Catching the Bad Guys: SIU Credit Union Looks Out for Members’ Safety

Terrorists, money launderers, computer hackers, counterfeiters— it’s enough to make you stay up nights worrying if you and your money are safe.

Credit unions play a role in helping the government bring these types of bad guys to justice. Some of our actions to help law enforcement may be apparent, but credit unions take other “behind-the-scenes” steps to help protect you and our nation.

All financial institutions must have systems in place to generally track if there are unusual flows of funds into or out of both personal and business accounts. A financial institution must have some idea of what a person does or how the person normally uses the account to assess what is suspicious activity. The Bank Secrecy Act requires credit unions and other financial institutions to periodically look through their membership and customer names for matches against a list of names under federal investigation.

Credit unions also are required to comply with “OFAC.” OFAC isn’t a law but rather stands for the Office of Foreign Assets Control, also part of the Treasury Department. OFAC is responsible for making sure that Americans comply with about 10 laws involving foreign trade sanctions, money laundering, and terrorism financing. OFAC maintains a list of people, organizations, and countries that are prohibited from receiving or sending funds or from opening accounts. All financial institutions must check the names of people who want to open accounts, take out loans, wire money, purchase money orders, and conduct other transactions against the OFAC list. If there is a match, a financial institution is required to block or freeze property and payment of any funds, and to report the action to OFAC. The “OFAC list” is publicly available on the Treasury’s website.

We are committed to complying with all these laws designed to help assure that America’s financial sector remains safe, sound, and serving the financial needs of families and businesses.