[jbrown]

Hear is some more insight into Operation Chokepoint and how it can potentially bubble over into our industry, using ACH returns as a leading indicator of fraud.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which runs one of the nation's two automated clearing house networks, also turned over its regular "Dashboard Reports," according to the May 2013 memo. Those reports identify banks that have high rates of returned ACH transactions, which the DOJ used as an indicator of potential fraud. The Atlanta Fed gave the reports to the Justice Department in response to a subpoena, the memo states.

DOJ hoped to use investigative leads from the FTC and the Atlanta Fed to make a quick splash.

"I propose that we identify and engage ten suspect banks within 150 days," Assistant Attorney General Joel Sweet wrote in the November 2012 memo that proposed the establishment of Operation Choke Point. "This alone is likely to cause banks to scrutinize their accounts relationships and, if warranted, to terminate fraud-tainted processors and merchants."

[Chambo]

The DOJ is involved? Maybe NOW folks will start taking this stuff seriously.