Week of Aug. 11

In This Issue…

• Be sure to return your bank’s Hall of Fame ballots!
• Save the date for OBA Oktoberfest Golf Tournament
• ABA, OBA survey seeks feedback on current core provider experiences
• Forgiveness platform user guide released
• ABA starts anti-phishing campaign
• OBA education corner …
  

Be sure to return your bank’s Hall of Fame ballots!

By now, your bank should have received its Oklahoma Bankers Hall of Fame ballots, which were mailed out on July 31. Please make sure your bank’s ballots are returned to the OBA by Aug. 21 so they can be tallied.

If you have any questions, contact Lea Ann Jackson at the OBA.

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Save the date for OBA Oktoberfest Golf Tournament

Save the date and plan ahead now! The date for the 2020 OBA Oktoberfest Golf Tournament has been set. The tournament will take place Oct. 5 at the River Oaks Golf Club in Edmond. Keep an eye out for more information coming soon!

If you are interested in sponsorship opportunities, contact Thi Pham (thi@oba.com, 405-424-5252).

Prost!

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ABA, OBA survey seeks feedback on current core provider experiences

You may remember the OBA is working with the ABA’s Core Platforms Committee, and the Committee wants to conduct a survey on banks’ current experiences with their core platforms.

The survey is designed to assess whether the committee’s efforts – which have included an extensive dialogue with core providers and new resources, available at aba.com/core, to help banks understand the core provider marketplace and make informed decisions – are effecting change and where. Responses will highlight any additional steps the committee needs to take.

We are also looking at the cores industry in an effort to persuade them your bank deserves every consideration for a reduction in charges by the cores during this troubling Covid-19 pandemic. As you might imagine, they are not too crazy about such a suggestion.

Links to participate in the survey were sent Monday to the CEO and key IT personnel at all banks, member and non-member. You can view the surveys using the links below:

• For ABA-member banks, click here.
• For ABA-non-member banks, click here.

For further questions please contact Lisa Gold Schier.

Thanks for your (hopefully!) participation.

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Forgiveness platform user guide released

The Small Business Administration has released its platform user guide for forgiveness applications, and the forgiveness portal was up and running on Monday, Aug. 10.

Several bankers have called us and said they are ready to start submitting the forgiveness applications they’ve already processed on Monday, especially those working with companies like OBA’s endorsed vendor Abrigo, where approved applications have been warehoused.

As you might imagine, banks are going to be right in the middle of the forgiveness process and, for all practical purposes, you’re going to have to “underwrite” the loan while looking in the rear view mirror.

Briefly, here’s how it’s intended to work:

• The process is limited to 150 days total.
• Borrower submits a Loan Forgiveness Application (SBA Form 3508/3508EZ or lender equivalent) to the lender servicing their loan.
• Lender reviews and issues to both the borrower and the SBA a decision on the loan forgiveness. [Note: within 60 days or less).
• SBA remits the appropriate forgiveness amount to the lender, plus any interest accrued through the date of payment. [90 days or less].

Click here for a link to the forgiveness platform user guide.

We will continue to make sure you’re up to date on the SBA requirements, as well as any progress that might be made with Congress’ two bills calling for automatic forgiveness of all PPP loans of $150,000 or less (85 percent of all PPP loans).

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ABA starts anti-phishing campaign

The ABA will be releasing its new, anti-phishing campaign, and we want to make sure you know about it. Importantly this campaign is free of charge to both ABA members and non-members.

Every day, thousands of people fall victim to fraudulent emails, texts and calls from scammers pretending to be from their bank. Banks of all sizes are incurring significant monetary losses as a result of these increasingly sophisticated scams targeting their customers. They are also taking a hit from a PR perspective because the bank’s reputation gets drawn into the mix. We want to change that.

We are blessed with Elaine Dodd and all of her tireless work on these kinds of matters, but she can’t do it all and she simply can’t be everywhere she’s needed on a 24/7 basis. So the campaign  – #BanksNeverAskThat – is a plug-and-play campaign that’s intended to help your customers spot scams. The campaign is also designed to be humorous, eye-catching and engaging.

You’ll receive a toolkit full of ready-to-use materials, including videos, printable, social media posts, GIFs and more. It’s time to put scammers in their place! We’re asking OBA-member and non-member banks to join all of us in kicking off our #BanksNeverAskThat campaign on Oct. 1 – as part of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

If you have any questions on the program, or feedback on how we can better share this information, please reach out to the OBA’s Roger Beverage at roger@oba.com or the ABA’s Liz Risoli at lrisoli@aba.com.

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OBA education corner …