Fraud & Sabotage for Credit Unions

Fraud & Sabotage Tabletop Exercise for Credit Unions

This exercise is part of our catalog of tabletop exercises for credit unions .

Scenario Overview

Indicators emerge that a potential fraud or deliberate act of sabotage may be occurring within the credit union. Financial discrepancies, system anomalies, or suspicious employee behavior raise concerns about internal threats.

As the situation develops, leadership must determine the scope of the issue, protect financial assets, coordinate internal and external investigations, and manage communication with stakeholders.

This exercise challenges credit union leadership teams to respond to internal threats while balancing operational continuity, regulatory considerations, and reputational risk.

Why This Scenario Matters for Credit Unions

Credit unions rely heavily on trust, internal controls, and regulatory compliance. Internal fraud or sabotage can have significant financial, operational, and reputational consequences.

This exercise helps leadership teams evaluate how they would detect, respond to, and manage internal threats while maintaining member confidence and regulatory alignment.

Exercise Objectives

  • Evaluate leadership decision-making during an internal threat scenario.
  • Discuss detection, escalation, and investigation processes.
  • Review coordination with legal, compliance, and regulatory bodies.
  • Assess internal and external communication strategies.
  • Examine controls to protect financial assets and systems.
  • Identify improvements to fraud prevention and response capabilities.

Typical Participants

  • Executive leadership
  • Finance and accounting
  • Risk, compliance, or audit teams
  • Human resources
  • IT and systems security
  • Legal counsel
  • Communications or public affairs staff
  • Business continuity or crisis management team members

Exercise Format

Conduct-It-Yourself Tabletop Exercises are structured, discussion-based simulations designed to help organizations test their response to disruptive events without the time and cost of a fully facilitated exercise. Participants are placed in the middle of a realistic scenario as it unfolds and must work through decisions, priorities, and consequences as a leadership team.

Each downloadable exercise package includes everything needed to conduct the session internally, including facilitator instructions, exercise overview materials, participant forms, a detailed scenario script, and a ready-to-run PowerPoint presentation that guides the scenario and discussion. The materials are designed so organizations can conduct the exercise as delivered or customize the storyline and supporting materials to reflect their own internal controls, systems, and organizational structure.

Most exercises are designed to be conducted in approximately 2 to 4 hours. A typical agenda includes an exercise overview and scenario briefing, the facilitated disaster simulation discussion, group review and preparation for debriefing, and a structured post-exercise discussion to capture lessons learned and improvement opportunities.

Exercise Focus

  • Incident Response
  • Internal Controls
  • Reputational Risk

Related Tabletop Exercise Scenarios

Organizations exploring this scenario may also find these exercises useful:

Looking for a Facilitated Exercise for Your Credit Union?

Many credit unions choose to run their exercises with an experienced facilitator to guide discussion, introduce evolving scenario developments, and capture improvement opportunities.

If you would prefer a professionally facilitated tabletop exercise tailored to your credit union, learn more about our consulting services.

Explore Facilitated Tabletop Exercises for Credit Unions

Purchase & Download

SKU CIYCU002
$595.00