We're already working on an agenda for the BSA/AML Top Gun Conference in Scottsdale. If you have suggestions we would love to hear them. As always, we will contact prior attendees directly to solicit their hoped for topics and any other input they care to offer. They have served us well in the past. Keep in mind, you can also use the streaming feature for this event to train your staff.

Primarily, we want to include presentations that will help you do a difficult job well... What is it you need?

Virtual currency - what to know, what to watch for, how it can be / is being used to facilitate money laundering, regulatory activity surrounding.....

Agree with EGB about VC. Additionally I'd like to hear a disussion about the selection of independent 3rd parties to conduct the annual AML independent assessment or audit. Specifically regarding:

- The RFP process from start to finish
- Should the BSA Officer be involved in the process? If so, up to what point?
- Who should make the final hire decision?
- Does the explanation for the hire decision need to be documented? If so, how much detailed is to be exepcted?
- To whom should the final report be presented too?

Topics off the top of my head (at this momemnt) - data/system validation - BSA automated solutions and risk assessments

Bump

Maybe some "best practices" for parameters to set in automated monitoring systems (e.g., structured cash deposits - set to alert for x number of deposits of y dollars over z number of days, etc.). I think some systems come with some canned parameters, but not all of them do. Also, it would be helpful to have some guidance against which to check our systems, even if they had canned parameters.

Some of this you may also want to discuss with your BSA/AML vendor. Ours, Bankers Toolbox, Inc. (BAM), did come with some canned parameters, but they stressed that we should run our own summary reports first, to get an idea of our transaction and dollar volumes, and then reset the paramters based on them.


I'm hoping that Risk Assessments are emphasized. I think there's a need to recognize that although you could do EVERYTHING, you focus your efforts on those areas that are the riskiest for your bank's geography, products, transaction and dollar volumes, etc. Perhaps this is one area also that could use some correlation between the risk in an area and how you might address it (e.g., our ACH originations are almost exclusively for public schools for payroll purposes, so I focus on those few business customers for whom we might do the occasional ACH origination).