Background Investigations

Standard Background Checks

The OCC performs standard background checks through the:

• Credit bureaus.

• Drug Enforcement Administration.

• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (fingerprint check requests).

• Federal and state regulators of banks or other entities.

• Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Check Program.

• United States Customs Service.

• LEXIS-NEXIS.

  LEXIS-NEXIS is an on-line service that contains a compilation of data on legal, news, and business information. A number of databases on LEXIS are checked in a background investigation, including the docket library which shows sanctions by banking and securities agencies. Other areas reviewed include Liens, Assets, and Insolvency.

• Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)/SARS Report.

  The FinCEN is an interagency database of persons named in Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS). Those persons are believed to have participated in known or suspected criminal violations, or suspicious transactions related to potential money laundering offenses or Bank Secrecy Act violations.

• Enforcement Action Report System (EARS).

  The EARS is an OCC system that contains historical criminal referral information, and information on persons who have been subject to administrative enforcement actions (for example, civil money penalties and removals), change in bank control, and notice of new director and senior executive officer declinations by the federal banking regulatory agencies.

  EARS maintains financial institution regulatory agencies’ records when the filers have been involved with financial institutions under another agency’s jurisdiction (for example, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Reserve Board (FRB), the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), or the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)).

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