Oklahoma Bankers Association We make bankers better!
In This Issue…
- From Adrian’s desk …
- Fraud information … odds and ends
- Treasury Department, IRS offer digital asset regulations
- Oklahoma Bankers Hall of Fame accepting nominations – deadline Thursday!
- OBA education corner …
From Adrian’s desk …
By Adrian Beverage
OBA President & CEO
Just some random tidbits that might be of interest to our bankers this week!
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Wednesday is our first OBA Board of Directors meeting of the 2023-2024 board calendar. We have a handful of new directors this year, including Nancy Cantú (Bank of Commerce, Duncan), Bill Fanning (Stock Exchange Bank, Woodward), Jeff Merwin (Firstar Bank, Tulsa), Beth Wright (Shamrock Bank, Coalgate), Steve Hart (First Fidelity Bank, Oklahoma City), Sean Kouplen (Regent Bank, Tulsa), Bert Davison (First United Bank, Durant), Ryan Quidley (Armstrong Bank, Muskogee) and Steve Bagwell (Vision Bank, Ada).
We look forward to welcoming our new members and getting the new board year off to a resounding start. Remember: Our board is working for our member banks and bankers. If you ever have a question, concern or just a random thought, don’t hesitate to reach out to the board member in your respective OBA Group.
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Forward in Technology shared its Scam of the Week recently. It discusses how cybercriminals are manipulating search engines to show results that have malicious .pdf files attached. Personally, I enjoyed how they summed it up succinctly in a TL;DR summary at the top: Beware of malicious PDF files in top web search results; they may contain harmful links aiming to steal your information.
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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke at an economic symposium in Wyoming late last week, and said something that caught my eye. The chairman mentioned the Fed remains committed to lowering the rate of inflation to a target rate of 2%, which will likely mean holding monetary policy at a restrictive level until it is confident inflation is moving toward said level.
Fraud information, odds and ends …
Labor Day is close at hand … however, let’s talk about a few fraud trends and some training opportunities because we all know fraudsters capitalize on long weekends.
Bankers are reporting seeing IRS and SSA wires, purportedly refunds and SSI payments, in large dollar amounts. Often starting as romance scams, these are being detected and returned by our savvy bankers. IRS has an External Leads Program for reporting and returns. Awareness of this trend is key in stopping this scam.
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On the training front, many of our bankers are scheduling their security training and requesting our OBA 2023 Zoom versions. A quick request to the OBA’s Elaine Dodd will get you the half-hour training that can be incorporated with your bank’s specific procedures.
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On the robbery front, we are still at just one for this year, and fingers are crossed that number remains at that impressively low level.
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The SW BSA and Financial Crimes conference, hosted by IAFCI and our federal law enforcement partners, will be held Monday, Oct. 16, once again at the Hard Rock in Tulsa. For a registration link and full details, email Elaine. It promises to be a great day of training, as always.
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Now, seriously: listen up. Our next Information Security MAFIA will be held at the OBA on Friday, Sept. 8. It is designed for critical networking between our bank operations and IT staff and our federal law enforcement partners. This is the meeting that requires a sign-up to the group and a signed NDA to encourage our bankers to freely discuss topics. Sign-up is through Cherry Wilson at The Bankers Bank. Our speaker will be ASAC Willie Wind, with the US Secret Service, who will share info on ATM jackpotting. Afterward, we will have the crucially important roundtable information sharing.
This has always been one of Elaine’s favorite meetings and she is excited to attend this one in person. Join us and keep this networking event strong.
See you next week!
Treasury Department, IRS offer digital asset regulations
The Treasury Department and IRS last week released proposed regulations on the sale and exchange of digital assets by brokers as part of an effort to crack down on alleged tax cheats.
The proposed rules would require brokers – including digital asset trading platforms, digital asset payment processors and certain digital asset-hosted wallets – to file information returns and furnish payee statements on dispositions of digital assets effected for customers in certain sale or exchange transactions. Additionally, they would require real estate reporting persons to report the fair market value of digital asset consideration received by real estate sellers in reportable transactions.
