Banks Are Honoured by AARP for Their Efforts
Financial advising firms, credit unions, and banks are providing their staff with the knowledge and instruction necessary to identify and prevent financial abuse before it occurs honoured.
This month, AARP awarded our BankSafe Trained Seal to 167 financial institutions in recognition of their dedication to combating financial exploitation, which costs American seniors over $28.3 billion annually (not including incidents that go unreported).
Short, interactive films and activities are used in AARP’s free BankSafe programme to teach banking industry employees how to see warning signs and take action before a financial crime is committed. Compared to last year, AARP witnessed a 25% rise in the number of institutions that received the BankSafe seal this year, with over 33% having done so at least three times in the previous five years honoured.
Jilenne Gunther, national director of AARP’s BankSafe Initiative, stated that “these financial organisations continue to take meaningful steps to ensure their staff have the tools, skills, and confidence to spot and stop financial exploitation before money ever leaves an account.”
The typical victim of financial exploitation has lost $120,000, and all too frequently, a family member or acquaintance of the victim is the one who commits the crime honoured.
A Virginia Tech research found that since 2019, staff who have received BankSafe training have contributed to the prevention of approximately $300 million being stolen from the accounts of senior citizens honoured.
Organisations who use our platform to teach 80 percent of their frontline staff members and implement procedures to handle suspected financial exploitation are eligible to receive the seal. Additionally, recipients must fulfil a number of legal and regulatory requirements and maintain good status with the Better Business Bureau.
We’ve updated our training in recent years to address the most recent strategies used by crooks, which became evident during the epidemic. Additionally, we introduced BankSafe into the peer-to-peer payment sector this year. The programme is now being used by PayPal and Venmo to train staff members on warning signs and preventative measures for financial abuse.
Visit the BankSafe website to learn more about the programme and to view a list of the 2024 BankSafe Trained Seal winners. Follow our coverage of scams and fraud, and use AARP’s Fraud Watch Network tools to learn how to protect yourself.