Top Gun 2008

Michelle Hassen

Paul Osborne

Michelle and Paul lead a great session on "I thought I saw suspicious activity...or did I?"


Peter Djinis and Mary Beth Guard

Many of the panelists contributed to more than one session, including the optional Q&A session in the evening. Those attending with burning questions had a few opportunities to tap some of the best BSA minds for answers. In the picture below David Dickinson was all ears for a question on AML.



David Dickinson

Top Gun - Day 2

FinCEN Assistant Director for the Office of Compliance Tom Fleming provided us all an update on what's going on at FinCEN, a bit of the office's history, and a lot of background on FinCEN's several missions. We were all delighted to hear Tom say that FinCEN keeps an eye on BOL's Bankers' Threads as a barometer of industry BSA/AML concerns, and particularly pleased when Tom acknowledged the key role that bankers play in providing information for FinCEN to act upon, and extended FinCEN's thanks for our collective efforts. Several bankers commented that it was the first time they could recall being thanked for the industry's BSA/AML work. We think Tom was a "hit" with many of the bankers at the conference.

Tom also pointed out that while BSA was once a regulation of "i" dotting and "t" crossing, it is now a regulation of national security.


John Burnett

They've "been there, done that, and got the T-shirt." Brenda Canterbury was with the acquired bank. As of now, she's joined Megan Hodge of RBC Centura Bank, which completed its acquisition of Alabama National BanCorporation three days before this year's Top Gun BSA Conference began. They were the perfect duo to present our breakout session on "BSA/AML in the Acquisition Process." Together, Brenda and Megan offered valuable advice on managing the process to maintain the credibility of the combined BSA/AML compliance program. Much of that advice would apply to any operational unit during a bank acquisition, but as Brenda and Megan noted, it's extremely critical in the BSA/AML arena.



Ken Golliher and Brenda Canterbury

Our panel of Tom Fleming, Brenda Canterbury and John Burnett went through a long list of CTR preparation questions in their "Training for CTR Preparation: The Unanswered Questions" breakout session. Yet there were still more questions, as participants came prepared with scenarios of their own. John carefully analyzed FinCEN's latest ruling on CTR completion for DBAs - sole proprietors and entities - and noted the flexibility that FinCEN built into their answer to the DBA quandary. Tom also noted that FinCEN is working on updating old advisories and rulings to better reflect current practice.

Clicker Questions

One of the great things about Top Gun is real answers to your questions. Those in attendance had the opportunity before and at the conference to submit questions. We realized that many questions would benefit from what other bankers would do in similar situations. We took some of these questions, some of our own and SAR scenarios and we put them to the attendees. Using a "clicker" the attendees could vote on questions and up to nine possible answers. Panelists then contributed to the discussion as well.



The clicker is used to send the response which is immediately tabulated and graphed. These questions and the response graphs will be available to the attendees about a week after the conference.



We sure had a great crowd in this second annual conference. Many said they enjoyed the fact that there are hundreds, not thousands there and that they really could meet the speakers. I joked with Tom Fleming (FinCEN) that he was like Santa with a line of people wanting to speak with him at breaks and before and after the days business.

Day 1 - Continued

Here are some pictures from day 1 with a few snippets of what was happening at Top Gun 2008. Now that the smoke has cleared and we're back in our offices, we can take a breath and reflect on Top Gun 2008.



This panel included (L to R) Randy Carey, John Burnett, Barbara Hurst, Ken Golliher and was introduced by Mary Beth Guard. There was a lot of knowledge at this discussion of better ways to train the banks board of directors on what they need to know about BSA.



Here is a better picture of FBI agent Laura Williams. I wish I could share with you the statistics and information she provided. But it was "eyes only" information on the fruits of bankers labor. Understanding that your reporting work doesn't fall into a black hole can make doing the next report a little easier. It can also influence what you put in those reports.





Barbara Hurst discussed the training techniques and needs of your frontline staff.