WASHINGTON—The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued an advisory to alert financial institutions to the “rising trend” of elder financial exploitation (EFE).
EFE involves the illegal or improper use of an older adult’s funds, property, or assets, and is often perpetrated either through theft or scams, FinCEN said.
The advisory highlights new EFE typologies and red flags since FinCEN issued its first advisory on the issue in 2011.
According to FinCEN, in 2021, financial institutions filed 72,000 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to EFE.
“As referenced in the advisory, this represents an increase of 10,000 SARs over the previous year’s filings,” FinCEN said. “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s estimate of the dollar value of suspicious transactions linked to EFE has similarly increased—from $2.6 billion in 2019 to $3.4 billion in 2020. This is the largest year-to-year increase since 2013.”
FinCEN’s EFE advisory also seeks to highlight behavioral and financial red flags to aid financial institutions with identifying, preventing, and reporting suspected EFE.
‘Additional Due Diligence’
“In line with the risk-based approach to compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, financial institutions should perform additional due diligence where appropriate and remain alert to any suspicious activity that could indicate that their customers are perpetrators, facilitators, or victims of EFE,” according to FinCEN.
In addition to filing a SAR, FinCEN is recommending that financial institutions refer their older customers who may be victims of EFE to the Department of Justice’s National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-FRAUD-11 or 833-372-8311 for assistance with reporting suspected fraud to the appropriate government agencies. Additional information is available from the CFPB’s Office for Older Americans.