Financial Crimes Enforcement Network: Institutions report $27 billion in elder financial exploitation activity over one year period

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Financial Trend Analysis recently focusing on patterns and trends identified in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) data linked to Elder Financial Exploitation (EFE), or the illegal or improper use of an older adult’s funds, property, or assets. FinCEN examined BSA reports filed between June 15, 2022 and June 15, 2023 that either used the key term referenced in FinCEN’s June 2022 EFE Advisory or checked “Elder Financial Exploitation” as a suspicious activity type. This amounted to 155,415 filings over this period indicating roughly $27 billion in EFE-related suspicious activity.

Financial institutions began filing BSA reports featuring the advisory’s key term on the same day that FinCEN published its 2022 advisory. FinCEN has continued to receive EFE BSA reports, averaging 15,993 per month between June 15, 2023 and January 15, 2024. Banks have submitted the vast majority of EFE-related BSA filings.

Read the press release from FinCen here and the Financial Trend Analysis report here.