WASHINGTON—The FDIC has issued a Financial Institution Letter that is encouraging its supervised institutions to take a “risk-based approach in assessing individual customer relationships, rather than declining to provide banking services to entire categories of customers without regard to the risks presented by an individual customer or the financial institution's ability to manage the risk.”
The FDIC said it is also reinforcing its policies on managing customer relationships to examiners and other supervisory staff. “Financial institutions that properly manage customer relationships and effectively mitigate risks are neither prohibited nor discouraged from providing services to any category of customer accounts or individual customers operating in compliance with applicable laws,” the FDIC said. “FDIC examiners must provide notice in writing for any case in which an institution is directed to exit a customer relationship.”
The FDIC has a new, dedicated toll-free number, 800-756-8854, and dedicated e-mail box for the Office of the Ombudsman for institutions concerned that FDIC personnel are not following FDIC policies on providing banking services.
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