilsley Corporation (NYSE: MI). The study of 101 community and regional financial institutions with assets between $500 million and $50 billion found the Bank Secrecy Act or AML as the risk and compliance area to be emphasized in 2007. While in existence for over 35 years, the Bank Secrecy Act has taken on particular significance due to the severity of recent financial penalties, negative publicity and reputational risk banks may face once a regulatory order becomes public. Over 83 percent of banks polled indicated they had implemented centralized operational risk management oversight. Larger banks, with assets over $1 billion, experienced a higher adoption rate of 87 percent compared to 80 percent of smaller banks. The areas included in this new operational risk function are fraud prevention, information security and privacy, internet security, network security, business continuity, and vendor management. Metavante Risk and Compliance Solutions offer financial institutions of all sizes operational risk management and regulatory compliance products and services to mitigate threats to its business. These offerings include: - - Prime Compliance Suite – an integrated group of Bank Secrecy Act, USA PATRIOT Act, and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) compliance software and data products.
- - Enterprise Risk Assessor – a scalable software package that streamlines the many enterprise risk and control assessments, audits, and reporting requirements under Basel II, Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, FFIEC, and other regulations and frameworks.
- - Fraud Prevention Systems – various technology offerings to address fraud and identity theft across customer channels, including: internet, check, deposit, kite, and credit/debit cards.
- - Metavante Regulatory Services (formerly Kirchman Regulatory Services) - a broad suite of compliance advisory services and educational tools available to bankers, industry consultants, and regulators.
- - Risk Management Consulting – seasoned business consultants with expertise in operational risk program development and assessments for identity theft and fraud prevention, anti-money laundering, information security and privacy, business continuity, and vendor risk management.
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