02/11/2013
The Audit Committee just hired an internal auditor, and the auditor is an FTE on the bank's books. How do banks achieve independence, (besides the audit charter), when the internal auditor is an employee of the bank? Is it unreasonable that the internal auditor would be subject to employee policy (handbook)? Administratively, whom should the internal auditor report to and to what extent? The rules of internal auditor independence, (banks under $500 mill) are black and white, but don't seem practical in reality. The new auditor is a rookie and is very concerned that in some way he will be asked to do something in contrast to what he is reading and researching about the internal auditor. We are struggling to strike the balance.
02/04/2013
I participated in a recent seminar where BOL Guru Dana Turner was the presenter. He mentioned that there might be a conflict of interest if the bank's Security Officer was also a director. I am in that position and I have discussed this with the Board/Executive Committee and was told today that they had talked with our bonding company and were told this was not an issue. What is the rational for ensuring that our Security Officer should be an employee, rather than a director?
02/04/2013
As part of an employee loan referral program, is it permissible to offer friends and families of employees an incentive? For example, if a borrower brings in a referral card they received from an employee, can we offer the borrower $50 for getting their loan through us?
01/21/2013
If someone is eligible for medicare but does not sign up, will this affect their HSA contributions?
01/07/2013
On IRAs, upon death of the owner, may the beneficiary (spouse) roll that amount into their own IRA? And, can the beneficiary spouse receive the entire IRA as a distribution.
12/17/2012
This question is in regards to the SAFE Act and disclosure of the MLO's unique identifier with the initial written communication. If loan is made to an employee of Sr. Management and the MLO is Sr. Management as well, does the requirement still apply? Obviously these employees know each other well, and since the unique identifier is a tool for customers to get info about the MLO would the disclosure of the unique identifier be relevant in this case? Would an examiner cite an Institution for not having disclosed the unique identifier on initial written communication?
12/17/2012
At a recent Indiana Bankers Association Compliance Round table, we became concerned about our employee drawings for a charity. We offer drawings for prizes for first day donation, increased donation etc. We believe this may meet the definition of lottery but can't quite believe this activity would be prohibited. Please comment. We are a state chartered bank.
10/15/2012
I was contacted by my customer "Charlie Customer" and he asked to have two stop payments placed against two personal checks each for $5,000.00. The following day a now previous employee cashed these two checks for Frank Fraud, the payee. These two checks were supposed to be earnest money for a upcoming home sale that fell through due to Frank Fraud and no contract was signed since they operated under a gentleman's agreement so Charlie Customer did not receive any services or products for these two checks. We made contact with Frank Fraud who of course refused to bring the funds back to the bank. Question: Does the bank have any legal recourse to recover these funds? It seems the only person that would be able to file a suit would be Charlie Customer; however, since he placed the stop payment, the funds came from the bank instead of Charlie Customer's account and he now has no motivation to file suit since he isn't out any money. We referred to the UCC code for our state however; like most states it covers the customer's damages and doesn't seem to give any guidance to the financial institution.
10/01/2012
Where do I go to find a good definition of "best practices" for a new employee as it relates to BSA/AML?
08/20/2012
We have a customer that is buying a spec home from a builder. The customer has moved into the spec home prior to the loan being closed. Does this loan require that we give a Right of Rescission to the borrower? Our compliance consultant company says NO but I have an employee at an IBA seminar today that is saying per Reg Z says No but Truth in Lending Law says Yes so we should do a rescission.