Montoring IOLTA Payments & Transfers

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Question:

Are there any laws/regulations which would require FI's to "monitor" payments and/or transfers from an IOLTA to an attorney's personal or company account (especially, but not limited to, online transactions)?

Answer:

You will have to look to the IOLTA program requirements for your state to determine whether it has any monitoring requirements. At least one state I'm familiar with requires that the depository notify the state's IOLTA oversight agency if the attorney or firm overdraws the IOLTA account (or any other client funds account). There is also, of course, your AML monitoring responsibility, and you have probably already assigned the account to your list of customers with elevated risk of money laundering.

First published on BankersOnline.com 04/03/06