ICBA Newsroom
The ICBA Newsroom collects and centralizes all the NewsWatch Today articles, press releases, Main Street Matters blogs, advocacy letters and other news that impacts community bankers.
Treasury Tosses Old Tax Rules
The Treasury Department finalized the repeal of 296 unnecessary, duplicative or obsolete tax regulations. Treasury said the elimination of regulatory “deadwood” helps advance the policies of President Trump’s Executive Orders 13777 and 13789, which direct the department to identify and reduce burdensome tax regulations.
March 15, 2019 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Taxes & Budget
Romero Rainey: Another Wall Street Tall Tale
While megabanks have been withdrawing from local communities in the wake of the financial crisis they created, a new Wall Street Journal article claims these areas can’t possibly get by without them, ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey writes. ICBA and community bankers have a more positive story to share, she wrote on Main Street Matters.
March 05, 2019 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Too-Big-To-Fail/Systemic Risk
Report Notes Solid, But Slower Growth in 2018
The Federal Reserve said it will stick to its “patient” approach as it determines future adjustments amid concerns of a slowing global economy and last year’s financial turmoil, according to the central bank’s annual report to Congress.
February 25, 2019 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Federal Reserve
ICBA Advocates Uniformity, Certainty in FCC Rules
ICBA and other financial services trade associations filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, advocating for uniformity and certainty in hearing challenges to FCC rules.
February 20, 2019 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
FCC
ICBA Expands Toolkit to Promote Savings
ICBA updated its Tell Your Story toolkit with a customizable press release to help community bankers encourage financial responsibility during America Saves Week, slated for Feb. 25-March 2.
February 20, 2019 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Senate Banking Panel Issues Subcommittee Assignments
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) announced the panel’s subcommittee assignments for the 116th Congress. The Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection will be led by Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
January 22, 2019 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Grassroots/Be Heard
Luetkemeyer Urges Rule Distinguishing Guidance
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) urged federal regulators to begin a formal rulemaking to clarify the distinctions between guidance and rules. In a letter to regulators, Luetkemeyer encouraged the agencies to adopt the principles of a September 2018 interagency statement on the role of supervisory guidance. He said the clarity will ensure banks and examiners clearly understand the grounds for enforcement actions.
January 22, 2019 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Regulatory Relief
ICBA to FDIC: Deny Square’s Latest Application
ICBA expressed disappointment in federal regulators’ insufficient proposal to reduce reporting burdens and repeated its call for a true short-form call report. Following its weeks-long grassroots advocacy campaign, ICBA said the call report for the first and third quarters should consist of a balance sheet, income statement, and statement of changes in shareholders’ equity.
January 22, 2019 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Technology Fintech Regulation
ICBA Urges True Short-Form Call Report
ICBA expressed disappointment in federal regulators’ insufficient proposal to reduce reporting burdens and repeated its call for a true short-form call report. Following its weeks-long grassroots advocacy campaign, ICBA said the call report for the first and third quarters should consist of a balance sheet, income statement, and statement of changes in shareholders’ equity.
January 22, 2019 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Call Report
ICBA Seeks Hearings on ‘Emergency’ CU Merger
ICBA called on key congressional committees to hold hearings on the National Credit Union Administration’s approval of an “emergency merger” between Pentagon Federal Credit Union and Progressive Credit Union.
January 22, 2019 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Credit Unions
Independent Banker Profiles Community Bankers of the Year
The December issue of Independent Banker® magazine features profiles of ICBA’s Community Bankers of the Year. The profiles of Ken LaRoe, Scott McComb, Josh Rowland, and Stan Wilmoth feature their views on values, human connections, civic partnership, and community service.
December 10, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Congress Extends Flood Program Until Friday
Congress extended the National Flood Insurance Program through this Friday. With the program set to expire at the end of last week, the last-minute vote averted a lapse.
December 03, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Flood Insurance Compliance
Podcast Features Community Bank Payment Trends
ICBA Bancard’s Tina Giorgio and TCM Bank’s Damon Moorer were featured in the latest This Month In Banking podcast by the Kafafian Group. The 30-minute recording discusses how Bancard and TCM support community banks’ credit card offerings and offers insight on trends affecting payments.
November 30, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Payments
Agencies Planning Resolution Reform: McWilliams
The FDIC and Federal Reserve are reviewing resolution-planning regulations for bank holding companies, FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams said. McWilliams said that while the largest financial institutions remain an untested resolution challenge, the agencies are looking to make resolution planning more targeted and will release a proposal in the coming months.
November 30, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Too-Big-To-Fail/Systemic Risk
Visa: EMV Shift Crushing Counterfeit Fraud
The shift to EMV chip technology has reduced card-present counterfeit payment fraud by 82 percent at chip-enabled merchants, Visa said. More than 3.1 million merchants are now accepting chip cards—67 percent of U.S. storefronts—and 98 percent of U.S. payment volume in September was on EMV cards.
November 30, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Payments
Court Delays Bureau’s Small-Dollar Rule
A federal court this week granted the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s request to delay the effective date of its rule on small-dollar loans. The decision delays the August 2019 compliance date as the bureau plans to issue proposed rules in January that will reconsider the rule. The bureau plans to propose revisiting only the ability-to-repay provisions, which it said have greater consequences for consumers and the industry than the payment provisions.
