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Exception Tracking Spreadsheet (TicklerTrax™)
Downloaded by more than 1,000 bankers. Free Excel spreadsheet to help you track missing and expiring documents for credit and loans, deposits, trusts, and more. Visualize your exception data in interactive charts and graphs. Provided by bank technology vendor, AccuSystems. Download TicklerTrax for free.

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CFPB Data Spotlight

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a Data Spotlight on "Suspicious Activity Reports on Elder Financial Exploitation."

In 2020, financial institutions such as banks, credit unions, and money transmitters filed 62,014 SARs involving suspected elder financial exploitation (EFE SARs). The total number of EFE SARs filed in 2020 was about 300 fewer than in 2019 (62,298). The relative consistency in the number of EFE SAR filings since 2018 differs from the trends in filings for all types of SARs, and trends in fraud reports submitted to the Federal Trade Commission’s Sentinel database. For example, between 2019 and 2020, general SAR filings grew from approximately 2.3 million to 2.5 million (8.8 percent). According to FTC’s Sentinel data, the number of fraud reports filed by adults age 60 and older with the FTC increased from 319,900 to 334,400 (4.5 percent) between 2019 and 2020.

The numbers and patterns for EFE SAR filings vary significantly by type of financial institution over time. Depository institutions such as banks and credit unions filed nearly 60 percent of all EFE SARs in 2020. While the share of EFE SAR filings by depository institutions has varied over time, the total number of EFE SAR filings by depository institutions has consistently increased from approximately 16,000 in 2014 to 36,500 in 2020.

While government payments were directly involved in a small share of EFE SARs overall, EFE SARs involving a government payment saw a notable increase between 2019 and 2020. The increase was particularly evident after June 2020, when government payments such as stimulus and unemployment benefits payments were issued to millions of older Americans. As a result, EFE SARs involving government payments accounted for a greater share of EFE SARs in 2020 (3 percent) than in 2019 (1 percent).

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