In early 2014, hundreds of employees at Maine’s banks and other financial institutions began learning how to recognize unusual account activity that might indicate fraud or financial exploitation, the New York Times reported. The pilot program went so well that one of Maine’s senators, Susan M. Collins (R), introduced legislation to take it national. The result, the Senior Safe Act, which became law in May, gives banks that accept such training more certainty that they would not be punished for disclosing account information to the authorities. Without that protection, banks and their employees run the risk of being sued by clients, or fined or penalized by regulators. "As baby boomers hit their milestones and retire, there’s been a growing focus on what we can report,” said Robert G. Rowe, associate chief counsel for the American Bankers Association. “The law gives us safe harbor to report suspicious activity.”
