Page 8 - December 19. 2024 Bulletin

aRTiCLeS

Network] review of Bank Secrecy Act report data found that – “Stop the scams: A phishing prevention framework for financial
financial institutions filed 155,415 reports related to elder financial services” – lists strategies to counter phishing, noting that three
exploitation between June 15, 2022, and June 15, 2023, associated U.S. banks reported a 50% reduction in text abuse scams after
with more than $27 billion in reported suspicious activity, which implementing its recommendations.
may include both actual and attempted transactions,” it added.
According to an FS-ISAC summary, the framework’s
The Federal Reserve, FDIC, Office of the Comptroller of the recommendations fall into four broad categories: collecting
Currency and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were among intelligence from consumers and sharing it among a firm’s
the federal agencies that signed the statement. departments, employees and customer education; maintaining
a catalog of telephone numbers used by the institution and
The statement noted that many state and federal laws and regulations
related to consumer protection may apply to elder financial third-party partners to prevent spoofing; and collaborating with
exploitation. It suggested that financial institutions consider creating telecommunications providers to deploy anti-phishing solutions.
or enhancing risk-based policies, internal controls, transaction The framework also recommends that institutions implement two
monitoring practices and other internal policies to address the best practices. First, institutions should design a fraud and phishing
problem, as long as those policies do not result in age discrimination intake process with clear, concise questions to gather actionable
as defined by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. intelligence while minimizing the burden on consumers. Second,
they should set up an “abuse box” infrastructure, enabling consumers
Other recommendations for mitigating elder financial exploitation
include the use of employee training, transaction holds and to report phishing attempts.
disbursement delays, and having account holders designate trusted Read more: https://www.fsisac.com/hubfs/Knowledge/Phishing/
contacts. StopTheScams-APhishingPreventionFrameworkForFinancialServic
es.pdf
Read more: https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/
pressreleases/files/bcreg20241204a1.pdf
FHA Extends Compliance
RTP Network to Raise Individual Deadline for Face-To-Face

Transaction Limit To $10M Requirement for Borrowers in

The Clearing House has announced that it will raise the individual Default
transaction limit on the RTP network to $10 million on Feb. 9, The Federal Housing Administration has extended by six months
2025. The current limit is $1 million. the compliance deadline for a new rule removing the face-to-face

The increased limit supports growth on the network in areas such meeting requirement for certain mortgagees amid concerns about
as real estate, supply chain payments and business-to-business how the policy would be implemented.
transactions that require larger transaction amounts, TCH said. Earlier this year, FHA issued a final rule that made permanent a
More than 285,000 businesses each month send instant payments pandemic-related rule that waives the Department of Housing and
over the RTP network through financial institutions on the system. Urban Development’s requirement for mortgagees to meet in person
In November, the network surpassed $500 billion in instant with borrowers who are in default on their mortgage payments. The
payments and now averages more than 1 million payments per day, agency originally set a Jan. 1, 2025, compliance date for the rule and
according to TCH. published a draft mortgagee letter outlining how the policy would be
implemented. However, based on concerns raised that the guidance
Read more: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ outlined in the letter would make the process more onerous as it was
higher-10-million-rtp-network-transaction-limit-empowers-new- “vague and operationally infeasible.” The FHA agreed to push back
uses-302321724.html
the compliance deadline and waiver to July 1, 2025. The agency also
FS-ISAC Releases Framework to plans to publish a new mortgagee letter.
Help Financial Institutions Fight “This extension is intended to minimize disruption to mortgagees
by enabling them to maintain existing operations while working
Phishing towards compliance with the new requirements, which will include
those in the forthcoming [mortgage letter],” FHA said.
The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center
has published a framework of recommended best practices to help
financial services institutions counter phishing attacks. The report

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