Of course we are always happy to assist you in explaining system features to your auditors and examiners. We will be glad to talk directly to your examiner to explain not only how the tools and security features work, but also the strategic ideas behind why things work they way they do and the direction in which we are heading. Please contact a CSR or our CEO directly if you need help working with your examiners.

At some point during the year your credit union's audit firm may contact your credit union to perform a member account verification. This involves sending statements with a special message and unique return address, so that members respond to the auditing firm rather than the credit union directly. Here are some important tips to ensure your audit is successful: CU*Answers cannot change your credit union's return addresses on statements. CU*Answers uses custom statement envelopes for a  More...

The Audit Tracker is simply a special type of Member Tracker. Trackers are used throughout CU*BASE to keep track of member communications, contacts, and events, for an ongoing record of the member's relationship with your credit union. The Audit Tracker is specifically designed to record events for your credit union's internal auditors. This includes things like BSA-related activities, OFAC scans, and the like. See the flyer referenced below for a current list of items recorded automa  More...

Because of CU*BASE design to integrate directly to the general ledger is one of its most impressive features, the teller system needs to process as its own section. In order to discourage inaccurate or misleading transaction reversals or back-dating, the dual system segregates the teller drawer (cash) from the member transactions and balances. If the two steps are not completed correctly, the general ledger will be out of balance. Fortunately you can use Tool #31 Reverse Tran/Adjust Drawer (Same  More...

This file is populated when we receive the file from Sage Direct. Sage forwards the audit data to use once ALL statement runs are completed. This will typically occur between the 10th and the 15th of the month.

The Audit Link service consists of three interrelated business activities. The first is an overall analysis of the credit unions needs, hot buttons, and recent audit or examination findings. This analysis is designed not only to tailor the program for the credit union but also to facilitate an overall general compliance tune-up. The second area of this initiative is the development of a daily, monthly, and quarterly roadmap of tasks to be completed. This is where the credit union would see the  More...

You can visit the Audit Link website at http://auditlink.cuanswers.com for guidance on upcoming regulations as well as any recent Audit Link news.

This happens rarely, but usually when we see orphaned records like this it's because the employee exited their CU*BASE session improperly in the middle of processing a transaction, either by clicking the close button or due to an unexpected power or communications interruption. For example, once a cash transaction is posted and the CTR screens are presented, the user must proceed; there is no way to back up and cancel the transaction at that point. Some users get desperate and click the   More...

More information can be found in Chapter 13 “ODFI Audit Requirements and Rules Compliance” found on OG52 of the NACHA Operating Rules. The first sentence in Chapter 13 states: All ODFIs, Third Party Service Providers performing a function of ACH processing on behalf of those ODFIs, and Third Party Senders must perform an annual audit to determine compliance with all provisions of the NACHA Operating Rules. Third Party Service Providers and Senders are very well defined in t  More...

CU*BASE only supports those with a valid US address for our QualiFile interface. If a member has a foreign address, you would need to process that through the website manually.

Performed on a daily basis, Audit Link uses the CU*BASE Dashboard for Negative Balance Analysis to retrieve negative balance data. A daily report summary is provided to your team illustrating negative balance accounts separated as 15-day buckets to assist in quickly identifying possible fraudulent activity and areas that may require immediate action. Also included with the daily report summary are graphical representations and delinquency ratios to assist in identifying key trends affecting your  More...

One reason is that the first name field is limited to 12 characters when running QualiFile (ChexSystems). If the member's name is longer than 12 characters, the scan must be run manually via their website.

When you see the 'pass decision' status, this means that the application passed your filters and then passed the model. The underwriting ratios are not a hard stop and will not cause an application to pass or fail. Based on the workflow, a model is requested and a decision has already been made by the time those ratios calculated. The ‘fail’ flag in the underwriting ratio is simply a visual indicator to the loan officer that the ratio is potentially higher than normal.   More...

Check out the CU*Answers store for assistance in preparing for your BSA audit. See the related links below to learn more.

While audio response originally mirrored the functionality of o nline , the paths for those two channels have diverged greatly as online banking has grown and expanded over the past several years. For example, while online banking offers an optional feature to allow members to update personal information online, no such equivalent feature exists in audio response. Additionally, members can no longer make transfers from their membership to another membership and cannot request check withdrawals.

