Week of May 28

May 29, 2018

In This Issue…

• Webinar on joint Memorandum to combat elder fraud scheduled this week
• S. 2155 passes House; signed by president
• Check out OBA’s special convention opening video
• OBA education corner …

Webinar on Joint Memorandum to combat elder fraud scheduled

OBA is pleased to be a partner to offer the free webinar, below, focusing on SARs and financial exploitation. Our FinCEN speaker took the rare step of sending out to banks nationwide and, in just a few hours, we already have 3,000 attendees. We may not surpass the 20,000 cap, but you are encouraged to sign-up soon to ensure your place. This is ideal for your compliance staff and anyone handling the epidemic issue of senior exploitation. You can also invite your local law enforcement.

Sign-up and join us!

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, U.S. Department of the Treasury, will host the webinar on the Joint Memorandum to encourage coordination among financial institutions, law enforcement, and adult protective service agencies to protect older adults from elder financial exploitation. The webinar will be held on Thursday, June 7, from 1-2:30 p.m. Registration is required to attend.

The webinar will focus on the importance of Suspicious Activity Reports and the role that they may play in aiding law enforcement’s investigation of EFE cases with an emphasis on collaboration.

Speakers include:

Introduction by Richard Goldberg, senior counsel for complex litigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Consumer Protection Branch.
Jenefer Duane, senior program analyst, Office of Financial Protection for Older Americans, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.
Laura Richardson, section chief, intelligence division, FinCEN, US Department of Treasury.
Peter Gallagher, deputy attorney general, New Jersey Department of Justice.
Elaine Dodd, executive vice president, fraud division, Oklahoma Bankers Association.
Steve Vallejo, senior vice president – corporate security director, Corporate Security Investigations, Bank of the West.

If you are interested in this webinar, please register as soon as possible as the registration cap is already being neared!

S. 2155 passes House; signed by president

S. 2155, a regulatory relief bill for community banks, passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week. With its passage through the Senate in March, it was soon thereafter signed by President Trump and became law.

It is the first bipartisan bill to pass through Congress in quite a while and contains several COMMONSENSE adjustments to regulations that have hurt community banks’ ability to lend to customers.

The bill is the result of many years of advocacy from state bankers associations, such as the OBA, and national organizations, such as the ABA and ICBA, as well as numerous individual bankers.

Here are just SOME of the things to know about how the bill will affect community banks in Oklahoma (courtesy the ABA):

• The bill designates mortgages held in portfolio as Qualified Mortgages (limited to banks with less than $10 billion in assets), giving more creditworthy borrowers access to mortgages while maintaining incentives for strong underwriting.
• Reinstates a federal requirement that allows renters to stay in a foreclosed property for at least 90 days or until their lease expires.
• S. 2155 would exempt community banks under $10 billion in assets that have less than 5 percent of their total consolidated assets involved in trading activities from the Volcker Rule.
• For banks above $50 billion in assets, S. 2155 raises the so-called “Systemically Important Financial Institution” threshold from $50 billion in assets to $100 billion immediately and then increases the threshold to $250 billion after six months.
• Banks with less than $250 billion in assets will no longer have to conduct burdensome, unnecessary stress tests mandated by Dodd-Frank. (The stress tests are often called DFAST).
• Under S. 2155, community banks that originate less than 500 mortgage loans annually will be exempt from reporting a recently expanded set of data on mortgage lending that went into effect Jan. 1 of this year. HMDA reporting requirements for smaller banks will remain the same as they’ve been for more than a decade, including 23 unique data fields for each and every home applicant. This change will simply ease one of the most significant compliance burdens on smaller institutions. It will also allow those banks to focus more time serving their communities rather than filling out compliance forms.

The ABA has also put together a “Reality Check” list to help dispel several myths and blatant falsehoods about S.2155, while explaining what it really accomplishes. This list could be quite valuable to banks and bankers discussing the bill’s passage with customers or media.

Click here to download it.

Again, thanks to everyone who had a hand in the passage of this bill. We hope it isn’t the final destination in our continuing drive to lessen the impact of onerous and costly regulations, but we believe it is an important waypoint. This is a victory for our Association’s community banks, which means it’s a victory for all of us!

Check out OBA’s special convention opening video

Did you miss our annual convention and the opportunity to watch the opening video that discussed our convention theme of “Answering the C*A*L*L (Community/Advocacy/Leadership Legacy)? Or, would you just like to see it again? Either way, here’s your chance to see some of our most well-known bankers discuss what the “C*A*L*L means to them, and also see some bankers answer some decidedly less important calls.

(Of course, one will simply have to imagine Roger rushing on stage to open the convention in the seconds following this video!)

OBA education corner …

The OBA Convention is in the books and summer is upon us! While live seminars take a break during the upcoming months, our webinars NEVER do! Take note of the following:

TRID Amendments 2018, June 5, webinar — This webinar is intended to review and discuss many of the major issues lenders are facing with TRID, including the recent changes, black hole, and some continued unresolved questions and how to deal with them.
Protecting Your Salaried Exempt Status, June 6, webinar — Once you have a salaried employee classified as exempt from overtime, you don’t want to un-do it and make a mistake which turns that exempt salaried employee into a non-exempt worker. Employers make mistakes which undermine the status and cause liability for the employer.
Basics of Real Estate Loan Documentation, June 6, webinar — This webinar provides a comprehensive overview of essential real estate loan documentation requirements, regulatory compliance issues, sound loan administration issues and best practices.
25 Baseline Controls Banks Struggle to Implement, June 7, webinar — These are controls that financial institutions MUST complete regardless of their inherent risk score. This session reviews these 25 controls, as well as practical solutions your institution can use to implement these controls.
Signature Card Danger Zones, June 7, webinar — This webinar is a cost effective way to train those who open new accounts on the potential liability of signature cards that are improperly set up.
CRA – A Law or a Game?, June 11, webinar — This program contains core knowledge needed by all lenders to implement the new CRA rules.
Onboarding Your New Hire, June 12, webinar — How do you check all the required boxes while still maintaining the interest of your new hire? Wow them with a genuine interest and care in their success with your organization.
LLC Do’s and Don’ts, June 14, webinar — Learn how to open, document, change signers and handle the paperwork on these accounts.