Older Americans Benchmarking Report

Older Americans, primarily those born before 1965, hold 65% of deposit balances in the US. This fact has enticed scam artists seeking to exploit individuals to target seniors, their identities and their financial assets. Seniors lose billions of dollars to exploitation each year. Losses from such abuse are significant and take an emotional toll on top of the financial impact. Victims often become depressed, and experience intense feelings of shame as well as fear. Many lose their savings while others may also lose their homes, harming one of America’s most at-risk populations..

This report presents findings from ABA Foundation’s 2021 Older Americans Benchmarking Survey, which was designed to capture data on how banks educate older Americans, respond to fraudulent activity and train their staff to protect older customers. Results are based on a sample size of 112 banks of varied asset classes. Please note that the percentages in charts and tables on the following pages may not always sum up to 100% due to rounding or multiple answers provided by the respondents.

Key findings include:

• More than half of the banks surveyed offer products with terms that are favorable for older customers. More of the responding banks offer such products than ever before (60% in 2021 compared to 53% in 2019 and 59% in 2017). Banks with less than $1 billion in assets are most likely to offer such products (67%).
• Of banks surveyed, 99% offer training to customer service representatives on how to detect and report elder financial exploitation. The percentage of banks providing this type of training for both frontline employees and other staff has remained high throughout the three surveys the ABA Foundation has conducted.
• Banks are assertive in protecting older customers. Nearly all the banks surveyed (93%) report that they file a suspicious activity report (SAR), flag accounts, close accounts or report to Adult Protective Services (APS) when banks suspect elder financial exploitation. More banks are reporting to APS, rising from 62% in 2017 to 81% in 2019 and 78% in 2021.
• This year’s survey indicates that COVID-19 has impacted bank community engagement. However, banks are continuing their outreach to older customers, with 47% of respondents hosting community events.

“This third Older Americans Benchmarking Report shows that America’s banks can be proud of how they are working to serve, educate and protect older customers. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, banks are continuing to make progress in their programs for seniors,” said ABA Foundation Executive Director Corey Carlisle. “The survey and report also point to areas where banks that are looking to grow their services for older customers can do so. We hope this report will prove useful for financial institutions that want to do more for this important and vulnerable customer population. Thank you to the survey participants, our funders and all partner organizations working with banks to protect older Americans.“

Past Surveys

• 2019 Older Americans Benchmarking Report
• 2017 Older Americans Benchmarking Report