When you use the filter buttons on the File Maintenance Inquiry dashboard (Tool #159: Audit File Maintenance Inquiry (CUFMNT)), indicators note which programs, fields/columns, and files/tables AuditLink has flagged as “critical” for auditing teams to monitor on a daily basis. You can quickly sort by that indicator and select only those items for a quick scan of maintenance that directly affects member accounts. Below is a listing of these critical items. Columns/Fields Field Why   More...

No, our CSRs will not reset the 2-character CU*BASE Employee IDs for your staff. This must be done by an internal CU security officer. Use Tool #762 Reset Employee ID Password . (This can also be done via Tool #327 CU*BASE Employee Security using the Reset PW option.) It is important that credit unions insure proper training to their employees regarding the expiration of their CU*BASE Employee ID password. We deliver a warning message of expiration 7 business days prior to the staff member.   More...

Using CU*BASE to Comply with New Rules for Tracking Beneficial Ownership FinCEN has issued new rules under the Bank Secrecy Act that require financial institutions to identify and verify the identity of the beneficial owners of all legal entity members (corporations, etc.). Under the final rule, credit unions are required to have written procedures to identify and verify beneficial owners of legal entity members who open new accounts on or after May 11, 2018. In addition to identifying and coll  More...

The differences ultimately come down to control and cost. The online ASP system is the fastest, simplest, most inexpensive way to get started with an e-documents strategy for your credit union. With online ASP you offload the back-end service management headaches to CU*Answers. We manage, backup, secure, and patch/upgrade the eDOC servers and databases and these processes fall under our SAS 70 and third party security audits. The online ASP system consists of electronic storage of receipts, loan  More...

Credit unions can choose to hide the 000 account for select memberships. This is a business decision that may be elected for special accounts, for example business accounts. This feature must first be activated for the credit union in the Master Parameters in the OPER screens. Then credit unions activate it by using the Membership Designation configuration. Once activated in the membership designation, the feature will cause the 000 account to be ignored (for accounts of this membership des  More...

Our policy is to adhere to PCI Data Security Standard/Security Audit Procedures mandates (these are the rules from Visa about how ATM, Debit, and Credit Card information is protected) which read as follows: 3.3 Mask PAN when displayed (the first six and last four digits are the maximum number of digits to be displayed). Note: This requirement does not apply to employees and other parties with a specific need to see the full PAN; nor does the requirement supersede stricter requirements in  More...

General Requirements CU*BASE GOLD, CBX, and the associated cuasterisk.com software suite ( Station Control , ProDOC, SearchLink, etc.) require that the following networks be routed to the cuasterisk.com network (typically via a CU*Answers Cisco router): For all CU*Answers privately routed networks below, all ports/services should be allowed outbound from any device accessing CU*BASE or CBX. Required for standard Production connectivity: 63.150.21.96/27 63.236.240.16/28   More...

Yes, if any non-return fees are assessed to a savings accounts and you have the Reg. DD disclosure activated for your statements. (This new feature was implemented in June 2010.) Although it is rare for a savings account ever to be charged a non-return fee, one example that might cause this would be if you had debit cards that were tied exclusively to a savings account. If the fee amounts are zero (NSF current period, NSF YTD, ANR current period, ANR YTD), then the NSF Fee Summary box will not  More...

There are three choices. 1. Manually add the estimated finance charges to the balance of the account and have the member make the full payoff at that time. Then clear the cumulative balance on the individual buckets to ensure that there are no finance charges assessed on the account. To do this you will launch Tool #20 Update Account Information. Select the credit card account and then select F16/Chg Type Maint. Select the individual bucket and select the Maintenance action code. In the cumulat  More...

CU*Answers has a rolling schedule of network security audits and assessments including internal and external penetration testing. We do not limit the scope of these tests to just the online banking environment. We also do not publish the results or reports from these tests for security reasons. The test results are reviewed by our Executive Team, our Board of Directors (made up of peer credit union CEOs), as well as examiners from the NCUA and state regulatory agencies. They are also reviewed b  More...