THANK YOU to our 2023 Annual Convention Sponsors, Exhibitors, Presenters, and Attendees! 

Submit Your Photos for a Chance to be Featured in the 2024 SDBA Calendar

The South Dakota Bankers Association is creating a customized calendar from photographs of South Dakota submitted by South Dakota bankers, their family members and customers. These calendars are exclusive to SDBA member banks and make a great gift for your customers!
If you are an amateur photographer and would like the opportunity to have your creativity displayed in homes and businesses across South Dakota, this is your chance! Send us your photos of farms, barns, agricultural activities, historical South Dakota locations, county fairs, carnivals, parades or festivals, fall colors, winter snowfalls, spring flowers, or summer fun. Any photo that shows the history and beauty of the great state of South Dakota qualifies.

To submit your photos, go to www.sdba.com/scenes-of-south-dakota-calendar. Submission deadline is July 31, 2023. All photos submitted will be judged and the top photos will be featured throughout the 2024 Scenes of South Dakota calendar.

Questions, email [email protected] or contact Haley Juhnke at 605.224.1653.

BHG Bank Network Hosting Executive Session in August

We are excited to share that our trusted partner, BHG Bank Network, is hosting their Meeting with BHG Executives in Denver, Colorado.

We are thrilled to extend an invitation for you to join BHG’s top executives and their network of banks on August 14-15 at The Oxford Hotel in Denver, CO. Hotel accommodations are taken care of by BHG and guests are welcome!

At this event you can:

1. Hear exclusively from our executive speakers who are leading the way through the current environment
2. Gain a deeper perspective into our credit model, performance history, and hear the latest from our top data scientists
3. Conduct your annual BHG review and meet with our robust regulatory team
4. Receive a detailed review of BHG’s financials and projections for 2023 & 2024

Below is the link to the registration page, which outlines additional details about the event. Please register early as space is limited.

Register Now: https://lp.bhgandbanks.com/denver-executive-session/

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Keith Gruebele, [email protected], or 954-263-6399.

Fall 2023 Accounting Recruiting Events to be Held on USD's Campus

• Event will utilize a speed networking format where each employer will have a circle table and small groups of Accounting students who will rotate around to visit with tables in 10 minute intervals until approximately 4:30pm. At 4:30, the event will transition to an open networking social hosted by Beta Alpha Psi. Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served for you to enjoy while continuing to visit with students. During your 10 minutes you are welcome share information about your company and any full-time, part-time, or internship opportunities that you may have available immediately or in the near future. 
• Click here to register your company for the event! There are limited tables available.

1. The Beacom School of Business offers employers the opportunity to conduct on-campus interviews with the students for your available Accounting internship and full-time positions.
2. If you would like to participate, please reply with the following information:

                             i.      Your interview date preference

• Please include your top 2 date choices for scheduling purposes.

                             ii.      Interview Timeframe

• All Day (30 minute interview increments from 9-5pm with a hour lunch break from 12-1pm)
• Morning (9-12pm with no lunch)
• Afternoon (1-5pm with no lunch)

ABA Foundation Joins FBI in Releasing New Guide for Banks to Prevent Elder Financial Exploitation

In recognition of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, the American Bankers Association Foundation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation today released a new guide with critically important tips and information to help bank employees detect and prevent elder financial exploitation. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, victims reported more than $3.1 billion in losses from elder financial abuse in 2022, which represents an 84% increase from 2021.

“Safeguarding the financial assets of older Americans is a top priority for banks of all sizes across the country,” said Sam Kunjukunju, vice president, consumer education for the ABA Foundation. “We’re thrilled to partner with the FBI to help further equip bankers everywhere with additional tools to combat these egregious crimes.”

“America’s senior citizens are losing billions of dollars every year to elder financial exploitation,” said Rebecca Keithley, national program coordinator for the FBI’s Elder Justice Initiative. “The FBI is proud of its partnership with the ABA Foundation to educate the public and provide resources to financial institutions, so together we can lessen the financial losses and help prevent our senior citizen population from becoming victims.”

The first part of the new guide provides an overview of elder financial exploitation and the detrimental impact it has on seniors and the economy. Elder financial exploitation can be divided into two main categories - elder theft and elder scams:

• Elder theft is when trusted individuals steal money from elders including forging checks, using credit cards or bank accounts without permission, or even changing names on wills and other personal documents. This accounts for about two-thirds of all elder financial abuse cases.
• Elder scams are when a stranger deceives an older adult into willfully transferring their money to them for a misrepresented or non-existent promise of goods, services or benefits. These scams include but are not limited to tech support scams, investment scams, romance scams, government or family imposter scams, and lottery scams.

Criminals often target older Americans as they typically have more wealth relative to younger demographics due to a lifetime of working, investing and saving. Elder financial exploitation may cause victims to lose their life’s savings or homes, as well as suffer from intense fear, shame, anxiety, depression and potentially lose their independence.

The second part of the guide identifies potential financial exploitation red flags. Front-line bank staff can recognize the signs, including any changes in behavior or account activity that may seem suspicious by:

• Watching for customers who make sudden and unusual changes to their accounts, appear fearful of or submissive to a caregiver, show a sense of sudden urgency or indicate the transaction is for a new online friend or romantic partner
• Being wary of accompanying individuals who don’t allow the customer to speak or attempt to conduct financial transactions for the customer without proper documentation
• Looking out for accounts with sudden and abnormal cash withdrawals or wire transfers, statements mailed to locations not stated as the customer’s home, uncharacteristic attempts to wire large sums of money, or any transactions that appear out of the ordinary with the customer’s established patterns.

The third and final piece of the guide reminds bankers of the three overarching steps to follow in handling suspected elder financial exploitation—recognize, respond, report:

• Recognize warning signs such as learning red flags of elder financial exploitation, questioning suspicious transactions or activities, and reviewing prior history of the account to ensure there are no recent changes or uncharacteristic behaviors.
• Respond to the exploitation by contacting the customer’s trusted third-party contact, escalating the transaction to an appropriate level of management, and delaying or refusing a transaction when permitted by state law and bank policy. 
• Report the suspicious activity and follow your bank’s protocols while also encouraging fraud and scam victims to file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

If you or anyone you know is a victim of elder financial exploitation, inform your bank, contact law enforcement and file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

More information can be found on ABA Foundation’s Older Americans Resource Page at www.aba.com/OlderAmericans.

For more information and to view the infographic, click here.

SDBA Closed in Observance of Juneteenth

The South Dakota Bankers Association office will be closed on Monday, June 19th in observance of the Juneteenth National Independence Day. We will re-open at 8 a.m. CT on Tuesday, June 20th. 

CISA News: CISA and Partners Release Joint Guide to Securing Remote Access Software

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Q: Does CAN-SPAM require a marketing email to have some variation of "AD", "ADV" or "ADVERTISEMENT" in the subject line?

A: That is not a specific requirement. What the law requires is that there is a clear and conspicuous identification of the message as an advertisement. CAN-SPAM gives you a lot of leeway in how you accomplish that but stating “advertisement” in the subject line is a common, but not exclusive, means of accomplishing that. 15 USC 7704(5) 15 USC 7704: Other protections for users of commercial electronic mail (house.gov) 

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.

For timely compliance updates, subscribe to Bankers Alliance’s email newsletters.

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