July 2025

Bankers' Bank of Kansas will be closed on Monday, September 1, 2025, in observance of Labor Day. We will reopen for business on Tuesday, September 2.

INSTANT PAYMENT HOT TAKES

with Daniel Hayden

Are you looking for a way to stand out amongst the competition? Instant payments might just be your solution! These days, people are choosing their financial institution based on who can get their cash to them the fastest. Imagine this: two restaurants are hiring, and one promises daily pay with a list of banks ready to handle instant payments. Can you guess which banks will get all the business?

On the other hand, we understand that a common concern with instant payments is fraudulent activity. To ease your mind, there have been zero major fraud cases with the FedNow® or RTP®. Most cores have velocity controls that set limits on transaction amounts and frequency. FedNow® is even in the process of developing their own velocity controls. RTP® operates with a prefunded account to minimize risks, and FedNow® offers a Net Send Limit to keep the maximum funds sent limited.

Our team at Bankers' Bank of Kansas would be happy to speak with you about instant payments.

For questions related to instant payments, please contact either of our

Vice President - Relationship Managers, or email us at path@bbok.com:

Compliance Corner: Check Fraud

In 2021, there were 350,000 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed for check fraud. 2022 holds the record for most SARs filed for check fraud coming in at 683,000 reports. In 2023, the number of SARs filed decreased to 665,505, before rising back up in 2024 to 682,276.¹

For the past two years, FinCEN has released alerts about check fraud.² In 2023, after FinCEN published the alert, they received 15,417 BSA reports that amounted to $688 million in reported suspicious activity.

Check fraud continues to be a frequent tool for scammers. So, how can we protect our customers? There are a couple of steps banks can take, including:

1. Review the check.
   

   • Are there misspelled names or other errors on the check?
     

   • Is the writing on check in the same color of ink? Handwriting?
     

2. Ask the customer for information.
   

   • Do they know the person who wrote the check?
     

   • What is the check for? Some common reasons in a scam are:
     

     • Pay to work at home.
       

     • Advance on a sweepstake.
       

3. Call the issuing bank for verification.
   

   • They may not tell you if the check will clear or not, but when a bank knows their customers, it could trigger the issuing bank to reach out to their customer for verification.
     

4. Utilize Reg CC holds.
   

   • Is this a large deposit? Redeposited check? Reasonable cause to doubt the collectability?
     

5. And finally, educate your customers.
   

   • There are multiple resources for check scams. Both The Federal Trade Commission³ and the Better Business Bureau⁴ have pages dedicated to check scams.

Share these resources with your customers to better protect them and their finances!

Sources:

[1] https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/corporates/sars-report-2024/

[2] https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-issues-depth-analysis-check-fraud-related-mail-theft

[3] https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-spot-avoid-report-fake-check-scams#Types

[4] https://www.bbb.org/all/scamstudies/fake_check_scams_study/fake_check_scams_full_study

Kansas Image Exchange (KIX) Update

Don't forget we are making adjustments to our check processing services! Our files that are delivered to processors at approximately 4:00 a.m. will arrive around 5:00 a.m. to processors, effective August 1, 2025.

If you have further questions regarding this change, please contact path@bbok.com.

Updates to Fee Schedules

We have made updates to our fee schedules! Specifically, we have made price increases in our Investment Portfolio Accounting and Reports.

If you have questions regarding fee schedules or the changes that have taken, please contact path@bbok.com.

IN THE KNOW

Stay up to date on all things happening in the Cash Management department at Bankers' Bank of Kansas!

The GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act (Digital Asset Market Clarity) Legislation Updates

The GENIUS Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins and represents an important milestone for the crypto industry, was signed into law on Friday, July 18.

A recent piece of legislation was entered at the end of May called the CLARITY Act (Digital Asset Market Clarity). The CLARITY Act seeks to require developers to provide accurate, relevant disclosures, including information relating to the digital asset projects operation, ownership, and structure. Customer-facing digital asset firms, like brokers and dealers, will be required to:

• Provide appropriate disclosures to customers

• Segregate customer funds from their own; and

• Address conflicts of interest through registration, disclosure, and operational requirements.

It also establishes the ability to raise funds under the SEC jurisdiction, and ability to trade digital commodities overseen by the CFTC. From the customer perspective, it establishes registration regimes to permit digital assets.

The CLARITY Act is being reviewed in the Senate along with Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act which bans the Federal Reserve from establishing a Central Bank Digital Currency.

We will continue to monitor legislation as it is introduced.

The Faster Payment Council working group on Digital Asset recently published a blog post on stablecoins: Read the Blog Post Here

Source: ABA one page summary on Digital Asset Market Clarity (Clarity) Act

The PATH to Success Newsletter - We Want Your Feedback!

We have been sending this newsletter for more than a year and would love to hear your thoughts on our performance. Please send us your feedback to path@bbok.com and let us know if the newsletter is valuable to you. If you find value in the information, we welcome your compliments. Similarly, if you have suggestions for improvement, we would greatly appreciate your input to enhance the newsletter’s benefit for you. Thank you!

CASH MANAGEMENT

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