2023 Scenes of South Dakota Calendar Photo Submission Deadline Approaching

The SDBA is currently accepting photo submissions for its 2023 Scenes of South Dakota Calendar. The calendar features photos of South Dakota submitted by South Dakota bankers, their family members and customers.

If you or one of your bank’s employees, a relative or customer are an amateur photographer and would like the opportunity to have your creativity displayed in homes and businesses across the state, send the SDBA your photos of farms, barns, agricultural activities, historical South Dakota locations, county fairs, carnivals, parades or festivals, fall colors, winter snowfalls, spring flowers, summer fun, etc.

Any photo that shows the history or beauty of South Dakota qualifies. The deadline to submit a photo is July 31, 2021, and all photos will be judged with the top photos featured in the 2022 Scenes of South Dakota Calendar. Submit photos here. 

Registration Open for SDBA Lead Strong: Women in Banking Conference

Join us Sept. 13-14, in Sioux Falls for the Lead Strong: Women in Banking Conference. SDBA’s Women in Banking event is designed to educate, enlighten and engage ALL levels of bankers within your organization. This program will provide personal development, professional development, and networking opportunities for all attendees. Make plans to attend now to get inspired, empowered, and energized!

Click here to register or view more information. 

Registration Open for SDBA Introduction to HSAs Webinar

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are a popular health care option for employers offering coverage to employees and individuals/families not covered by employer-sponsored health care benefits. Financial institutions are beginning to see more complex transactions due to increased customer activity. This activity requires personnel to review their existing HSA procedures to ensure transactions are handled properly. This program also provides a solid foundation of operational and compliance issues associated with providing HSAs to customers, including opening, maintaining and distributing procedures.

The webinar will be held at 10:00 a.m. CST on August 25 via Zoom. New bankers, personal bankers and tellers would benefit from attending this webinar.

To register or find more information click here. 

Bankers in Action Featured on SDBA Blog

The June SDBANKER Magazine included an article highlighting the relief efforts of First PREMIER Bank after an EF2 tornado tore through Castlewood on May 12. 

Read the full article and view photographs on our blog. 

If you have a Bankers in Action story, send more information to [email protected]! 

CISA News: Cyberattack in South Dakota 

Here’s a summary of a recent cybersecurity attack on a SD entity (SDE). The names have been anonymized but the serious attack occurred earlier this summer.

• The SDE had a relationship with a vendor and had some work done by the vendor.  (Happens every day across the state.)
• There was an email conversation back and forth between the vendor and SDE regarding the work.
• The vendor had their email system compromised by a cyber threat actor (CTA). Unknown yet how this occurred.  
• The CTA then achieved access to an individual’s email account of the vendor.
• The CTA searched the employees email account for messages of interest.
• The CTA discovered a conversation between the employee and SDE.
• The CTA inserted himself/herself into the conversation by sending messages to the SDE from the vendor’s email account.
• The subject was in regards to changing bank routing and account number.  Yep – financial fraud attempt coming soon…
• The CTA created then multiple domains impersonating the vendor.  (Easily done by adding an “s”, using a 0 instead of O,
• removing a letter, .org instead of .com, etc.)
• The CTA copied the email conversation to the new, impersonated domain.
• (He/She became concerned the vendor’s employee might discover messages in his/her mailbox that he/she did not send).
• The CTA continued the conversation from a mail address created from the impersonated domain.
• The CTA requested the financial accounts for the vendor be changed by the SDE.
• The SDE updated the accounts & began the process to deliver the payment.
• Processes instituted by the SDE paused the payment.
• Review of the payment occurred and discovered it was fraudulent.
• A savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars occurred!  
• Additional cyber training is ongoing.  (If initial attack vectors are learned, I’ll share those accordingly). 

Lessons to be learned:

• Do you perform cybersecurity training for your staff?  How often?
• Do you perform phishing tests for your staff? How often? Do you reward your users that recognize the tests?
• Do you have procedures in place to review the changing of financial account information for vendors and employees?
• How do you assess the cybersecurity hygiene of your business partners?

SDBA Welcomes Two New Associate Members 

Scammers posing as police take thousands from two victims in Sioux Falls

FBI Warns Fake Cryptocurrency Apps Are Defrauding Investors

CNET reports fake mobile apps have duped investors out of an estimated $42.7 million, according to the FBI.

Cybercriminals are creating fake cryptocurrency apps in an effort to defraud investors, according to a Monday warning from the FBI. The bureau's cyber division identified 244 victims that have been swindled by fraudulent apps, accounting for an estimated loss of $42.7 million. 

The fake cryptocurrency apps have used the names, logos and other identifying information of legitimate apps, said the FBI. These fake apps have been seen contacting crypto investors and falsely claiming to offer real services to push people to download them. 

The FBI advises investors to be wary of unsolicited requests to download investment mobile apps and to take steps to verify whether the app is legitimate before downloading. 

If you suspect you've been deceived by a fake cryptocurrency investment app, contact the FBI through the Internet Crime Complaint Center or your local field office.

The warning comes as more than 46,000 Americans have lost over $1 billion to cryptocurrency scams since the start of 2021. The cryptocurrency market has also plummeted in recent months in what investors are calling a "crypto winter." In June, bitcoin dipped below $24,000 and the overall market tumbled under $1 trillion for the first time since February 2021. 

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Q:  Our current SCRA procedures say that the interest rate should be retroactively applied to the date on which the service member was called to military service. In the case of a member of the reserve, though, would that be the date that they received their orders?

A:  For full-time, active duty servicemembers, SCRA provisions generally begin on the day the member reports for military service. However, for members of the reserve, many SCRA provisions begin at an earlier date. The bank has to be careful about making this distinction because if not, it has the potential to result in SCRA violations for not correctly limiting the amount of interest charged for the entire applicable period. For reservists on federal active duty the SCRA states that “[a] member of a reserve component who is ordered to report for military service is entitled to the rights and protections of this subchapter and subchapters II and III during the period beginning on the date of the member’s receipt of the order and ending on the date on which the member reports for military service.” See 50 U.S.C. § 3917(a):  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2015-title50/html/USCODE-2015-title50-chap50-subchapI-sec3917.htm This means that members of the reserve receive many of the protections of the SCRA, including the rate limit, prior to the date that member reports for active duty. Once the member of the reserve component reports for military service, these limited benefits end and are replaced by the full benefits of the SCRA. 

Compliance Alliance offers a comprehensive suite of compliance management solutions. To learn how to put them to work for your bank, call (888) 353-3933 or email [email protected] and ask for our Membership Team.

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Questions/Comments
Contact Haley Juhnke, SDBA, at 605.224.1653 or via email.