Those same persons also would be required to file information returns and furnish payee statements for real estate purchasers who use digital assets.
Written comments will be accepted until Oct. 30, the Treasury Department said. A public hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 7.
Oklahoma Bankers Hall of Fame accepting nominations – deadline Thursday!
The Oklahoma Bankers Hall of Fame is now accepting nominations for the upcoming 2023 class – the deadline is Thursday!
First, for those interested in nominating a banker, here are some downloadable forms linked below – please return all nominations to Adrian Beverage (adrian@oba.com):
Second, as mentioned, there is a new process for selecting the inductees to each class. After discussion with leadership at the Oklahoma Hall of Fame about its processes, and learning about other methods from other organizations, the induction procedure for the Oklahoma Bankers Hall of Fame has been updated.
After all nominations have been received by OBA President and CEO Adrian Beverage, he will forward those nominees to the OBA chair (currently, Bryan Cain), who will convene a committee of 11 individuals in September to select the inductees. These 11 individuals will be made up of the OBA’s Executive Committee, who will join a banker selected by the OBA chair from each of the OBA’s six geographical groups, as well as a member of the OBA Emerging Leaders Division. The specific committee members will be completely anonymous to everyone outside of the current OBA chair.
These committee members will select the final inductees from the group of nominees given. They will also discuss any possible posthumous inductees who may have not been nominated.
Once the inductees have been selected, the OBA chair will inform Beverage and notification and preparations will be made by the OBA staff for the induction ceremony, which will be held this year on Dec. 7 at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City.
Following the 2023 selections, the current selection committee will disband and a new committee will be picked the following year by the next OBA chair. Aside from the OBA chair and executive committee, the selection committee will remain anonymous with only the other committee members from that specific year knowing their identities.
OBA education corner …
Fall is almost here! Every time the summer winds to an end, there’s one song that always fills our brains. While you ponder the well-written irony of a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac, take the time to prepare for upcoming continuing education opportunities available through the OBA:
- FedNow 101: What To Know About FedNow, Sept. 5, webinar — Discover how this service is transforming the banking industry with immediate funds transfers and 24/7 accessibility, and learn about its implications for the future of payments.
- Writing Effective SAR Narratives, Sept. 6, webinar — This session will discuss the importance of the SAR narrative and how to write narratives that tell the story in an efficient and effective way.
- Handling ACH Exceptions, Sept. 7, webinar — Many exceptions are rare, and you may find yourself second guessing what you should do. Gain a better understanding of exception processing from returns to notifications, of changes to DNE and more.
- Effectively Auditing for Compliance, Sept. 13, webinar — In this session, we will discuss how to develop a compliance audit program that adequately addresses examiner expectations. We will highlight those areas of compliance with the highest risk, so you know where to focus your valuable time. In addition, we will provide examples and tools you can incorporate into your program.
- SSAE18, SOC 1, SOC 2 – What Do I Need?, Sept. 13, webinar — We will explore the different types of Service Organization Control reports provided by vendors and highlight the best items that should be requested from vendors. In addition to what report(s) to ask for, we will explore different SOC report types in detail, to highlight what to look for and why.
- 2023 FORVIS/OBA Symposium, Sept. 21, Oklahoma City — The objective of this symposium is to provide an update on the merger and acquisition landscape, economic outlook, regulatory update, judicial decisions and fraud events.
- Cybersecurity Seminar, Sept. 28, Oklahoma City — This seminar will walk you through various FFIEC, FDIC, and OCC resources, as well as other industry best practices.
- 2023 OBA Consumer Lending School, Oct. 2-6, Oklahoma City — The total program exposes students to major issues consumer credit managers face. It provides a framework for
examining a bank’s consumer credit programs, policies and procedures. - Real Estate Lending Compliance Seminar, Oct. 16-17, Oklahoma City — This two-day program provides an overview of the real estate lending requirements from ten regulations, along with comprehensive coverage of selected topics, policy suggestions, employee training tips, audit techniques and steps to eliminate past problems.