Accounting firm adds bank audit service

Whitlock, Selim & Keehn LLP is no exception.

The firm in July began offering new audit services for financial institutions to ensure that they are in compliance with the federal Bank Secrecy Act.

The Bank Secrecy Act, passed in 1970, requires companies to keep customer information private except in specific circumstances. Changes to the law in recent years, including amendments passed earlier this year, require the institutions to report suspicious activity and transactions involving large amounts of money in an effort to curb money laundering.

The passage of the USA Patriot Act, however, amended the BSA regarding increased due diligence requirements for banks, especially related to customer identification procedures and banks’ dealings with foreign corporations. The new requirements have moved BSA compliance back to the top of the priority list for financial institutions.

Under the law, financial institutions are required to have periodic audits, either by someone on staff or by a third party, to make sure they meet the requirements.

Whitlock, Selim & Keehn has hired Nick Spinelli, a 12-year veteran of the banking audit process, including auditing work for The Signature Bank, to lead the company’s new BSA audit program.

“This (audit service) is going to be consistent, I think, industrywide and nationwide, because these are things everyone has to get reviewed,” Spinelli said. “Firms don’t have to have someone outside the organization do these (audits). However, most firms tend to do that, just because of resources.”

David Myers, WSK managing partner, added that most “small” banks – those with less than $1 billion in assets – will use an outside firm to handle the audit responsibilities.

Departure

The audit service isn’t the only change at the firm.

Founding partner David Keehn left the firm after 20 years in early 2005.

Myers said Keehn’s departure was amicable; Keehn exercised an early retirement clause in his contract in order to pursue a new business, eBiznessPlus Web Solutions LLC. The company helps businesses utilize Internet technology.

“Services range anywhere from development of an Internet strategy – developing strategies to utilize the Internet in increasing revenues, decreasing costs or generating leads – to … payment processing to pure Web site development,” Keehn said.

He said the experience he gained with WSK is invaluable, especially in working with small- and medium-sized businesses.

“A lot of what we do here is the same, in terms of the skills used in advising business owners,” Keehn said. “It’s just involved in Internet technology.”

The firm was founded by Keehn, R. Barnes Whitlock and Elmer Selim; both Whitlock and Selim are still with the company. Other partners are Myers, Thomas Beisner, Brenda Logsdon and Joseph Page.

WSK’s Myers said that while it was tough to lose a good partner, the firm has not experienced problems with client retention since Keehn left – a fact Myers attributes to the founders’ visions for the firm’s future.

“It’s to their credit that they set it up where it should continue on if anything happens to anyone,” he said. “I think our plans are to continue charging on with the same name and continue to transfer ownership to the younger partners as time goes on.”[[In-content Ad]]