What are we as a bank supposed to be doing regaridng the Prepaid Access Rule? We know who are MSB's are and whether they provide prepaid access cards.

From a recent seminar I attended, there is a difference between a seller and a provider of prepaid access and there are limits under each of those. I would think you would try to determine which category your MSB clients could potentially fall under as a start. We use a questionnaire that asks a series of questions and we are going to add some specific questions about prepaid access cards.

We have 3 MSBs and 2 sell prepaid phone cards. I am trying to figure out I should be doing now, too. In addition what exactly is the mandatory date to be in compliance? I see 60 days after publication in the Federal Register and 6 months- so where does that put the date? I am suddenly getting a lot of training webinars emailed that feature prepaid access.

You will find the free FinCEN webinar here.

I read the regulation first. Then, I read it again after listening to the webinar. In short, there's no "off the cuff" or condensed answer anyone can offer in this area. You have to itemize your customer's activities then compare them to the regulation line by line. Experience as a haruspex (someone who reads the entrails of animals to tell the future) would be helpful.

I can tell you from personal experience that if you have questions after reading the regulation and FAQs and listening to the webinar, call FINCEN. They will call back and discuss your situation with you in detail.

Maybe this is a dumb question, but how can we identify our customers who are now MSBs under the new rule? I'm sure our branch folks will know some customers who sell prepaid access cards but can we expect them to know every customer we have that fits the definition? We can ask new customers when they open their accounts, but what about existing customers?

We have the same question. The only thing we would know to do would be to contact our existing commercial customers by letter and explain the requirements. I asked an auditor about this, and he said it would be a risk-based decision.