MTRA’s 21st Annual Conference & Examiners’ School was held October 3 – 6, 2011 at Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront, Jacksonville, Florida. More than 225 regulators and industry officials attended the four day event, representing 31 member states, including our newest member, Utah. Over 54 money transmitters from across the country attended as well, along with representatives from FinCEN, IRS, FBI, CFPB, USDOJ, FinTRAC and the newly formed Mexican CNVB. Outgoing MTRA President Joseph Rooney of Maryland kicked off the conference; Division Director of the FL Office of Financial Regulation, Terry Straub, welcomed everyone to Florida. The program provided an opportunity to facilitate networking and the exchange of ideas and information between and among industry and regulators. There were timely panel presentations on a variety of subjects including updates from FinCEN and the new CFPB, mobile and social payments, prepaid cards, legislative/regulatory updates, law enforcement efforts on detecting cross-border money laundering, and migrant use of international remittances, and an economic forecast. The School for examiners featured information on MTRA electronic examination procedures including composite ratings, foreign correspondents and paying agents, a BSA violations and citations overview.
PDF files of many of the presentations can be found in the Annual Conference section of the MTRA website. Election results were announced. The MTRA President-elect is John Bishop (OH). Joe Rooney (MD) will remain on the board and takes on the Treasurer’s role. Stephanie Newberg (TX) stays on as Secretary, and Bob Venchiarutti remains as Vice President. Directors are Deb Bortner (WA), Doug Buras (LA), Greg Gonzales (TN), Tracy Hudson (WV), and Nick Kyrus (VA).
In closing, incoming MTRA President John Bishop thanked Joseph Rooney for his many years of service as the MTRA President. Mr. Bishop also announced that the next conference will be held in Seattle, Washington on October 1-4, 2012.