By Porter Wright on The SAFE Banking Act has hit a snag in Congress thanks to opposition from the chair of the Senate Banking Committee. The October 2019 post, “Temper Your Expectations on Cannabis Banking Reform: foreseeable pitfalls of the SAFE Banking Act,” explained how the SAFE Act intended to alleviate the bank industry’s cannabis problem, and where it may … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On September 25, 2019, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2019 passed the U.S. House of Representatives by an impressive margin of 321 to 103. The U.S. Senate—once seen as a gauntlet of insurmountable obstacles to cannabis banking reform—has also seen some meaningful progress. Senator Mike Crapo (R., Idaho), the influential chair … Continue Reading
By Steven Hoying on Several trade associations for the banking industry have weighed in on a pending potential landmark case in the Northern District of Illinois regarding the possible judicial review of CAMELS (Capital, Asset Quality, Management, Earnings, Liquidity and Sensitivity) ratings of financial institutions. As noted by this blog earlier this year, the United States Court of Appeals … Continue Reading
By Grant Stephenson on Bankers will be interested in a recent appellate court order in a bank regulatory case. Their lawyers will be astonished by it because the ruling lights a flicker of hope in an area where there has been none for many years: the judicial review of CAMELS ratings. The ruling came early in a litigation seeking … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia now permit the use and possession of marijuana to some degree under state law, and public support for legalization is at an all-time high. Despite the growing number of states legalizing marijuana, however, it remains a Schedule 1 controlled substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). President … Continue Reading
By Steven Hoying on Last year, as noted by this blog, the FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve imposed harsher capital requirements on certain “high volatility commercial real estate,” or HVCRE, exposures, in accordance with the Basel III international banking standards. These new requirements were opposed not only by the real estate industry but also by banking associations, particularly the … Continue Reading
By Grant Stephenson and Steven Hoying on Credit unions’ ability to lend to businesses may receive a boost if proposed NCUA regulations are approved. Business loans are becoming an increasingly important part of credit unions’ operations. Total business loans at federally insured credit unions grew from $13.4 billion in 2004 to $51.7 billion in 2014, growing from 3% of all total credit … Continue Reading
By Grant Stephenson and Steven Hoying on Lenders who finance commercial real estate exposures should be aware of new regulations that impose harsher capital requirements on certain “high volatility commercial real estate,” or HVCRE, exposures. In June 2013, the FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve jointly approved proposed rules intended to implement new international banking standards, known as the Basel III Capital Accords, … Continue Reading
By Guest Blogger on Editor’s Note: This post was prepared by Susan A. Choe, Deputy Director & General Counsel, The Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation. As an update to our guest blog post of April 10, 2014, the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation is pleased to report that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) will join the Ohio Office of the … Continue Reading
By Polly Harris on Our colleagues at Antitrust Law Source posted an interesting update about probable charges alleging that traders at approximately a dozen global banks – including Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, and USB – fixed the foreign exchange market, or “forex,” market. The U.S. Department of Justice may bring charges by the end of the year. Read … Continue Reading
By Grant Stephenson on It has been an active couple of weeks for FinCEN from a regulatory pronouncement perspective. For example, FinCEN has proposed a regulation to amend existing “know your customer” rules for certain financial institutions to require the verification of beneficial owners of legal entities. Legal entities in this context would mean corporations, partnerships or similar business … Continue Reading
By Mike Underwood on On August 6, 2014, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced a proposed rule that should be of real concern to covered affirmative action federal contractors. The OFCCP is the agency that enforces federal affirmative action laws. If the proposed rule is adopted, it will add compensation data to the information that covered … Continue Reading
By Grant Stephenson on At a time of relative affluence in the farming industry, the FDIC has issued a warning on a need for monitoring agricultural credits. FIL-39-2014 (July 16, 2014) suggests that banking institutions of all sizes should carefully consider a recent, negative projection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While current market conditions are good, the projection … Continue Reading
By Grant Stephenson on Last April, a trade association for bank directors, the American Association of Bank Directors reported the results of a survey designed to measure the impact of concerns about personal liability on the decision of bank board members to resign and by individuals to turn down board seats on banking organizations. One of the key concerns, … Continue Reading
By Guest Blogger on Editor’s Note: This post was prepared by Susan A. Choe, Deputy Director & General Counsel, The Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation. Federal bank examiners will now provide positive CRA consideration under the investment test for interest paid above the market rate on Ohio IOLTAs (“interest on lawyer trust accounts”) and IOTAs (“interest on title agent trust accounts”). This … Continue Reading
By Grant Stephenson on Recently, the primary federal bank regulators took the latest step in the long and winding road toward the replacement of credit ratings in the analysis of investment securities by insured financial institutions. You will recall this process began with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in July 2010 that, in the wake of the financial … Continue Reading
By Polly Harris on In a triumph of substance over form, on August 22, 2013, the Tenth Appellate District Court of Appeals disregarding self-serving labels and further clarified the distinction between a loan and a sale of accounts receivable in Fenway Financial, LLC dba Commission Express v. Greater Columbus Realty, LLC dba Keller Williams Greater Columbus Realty, LLC, No. … Continue Reading
By Grant Stephenson on Our colleagues on the Federal Securities Law Blog have been tracking new and updated SEC regulations that are likely to have an impact on your business now and in the near future. The compilation of articles in their most recent eBook — SEC Updates: Staying Ahead of the Regulatory Curve — discuss three important SEC … Continue Reading
By Jack Gravelle on The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have adopted rules that require most broker-dealers, mutual funds, investment advisers, and certain other regulated entities to create programs to prevent identity theft. The new rules become effective May 20, 2013, and entities regulated by the new rules must comply by November 20, 2013. Regulated entities … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Financial institution executives with responsibility for the management of the technology of their financial institutions or their institution’s relationship with technology service providers (TSPs) should become familiar with the updated guidance regarding supervision of TSPs by financial institutions that was issued on October 31, 2012 by various federal banking regulatory agencies. The issuance updates material that is nearly ten years old. The … Continue Reading
By Grant Stephenson on In October, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published its first supervision examination manual which will be of interest to bankers and other financial service executives. On one level, the manual is fairly pedestrian and may contain little surprising in that most bankers have a fairly extensive appreciation of (and experience with) an examination process. And, … Continue Reading
By Jay Yurkiw on On Monday, May 16, 2011, the revisions to FINRA’s Discovery Guide (“Guide”) and Document Production Lists (“Production Lists”) for customer arbitration proceedings take effect. These revisions will apply to all customer cases filed on or after May 16. FINRA first adopted the Guide in 1999 for use in customer arbitration proceedings and last revised the Guide in … Continue Reading
By Mark Snider on In Notice 2011-34 issued April 8, 2011, the IRS provided supplemental guidance regarding foreign financial account reporting requirements under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”). All businesses that makes payments to foreign financial institutions should be aware of these rules which take effect in 2013. The recently released supplemental guidance, which is expected to be … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) [Sections 1471-1474 of the Internal Revenue Code] was enacted to prevent U.S. taxpayers from evading U.S. tax obligations by parking funds in foreign accounts or with foreign investors. FATCA requires each U.S. entity to withhold 30% of certain payments made after 2012 to foreign investors or foreign lenders unless … Continue Reading
