Week of Sept. 23

Check out photos from OBA Annual Washington Visit

Click here to check out the 2019 Annual Washington Visit highlights with several photos from the event!

This year’s event was  Sept. 15 through Sept. 17, during which bankers from across the state met with the Oklahoma delegation as well as all the regulatory agencies. Additionally, bankers gathered to watch college football and went on an offsite excursion to Mount Vernon.

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ICYMI: Labor Department releases final overtime rules

According to the ABA’s Newsbytes, the U.S. Department of Labor released its final overtime rule this week. It’s a rewrite of the 2016 rule issued under the Obama administration that never took effect due to a federal judge’s ruling later that year.

The final rule adopted many of the recommendations from the ABA, bankers’ comment letters and banker comments during listening sessions held by DOL last fall. It will take effect Jan. 1, 2020.

DOL set the salary level at which an employee could be exempted from federal overtime and minimum wage requirements at $684 per week, or $35,568 per year. These figures reflect the methodology adopted by the George W. Bush administration in 2004 – which set the salary level at the 20th percentile of earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage census and in the retail sector.

DOL’s salary level reflects a significant reduction from the salary level adopted by the Obama administration, under which far more employees would have been treated as hourly earners had the 2016 rule gone into effect. DOL reaffirmed its intent to update the salary level more regularly in the future through notice-and-comment rulemaking.

DOL also updated the compensation threshold for an employee to be classified as a “highly compensated employee” to the 80th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally. DOL did not propose any changes to the “duties test.”

The ABA was actively involved in working with the Department to review and reissue this rule, which would have had a dramatically negative impact particularly on traditional community banks. The OBA and the other state bankers associations were honored to be a part of this effort.

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Limited spots available for upcoming OBA Consumer Lending School

We do have a couple openings for this year’s School, planned for Oct. 7-11, but you need to get your registration in soon!

The school is ideal for new lenders, universal bankers and trainees. Contact Janis Reeser (janis@oba.com) to register.

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OBA education corner …

Fall is here officially … but someone forgot to notify Mother Nature! While you’re waiting for the cooler weather to finally arrive (although we do have some rain today), make sure to partake in some OBA education opportunities! Take note of the following:

• 20 Tasks of the New Account Interview, Oct. 3, webinar — This webinar will inform you about the deposit compliance rules and tasks you must follow and help you turn uncomfortable customer interviews into friendly and supportive conversations.
• Agriculture Loan Documentation & Administration, Oct. 7, webinar — This webinar will provide bankers with an essential understanding of agricultural collateral, the risks presented by agricultural lending, agricultural loan documentation and loan administration.
• FFIEC Cyber Compliance Update, Oct. 8, webinar — A solid understanding of all the cybersecurity-related guidance is key in ensuring all aspects of cybersecurity compliance are being addressed.
• Violence in Your Workplace: Prevention & Response, Oct. 8, webinar — This session will benefit you not only in your work life, but your personal life as well. Have you ever thought how you would react in a robbery? A violent confrontation? An active shooter situation?
• Right of Rescission – Review and Update, Oct. 9, webinar — This two-hour program explains all of the rescission rules. It provides easy to understand answers to questions. and it provides a system to assure compliance.
• Understanding Regulation CC and the New Amendments, Oct. 10, webinar — This webinar provides a review of the most recent amendments to Regulation CC that impact fraud loss allocation and funds availability amounts, along with the customer disclosure requirements for implementing these changes
• 2019 OBA Operations School, Nov. 18-22, Oklahoma City — This school is designed to prepare junior-level officers to mid-level operations managers to manage effectively and efficiently an operations function within a bank.

Also, make note of the 2020 OBA Schools and get them on your calendar now! Details will follow as each date gets closer: 2020 Intermediate School, Feb. 3-7 and June 1-5; 2020 Commercial Lending School, March 1-6; 2020 Compliance School, Aug. 24-28; 2020 Basic Banking School, Sept. 14-17; 2020 Consumer Lending School, Oct. 5-9; and 2020 Operations School, Nov. 16-20.

And here’s another save-the-date reminder for the 2020 OBA Senior Management Forum! The Conference has been scheduled for April 5-7 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Look for more information in the upcoming months!

Finally, Oklahoma State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics will host its annual Rural Economic Outlook Conference on Oct. 9 in Stillwater. This conference will cover ag policy highlights, ag finance topics and other similar information. For more information, click here!

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