I have been on hold 30 minutes (please have your pass code and conference leaders name available, a coordinator will assist you momentarily" - is anyone else having this problem???

Yes, having the same problem. So much for the benefits of registering in advance. I have sent them an email to ask whether they can accommodate people tomorrow who are missing it today because their system appears to be overwhelmed.

i just got in, and i see they are starting late. so thats good at least.

Yes, I was on hold a very long time as well. It just started at 10:20 and says it will still be an hour long.

I asked the operator when I finally got on and she said at 10?20 it had just started.

I was on hold for 30 minutes as well. At 10:24 I gave up.

I called (late) about 10 minutes ago and only waited a couple of minutes. I am on now and discussion is about ACH.

Still going...

I gave up and registered for tomorrow. Hopefully it will be better.

Was there a handout for the meeting? If so, I must have missed it.

For those who participted, was it time well spent?


Al

No handout.

It is a very basic overview of the changes they made, with some focus on ACH and Trade Finance Activities.

I'm trying to listen to the Q and A, but for every really good question, there seem to be three or four that I want to hit 'skip' and move on...

No handout. During the call, they mentioned that you should visit the FFIEC BSA InfoBase for a 10 minute audio presentation that provides an overview of the changes to the manual. They said this would benefit people who got on the call late. Go to the following web page and click on the word presentation. http://www.ffiec.gov/bsa_aml_infobase/default.htm A text version of the audio presentation is available.

It would also be helpful to look at the two page overview of the changes that the agencies posted late July. Here is a link to the document. http://www.ots.treas.gov/docs/4/480193.pdf

If you miss it I don't think it is a great loss. It just covered some very basic stuff. And on the Q & A, many questions were so specific to a particular bank's product or service that it wasn't very helpful (although I did get my ACH question answered!)

I think we will all be better off taking the same 2 hours (by the time you figure in the 30 minute wait time to get on the call!) and study the manual. That will probably be as helpful as anything.

I agree with Rubiyat's assessment.

Me too.

me too, but I did appreciate that they spent less time on speaker intos then they did last year and got right to the point. And for those who just don't have time (or don't make time) to read through the changes in the manual, it was a nice overview.

I had the same experience. At 11:20 I ended the call. At that point, I wasn't even experiencing the courtesty message. I fired off a request to listen in tomorrow.

Me too! got on late (at the ACH discussion), but the Q&A session was too bank specific, so I gave up. It seems to me using the FFIEC InfoBase will be more useful.

We were on hold for quite some time as well. Finally got through. Have to agree...not too terribly informative.

Well at least I was able to listen to the call while sitting in traffic so it's not like I had anything better to do.

I agree that this was a VERY BASIC overview with some direct reads from the manual, and the rest of the discussion started with "You need to make a risk-based assessment....."

**sigh***
JUST CLUE ME IN ON WHICH RISKS ARE THE ONES THAT WILL BITE ME IN THE ASSESSMENT DURING AN EXAM and what the #### examiners will expect of me for mitigating those risks.