Bio:
Barbara Hurst is Executive Editor of the BANKERS' HOTLINE, a highly regarded newsletter written for financial institutions, she is President of Hurst Associates, Inc., a Pennsylvania based corporation that specializes in security and compliance training programs, and Editor/Moderator for BankersOnline.com.
Ms. Hurst spent over fifteen years in the banking industry, as officer in charge of investigations and claims at a large Philadelphia, PA bank (...since purchased by PNC Corp.) She served as chairperson of the Security Committee of the Pennsylvania Bankers Association, and is past president of the Bank Methods Association. During her banking career, she won the coveted National Public Speaking Award in 1977 from the American Institute of Banking.
Since starting her own corporation fourteen years ago, Ms. Hurst has presented workshops, speeches, programs and training sessions for over 400,000 bankers in 42 states in the U.S., in San Juan, in London, and in Moscow.
Barbara's workshops for security, regulations, and compliance are regularly on the agendas of financial associations and institutions, at conferences, and for security officer's groups and training schools. She also does programs for regulators, law enforcement, corporations and the U.S. government on the subject of bank fraud and security.
Barbara has been listed in five "Who's Who" publications, including Who's Who of U.S. Executives, Who's Who in Business and Finance, and Who's Who in U.S. Commercial and Savings Banking. She is a member of ASIS, and is affiliated with National Fraud Center, Inc.
She is the author of an award winning EXAMINATION HANDBOOK FOR SECURITY OFFICERS, and was a core faculty member on a TV training channel for the American Bankers Association. Barbara has also just completed a series of front line training videos for the Bankers Video Library covering the subjects of Robbery, Safe Deposit Service, Fraudulent Checks, New Accounts, BSA and Reg. CC.
Areas of Expertise:
Bankers' Hotline Newsletter
Training Videos
Questions Answered
09/16/2002
Recently, notification was sent to all of our branches that they are to open to the public 5 minutes early. Does this violate any security issues? Does this affect our insurance coverage, being that we are opening prior to our scheduled time? If we were robbed during this brief period of time, are we covered?
09/02/2002
What are the latest statistics for bank fraud in the areas of check fraud, new account fraud? How much are we losing each day/month/year?
08/12/2002
Can anyone provide any examples or explanations of money laundering using credit. We understand the use when demand loans are involved, but are thinking of credit cards or other credit vehicles.
08/12/2002
In the BankersOnline InfoVault, I was just reading that a drawee bank (us, in this case) has no recourse if it pays a counterfeit check (please see <a href="http://www.bankersonline.com/operations/gurus_op1001b.html">"Counterfeit Check Reimbursement"</a>.) The Q and A appears to state the drawee bank may never send the item back to the bank of first deposit after the 24-hour deadline. Why shouldn't we send the item back to the bank of first deposit with an affidavit? They credited the payee on the check, and that payee signed the check. There is no reason to think the payee didn't knowingly perpetrate the fraud, as they were not a holder in due course, but the direct payee of the counterfeit check. The bank of first deposit has an account with a crook, and should be able to prosecute. In fact, there were two checks cashed at the same bank under two different names, but same "maker". The same article also at least implies that the account owner may also not be held accountable. This is a corporate customer, however, which uses a signature "stamp". The counterfeit includes the exact signature stamp, not reasonably distinguishable from the authorized stamp. We wouldn't have questioned the signature even had we examined the checks (they were under our threshhold.) Any further comment would be appreciated.
08/12/2002
We are in the middle of a situation with one of our customers and our check vendor who supplies us with Cashier checks. One of our customers purchases a cashier check from us for $60,000.00. We have a contract with one of the big check vendors who supply us with our cashier checks that are drawn on their bank. A lot of banks do this. This is our situation. The customer purchases the check for $60,000 and had the check payable to a corporation to purchase a module home. After several months went by he received a phone call from the company looking for the deposit of $60,000. The customer came into the bank and asks us to see if the check was cashed. It turns out that the check was cashed. So we requested a photo copy of the check and found out that our customer gave the check to a business friend who was to deliver the check directly to the company. After reviewing the endorsement of the check, it turns out that the business friend took the check and went to his local bank and forged the name of the company on the back, signed his name and deposited directly into his personal account. WE have been dealing with our vendor to recovery the funds from the bank of first deposit for over 5 months. They keep telling us, our check vendor, that the bank of first deposit has a right to try to recovery the funds from their customer first. How long does the bank of first deposit have? Our customer thinks our bank should reimburse him? Who’s liable here? What are our customer’s legal rights? What are Mercantile responsibilities? Obviously the bank of first deposit should not have accepted the check double endorsed and deposited it into a personal account with out verifying that the corporation had signed over the check. It’s my understanding that all corporate checks have to be deposited into the company account first away and can not be signed over to another party. This looks very clear to me that the bank of first deposit is dragging their feet. Are we right on how we see this situation?
08/12/2002
We have two clients going thru a divorce, both want the monies in the checking account, the wife owns the company the husband works for. The wife came in to close the account 2 days prior to the direct deposit posting. That same day we returned items presented for payment due to nsf. the account did not close because of the fee's. The payroll company want's the direct deposit back, the wife wants the money, and so does the husband. We have frozen the account, until they can come up with a letter signed and notarized spelling out the disbursements of the funds. is this ok?
08/12/2002
Is there a list of states that you cannot make a copy of a driver's license. After reading your article <a href="http://www.bankersonline.com/operations/gurus_op0604l.html">Copying Driver's License</a> we were made aware that this can be a Reg B/ECOA violation. If no list is available, could you give us some direction as to where to find one.
08/12/2002
What is the required record retention for Money Market and Savings Letters/Reports? Can copies of customer letters be stored electronicaly?
08/05/2002
I recently took a loss on a washed check. I was the depository bank. I am trying to find out if I had to take that loss. As the depository bank, I know we warrant the check but there was no way to tell that this check had been washed. Are we still responsible? The maker's bank did not discover the alteration until the customer received their statement. We took the loss but I am just trying to understand it better. Also where do I find the rules for this?
08/05/2002
One of our customers issued a check to a noncustomer who was robbed. The check issued was cashed using a forged endorsement. I understand that I have to refund my customers money and return the item to the depositing institution to get my money back. If I understand the UCC it is then the depositing institutions responsibility to go after the forger. My problem, my customer took the original check to the DA and the DA will not give us the original item to return. Can we submit a certified copy to the depositing bank, or do I need to explain to the DA that it is the depositing bank's job to prosecute, not our customer/him?
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