American Association of Bank Directors Appoints Robert Serino as Money Laundering & Bank Enforcement Advisor

Mar 9, 2001—Bethesda, Maryland

The American Association of Bank Directors ("AABD") announced today that it has named Robert B. Serino its Issues Advisor on bank supervisory, enforcement and money-laundering issues to assist bank directors and bank executive officers in complying with various legal and regulatory requirements. As noted in recent report and hearings held by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, money laundering and bank supervision issues continue to be issues that should be of concern to all directors.

In December 2000, Mr. Serino retired from the Federal Government after 35 years of service. During the last 29 years, Mr. Serino was employed at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as Director of Enforcement and Compliance for the first 12 years and the last 17 years as Deputy Chief Counsel. Mr. Serino was the Comptroller’s representative to many groups and a principal contact for law enforcement, enforcement and money laundering issues. He was a member of various committees including: Comptroller's Senior Staff, Bank Supervision Policy Committee, the Supervisory Review Committee and the National Anti-money Laundering Committee. He was the Comptroller's representative to the Department of Justice/ Bank Fraud Working Group since 1984 and the U.S. Treasury’s Bank Secrecy Advisory Group since 1994. He has testified and represented witnesses before Congressional Committees on many occasions.

He participated on an advisory panel for the Office of Technology Assessment, United States Congress in their study on "Information Technologies for the Control of Money Laundering." He participated on a U.S. Delegation to the Financial Action Task Force which led to the creation of the 40 principles dealing with combating money laundering. He was a member of the Panel of Experts for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President.

From 1969-1971, Mr. Serino was a trial attorney in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Fraud Section where he investigated and prosecuted bank and bankruptcy fraud matters.

Mr. Serino has recently become a Senior Compliance Advisor to Noblestreet International, a company developing a product to enable financial institutions to perform due diligence reviews on customers or prospective employees on-line.

"Mr. Serino offers institutions of AABD members the knowledge and experience that he has developed in money laundering and other bank regulatory issues over a period of more than 30 years," said Keith Dalrymple, AABD’s President, and President and CEO of Vartan National Bank, Dauphin, Pennsylvania. "With Mr. Serino on board, AABD members will know the latest regulatory and industry developments affecting money laundering and will obtain advice on how to protect their banks from liability resulting from violations of money laundering statutes and regulations."

Founded in 1989, the non-profit American Association of Bank Directors is the only trade group in the United States solely devoted to bank directors and their information, education, and advocacy needs. The Institute for Bank Director Education was established in 1993 as the educational arm of AABD. Its purpose is to act as a clearinghouse for education programs designed for bank and savings institution directors that support the nationally recognized Director Certification Program.