David Savoie, CEO, Louisiana Corporate Credit Union (LaCorp)
Fraud losses reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center topped $20.8 billion in 2025, a 26% increase over the prior year. Business email compromise accounted for $3.04 billion of that total. And roughly 86% of those email compromises moved over wire and ACH rails.
Fraud doesn’t always come through new-fangled technology. The classics still pay out for fraudsters – the same ACH payment rails your credit union uses every day. And once it lands, the window to get it back is brief.
Your fast-closing recovery window
The FBI’s Recovery Asset Team (RAT) was created in 2018 to streamline communication with financial institutions and help freeze funds sent under fraudulent pretenses. It works to a degree. In 2025, the team froze $679 million across roughly 3,900 incidents.
It works best inside a narrow window. The Financial Fraud Kill Chain, used to recover fraudulent international wire transfers, generally applies to wires of $50,000 or more reported within 72 hours of the transfer. After that, recovery rates fall off sharply. Funds get split across accounts, pushed through additional institutions or converted to crypto, and the trail goes cold.
Every credit union has a fraud policy; that’s not in question. The question becomes, how quickly your team can reach someone with the authority and the network connection to act on the payment itself.
That is where a corporate credit union relationship highlights one of its many values.
Where does your corporate fit into your fraud response?
Recalls and returns. Your corporate credit union can submit wire recall requests and process ACH returns and reversals on a member credit union’s behalf. Knowing who to call and that they are familiar with your credit union removes hours from your response time. Hours you do not have.
Alternative processing when your systems are down. In a corporate account takeover, the first defensive move is often cutting off origination access. That protects you, and it also stops your payments. Corporate credit unions can process ACH files and wires while your team works through containment, so members are not stranded during the investigation.
Controls that prevent the loss. Velocity limits, dollar thresholds, dual authorization on wire origination, callback verification and OFAC screening are all configured before an incident, not during one. Your corporate relationship functions as a fraud control layer, not just a service.
Liquidity while claims process. Surety bond and insurance claims take time. A credit union might need to make members whole well before that money arrives. Access to liquidity through a corporate credit union bridges that gap without forcing you to liquidate investments at a loss.
Pattern recognition. A corporate sees settlement and transaction flows across many credit unions. That vantage point surfaces emerging schemes, unusual counterparties and suspicious activity patterns earlier than any one credit union would catch on its own.
Guidance on what comes next. Regulatory notification timing, SAR filing, surety bond and insurance notifications, and when to bring in outside forensics.
NCUA and fraud prevention, detection and preparation
NCUA’s 2026 supervisory priorities continue to emphasize fraud prevention and detection alongside liquidity and interest rate risk. Examiners want to see that credit unions have thought through their fraud response, not just prevention.
Setting up with a corporate during a fraud event is possible, but not ideal. LaCorp does not require an annual contract, so credit unions can establish services quickly and operate month to month as needed. But the credit unions that fare best are the ones that already know what the corporate can do, who to call at 6 a.m. and what information to have ready.
The credit unions that recover funds are rarely the ones with the best policy manual. They are the ones who made the call fastest.
To talk through fraud response capabilities or establish services with LaCorp, contact President/CEO David Savoie at david@lacorp.com or VP of Operations Erin Byrd at erinb@lacorp.com.