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 Porter Wright on The banking industry has a cannabis problem—it cannot bank cannabis related businesses. Despite the fact that over 35 states have legalized medical cannabis in some form and more than 10 others have recreational cannabis laws, the mainstream banking industry has been largely unable to provide services to lawful cannabis companies. That is because federal law … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Let’s say your client is a bank based outside of Ohio, and suppose further your client wants to set up a banking business in Ohio. Most of the time a merger transaction will result in a non-Ohio bank doing business in Ohio through an out-of-state franchise of course. But in light of changes to Ohio … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Last year, the Ohio Legislature made a number of important changes to Ohio’s statutory banking code. These are the first comprehensive changes in more than twenty years. Most of the changes were effective January 1, 2018. The heavy lifting of the new Ohio banking bill is language that consolidates a number of existing financial institution … 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 Porter Wright on In this blog, we have described some of the original concerns with the “high volatility commercial real estate” loan regulation as well as some suggestions for change. These rules apply to certain real estate loans for acquisition, development and construction. Recently, there have been suggestions that changes are possible regarding “high volatility commercial real estate” loans … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright 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 Long awaited Guidelines from the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) for website accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are now expected sometime in 2018. But, as discussed below, that does not mean that financial institutions transacting business with the public through websites and mobile applications should ignore web-based accessibility entirely until 2018. Law … 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 Steven Hoying and Porter Wright 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 Porter Wright on The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit just recently held that an officer of a nationally-chartered bank regulated by the National Bank Act (NBA) had no claim for wrongful termination under a Florida whistleblower statute. According to the federal court, the state-law whistleblower claims were preempted by 12 U.S.C. § 24 (Fifth) … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on There is much to like in the recently released report of the Volcker Alliance. Unfortunately, however, there is little discussion of those banking institutions commonly referred to as community banks. At roughly the same time last month, the Independent Community Bankers Association of America highlighted in a press release the importance of community banks in … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright 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 Porter Wright on In-house bank lawyers got a vote of confidence last week. The context was a comment submitted to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency regarding proposed enforceable guidelines on the risk management practices for the nation’s largest banks. Last January, the OCC proposed the guidelines and asked for comments. Previously, risk management practices suggested … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed (95–5) the America Invents Act (formerly titled the Patent Reform Act of 2011) (S.23 or AIA), on March 8, 2011. This legislation represents a major patent reform initiative and is quite possibly the most significant patent reform since the 1952 Patent Act. This legislation could have significant impact on financial institutions. … Continue Reading