November 09, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Compliance
FDIC Call Features S. 2155 Consumer Compliance Provisions
The FDIC is hosting an upcoming teleconference on consumer compliance topics related to the S. 2155 regulatory relief law. Scheduled for 2 p.m. (Eastern time) Thursday, Oct. 25, the teleconference will feature a formal presentation on provisions of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act as well as a question-and-answer segment.
October 15, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Compliance
FinCEN Issues Advisory on Iran
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an advisory to help financial institutions better detect and report potentially illicit transactions related to Iran. The advisory provides information on the threats the Iranian regime poses to the U.S. financial system, describes deceptive financial strategies that the Iranian regime uses to evade sanctions, and provides red flag indicators related to specific malign activities and typologies.
October 15, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Compliance
FHFA Seeks Input on ‘Duty to Serve’ Modifications
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is seeking input on proposed modifications to the Underserved Markets Plans for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The “duty to serve” plans require the enterprises to serve three specified underserved markets—manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation, and rural housing.
October 04, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Housing Finance/GSEs
Fannie, Freddie Update PMI Standards
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac revised eligibility requirements for private mortgage insurers, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced. The updates include changes to: risk-based asset requirements, the treatment of approved risk-transfer transactions, and risk-transfer credit arising from counterparty risk associated with reinsurance transactions. The standards establish minimum financial and operational requirements for doing business with the enterprises.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Housing Finance/GSEs
Agencies Issue Customer Identification Program Exemptions
Federal regulators exempted loans for property and casualty insurance policies from Customer Identification Program rules. Banks engaging in insurance premium finance lending must continue to comply with all other regulatory requirements implementing the Bank Secrecy Act, including the requirement to file suspicious activity reports.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Compliance
Boston Fed Encourages Tokenization Collaboration
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston researchers encouraged stakeholders to continue collaborating on the development of payment tokenization. Noting that tokenization mitigates risk by eliminating the need to store and transmit a customer’s primary account number, a new paper says that collaboration will help expand its use in e-commerce, evaluate third-party token service providers, educate consumers, and anticipate future innovations.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Payments
FinCEN Wants to Talk BSA Reporting with Hurricane-Affected Banks
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said financial institutions affected by Hurricane Florence should contact FinCEN and their functional regulator as soon as practicable to discuss any delays in their ability to file Bank Secrecy Act reports. FinCEN can be reached at FRC@fincen.gov.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Advocacy
Facebook Breach Affects 50M Users
Facebook announced a security breach affecting nearly 50 million accounts.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Data Breach Data Security/Fraud
‘Tax Reform 2.0’ Passes House
The House passed legislation to permanently extend the lower individual tax rates included in the tax reform law signed late last year. Known as “Tax Reform 2.0,” the package of bills would lock in lower rates set to expire at the end of 2025, though it is not expected to be taken up by the Senate. In addition to cutting the top C-corp rate, the ICBA-supported Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the individual rates affecting Subchapter S banks.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Taxes & Budget
DOJ Indicates Support for ADA Website Flexibility
The Justice Department told members of Congress that it is evaluating whether to issue guidance on web accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Responding to a bipartisan letter from 103 members of Congress requesting clarity, the DOJ stood by its interpretation that the law applies to websites, but left room for a flexible approach.
September 28, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
ADA
Free Credit Freezes Are Here
A provision of S. 2155 requiring credit reporting agencies to freeze consumer credit reports at no charge took effect Friday. These security or credit freezes restrict access to credit files to reduce identity theft.
September 24, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Bureau Opening Regional Office in Atlanta
The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection said it will relocate its southeast regional office from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, Ga., in late 2019. The bureau already has regional offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco that host supervision staff, enforcement attorneys and other personnel. The southeast regional team has been temporarily based out of the bureau’s D.C. headquarters since its inception.
September 24, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
ICBA to IRS: Maximize Sub S Access to Tax Deduction
ICBA and other banking groups called on the IRS to reconsider its approach to implementing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s 20 percent tax deduction for pass-through businesses. In a joint comment letter, ICBA said the agency should allow all permissible banking activities to be eligible for the deduction.
September 24, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
USDA Details Trade Payments Alongside Mexico Deal
Community Bank Income Rises 21 Percent
Agencies Advance 18-Month Exam Cycle
Federal regulators issued interim final rules to enact an ICBA-advocated provision of the S. 2155 regulatory relief law expanding eligibility for the 18-month exam cycle. As authorized by the ICBA Plan for Prosperity-inspired law, the interim final rules generally apply the extended exam cycle to institutions with less than $3 billion in total assets.
August 24, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Lenders Increasingly Ready for Single Security: Survey
Fannie, Freddie Ending Rental-Market Expansion
Bureau Offers HMDA Verification Tool
Consumer Bureau Joins Innovation Network
Tell HUD to Amend Disparate-Impact Rule
ICBA Collecting Stories on Benefits of S. 2155
Independent Banker
Independent Banker is the award-winning monthly member publication of ICBA. Continually rated the best news source by community bankers, IB provides timely, relevant information and insights to help community banks continue to flourish.
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