Refocusing FBI seeks to reassure financial institutions

WASHINGTON – The FBI hopes to meet with banks and credit unions sometime over the summer to reassure them that the Bureau will still be involved in investigating bank and credit union robberies particularly those involving guns and those with intrastate implications, according to the agency and media reports. As part of the ongoing desire to "refocus" the Bureau's duties onto counter-terrorism and terrorism prevention a number of traditional agency concerns, including bank robbery, have fallen on the Bureau's priority list according to media reports. But FBI spokesperson Angela Bell said the Bureau would definitely invite credit union associations to be part of an August meeting to discuss how the Bureau handles bank and credit union robberies. The meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place in Charlotte, North Carolina in a Bank of America facility. The FBI already allows local law enforcement to handle investigations of bank and credit union robberies where there is no gun used. The Bureau will still play a role in cases that are violent or where it appears rovers are hitting institutions in different states, Bell said.