I posted this in security, but this general section gets the most traffic and I am interested in how other banks comply with Section 19 of the FDIC Act that prohibits any insured institution from having a director, officer, employee, controlling stockholder (other than a bank holding company), or agent for an insured depository institution who has been convicted of any criminal offense involving dishonesty or a breach of trust or money laundering, or has agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion or similar program in connection with a prosecution of such an offense?

A background check without fingerprinting, fingerprinting? Also, do you do this for all employees, or just ones in certain areas (wire, branches, lending staff, etc.)

My bank fingerprints all employees. They also run credit reports, with proper disclosures, of course.

A previous bank I was with also fingerprinted all employees and ran the prints against some type of database (I'm assuming). We also pulled credit reports on applicants. The bank I'm with now still pulls credit reports, but we don't fingerprint.

A couple of us have been working on this project for several months. We originally planned out a four tiered risk plan with different types of background checks for each level. It was later modified to two levels with only high risk job descriptions - wire clerks, investment and trust staff, officers and of course, auditors and compliance staff etc, . All employees get a credit check and ChekSystems. Higher risk will have criminal checks (State or Fed), professional license check or educational check as the position warrents. We will be using a vendor for these reviews. The idea of fingerprinting all new employees was vetoed, primarily due to cost. The ABA suggests that if you start fingerprinting, all existing staff should also be fingerprinted to avoid any perception of mistrust or discrimination. So, good luck in your process!

One of the regulators at the ABA conference observed that your bank's anti-money-laundering and OFAC programs are no better than your employee screening. He was making the point that banks need to carefully screen employees (he didn't make any distinctions based on jobs) in order to have adequate security. The message was pretty clear that your level of employee screening will be taken into account if anything goes wrong.

Everyone says, "Do a background check" but nobody tells us how. The only database we have access to is the credit bureau reporting. We do not have access to DMV or criminal records like the local police have. Fingerprinting is swell but it takes weeks to get answers back from the FBI. Even the regulator web site that lists folks banned from banking is inadequate. I know as I looked at the OCC site to see if our VP who embezzled over a quarter million and went to prison for it was listed? Nope, so he could walk into a bank in Florida and get a job if that bank pulled a credit report, checked the OFAC list and searched the regulator's database of known bank crooks. I'd post his name here but would probably get sued on some theory doing so would violate his privacy!

We have looked into background checks and can do them thru the state police, but their form requires date of birth, which we don't get on an employment app. Our HR dept. is afraid of being sued for age discrimination if we get DOB before we make a hiring decision. There is a risk either way we go.

Our bank (tiny, rural) has the prospective employee initiate the criminal background check (includes fingerprints) with the state police and then submit the report to the bank as a condition of employment.