U.S. bankers to meet on Big Isle
Advertiser Staff
About 1,300 bankers and their families will converge on the Big Island Saturday for the annual convention of the American Bankers Association.
"It's a real pleasure to welcome the national industry back to Hawai'i," said Walter Dods, chairman and chief executive officer of BancWest Corp, parent company of First Hawaiian Bank, who will be speaking at the event. "And of course, it's a boost for our economy to have a big convention like this in the Islands."
DODS
With banks facing an array of new challenges in the post-Sept. 11 world, the conference at the Hilton Waikoloa Village will include a session on money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The U.S.A. Patriot Act, passed in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, contains new banking laws and regulations aimed at preventing terrorist financing.
The bankers will also be looking at how to prevent fraud and how to ensure customer privacy. As of July 15 more than 225 bills dealing with privacy in banking were pending in Congress, the ABA says. Fraud perpetrators, who are moving away from big banks that have invested heavily in fraud detection and prevention technology, are taking aim at community and regional banks where losses from check fraud are now on the rise.
Donald Powell, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., will address the gathering.
There also will be a session with Frank W. Abagnale, whose early criminal career was documented in the book and film "Catch Me If You Can." Abagnale cashed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks before he was 21; now, after serving time in jail, he runs a company that helps banks prevent fraud.
Dods will speak on Monday as part of a panel discussing the affects of globalization on small and medium-size businesses.
