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In This Issue…
- ABA, others urge Congress to address forgiveness issues
- FDIC survey shows 95 percent of U.S. households were banked in 2019
- Office Depot offers coupons for OBA members
- OSU Extension aiming to help farm financial programming
- OBA education corner …
ABA, others urge Congress to address forgiveness issues
The American Bankers Association and seven other financial trade groups on Monday urged Congress to address the Small Business Administration’s approach to loan forgiveness for borrowers that received both Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Paycheck Protection Program loans.
EIDL advances were provided to nearly one million small businesses as emergency grants, but many recipients also applied for PPP loans and “lenders did not know whether an applicant had received an EIDL advance or would receive one in the future,” the groups said in a letter.
The SBA later reversed its guidance to say the forgiven amount of PPP loans must be reduced by the amount of a borrower’s EIDL advance, effectively transforming a significant portion of a grant into a loan, or wiping out PPP loan forgiveness altogether.
“At a minimum, SBA should immediately stop the transfer of any residual EIDL advance balances to PPP lender balance sheets and return them to the SBA Office of Disaster Assistance, which administers the EIDL program,” the groups wrote.
You can view the letter in its entirety by clicking here.
FDIC survey shows 95 percent of U.S. households were banked in 2019
A record 95 percent of U.S. households had a bank or credit union account in 2019, according to a new biennial survey and report released Monday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
How America Banks: Household Use of Banking and Financial Services also found a record low 5.4 percent of U.S. households were unbanked in 2019.
“It is encouraging that a record number of households had bank accounts in 2019, though we continue to pursue actions to create a more inclusive banking system,” FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams said. “New products and technologies have the potential to bring even more people into the banking system and the FDIC will encourage this important innovation.”
In partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, the FDIC conducted the survey in June 2019, collecting responses from nearly 33,000 households. The FDIC found that between 2017 and 2019, more than 1.5 million new households opened bank accounts, and the use of mobile banking as the primary means of accessing accounts more than doubled.
Click here to read the full story by the FDIC.
Office Depot offers coupons for OBA members
OBA members, through the Association’s partnership with Office Depot, can download and use a pair of coupons for their next business purchase.
Office Depot has a $40-off coupon for $300 purchases and a $20-off coupon for $150 purchases available for download. Both are good through Nov. 2.
OSU Extension aiming to help farm financial programming
Oklahoma agricultural producers interested in getting help with their farm financial plans have an opportunity to increase support for such activities by working with Oklahoma State University Extension.
OBA members might be interested in knowing more about the program as it will help Oklahoma farmers and ranchers keep better financial records.
Farm financial specialists with the OSU Department of Agricultural Economics and OSU Extension field staff economists recently received grant funds through the University of Minnesota to begin doing farm financial plans that will ultimately become part of the bench-marking database FINBIN.
FINBIN is one of the largest and most accessible sources of farm financial and production benchmark information in the world, providing detailed reports about whole farm, crop and livestock financials.
“For this pilot program, we are working to recruit farmers and ranchers and help them complete beginning balance sheets,” said Courtney Bir, OSU Extension agricultural economist. “If we demonstrate there is enough interest, we then can complete full financial plans and contribute to FINBIN, which should be very useful to Oklahoma producers.”
Beginning balance sheets are a great start to the program because they are also useful for farmers and ranchers as they try to secure loans, Bir said. Additionally, many support programs require beginning balance sheets.
For more information or to take part in the farm financial support program, contact Bir by email at courtney.bir@okstate.edu or by phone at 405-744-9813.
OBA education corner …
There’s a definite chill in the air! Of course, looking at the forecast, Oklahoma isn’t ready to let us slide into autumn that easily as a pair of 80-degree days away. Far more consistent than Oklahoma weather is OBA eduation events. More and more live events are starting to peek their heads out from underneath the pandemic blanket! Look for those coming up soon.
NOTE: Effective March 16, and until further notice, TTS (our webinar provider) has extended the OnDemand access period for all ‘Live Plus Five (Days)’ registrants to 60 days (versus five business days). Also, they are waiving the $75 per location fee for additional locations.
- SAR Decision Making, Oct. 28, webinar — This program includes a review of the new SAR and its new data fields.
- BSA 101 for New BSA Compliance Officers, Nov. 2, webinar — This session will provide new BSA Compliance Officers with information on the laws and rules, as well as guidance on resources that can help make their jobs easier.
- IRA Basics Seminar, Nov. 3-4, Tulsa, Nov. 5-6, Oklahoma City — Whether you are looking to gain basic knowledge of IRAs, raise your comfort level or sharpen your skills with the most up-to-date rules and regulations, this two day format will cover everything!
- Opening and Managing Court-Ordered Accounts, Nov. 4, webinar — Your account holder, the federal government or the court has named someone legally to act on his or her behalf. Now what?
- Top Five Compliance Issues for Commercial lenders, Nov. 5, webinar — The webinar includes an overview of including Fair Lending laws, Flood Disaster Protection Act, accommodation loans, HMDA and insider lending.
- Legal Essentials for Lenders, Nov. 6, webinar — This program covers important legal issues and concepts which must be understood and consistently applied to enforce the Bank’s liens and other legal rights, avoid litigation and better serve customers.
- Ability to Repay, Qualified Mortgage, High Cost & Higher-Priced Mortgage Loans, Nov. 8, webinar — This webinar will look at each requirement, break it down and tell you what you need to know and how to maintain compliance.
- Writing New Account Procedures, Nov. 10, webinar — During this webinar, we will take the core document from deposit accounts handbook and set up a working document so that you can tailor your procedures into the framework we will provide.
- Reg. E Compliance – Five Best Practices for Handling Disputes, Nov. 12, webinar — Our topic for the webinar will focus on several simple steps to handle Reg E customer disputes and inquiries.
- 2020 Operations School, Nov. 16-20, Oklahoma City — The Oklahoma Bankers Association’s Operations 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, this year is (finally!) coming close to an end, and we have next year’s OBA schools on the calendar. Click here to download the schedule and sign up to receive more information on schools you may be interested in.