In This Issue

• Registration Open for Banker Boot Camp
• ABA Urges Passage of Several Reg Relief Bills
• ABA Welcomes 'Rural' Designation Mechanism Bill
• FDIC's Gruenberg Testifies on Operation Choke Point
• ABA; CFPB Prepaid Rules Could Harm Underbanked Customers
  
• New ABA Online Tool Allows Consumers to Find Routing Numbers

Registration Open for Banker Boot Camp

WE WANT YOU for the 2015 SDBA/NDBA OFFICER
TRAINING: BANKER BOOT CAMP

The 2015 SDBA/NDBA Annual Convention will be held
June 7-9 at the Sioux Falls Convention Center/Sheraton
Hotel in Sioux Falls. This year’s event will provide an
arsenal of ideas and practical ammunition to help
bankers emerge as winners in the industry’s battles.

The convention will offer our officer training recruits
nationally-acclaimed speakers, great networking
opportunities and timely information on issues of
importance to the banking industry. Bankers can also
connect with comrades and build new relationships
with fellow battle buddies who share common interests
in the banking industry.

Officer training recruits will leave the boot camp armed
with the physical and mental training required to
become a solider in the battle to uphold the banking
industry in the Dakotas.

See the full schedule and register.

ABA Urges Passage of Several Reg Relief Bills

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ABA on Tuesday wrote to members of the House Financial Services Committee to urge their support for eight regulatory relief measures that the panel is scheduled to consider.

Many of the measures are included in ABA’s Agenda for America’s Hometown Banks, including:

• H.R. 601, which would eliminate the annual privacy notice disclosure requirement for institutions that haven’t changed their policy.
• H.R. 685, which would clarify the Qualified Mortgage rule’s points and fees test.
• H.R. 1408, which would postpone Basel III rules on mortgage servicing assets until their impact can be studied.
• H.R. 1259, which would establish a process for designating an area rural for purposes of CFPB exemptions.
• The Community Institution Mortgage Relief Act, which would provide a legal safe harbor from escrow requirements for smaller institutions that hold loans in portfolio for three years.

“Passage of these bills will help hometown banks throughout the country better serve the needs of their customers,” ABA wrote. Read the letter.

ABA Welcomes 'Rural' Designation Mechanism Bill

 
ABA last Friday welcomed H.R. 1259, a component of ABA’s Agenda for America’s Hometown Banks that would set up a mechanism for individuals and businesses in rural areas to appeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s designation of a rural or underserved area. The bill is expected to receive a committee vote on Wednesday.

ABA thanked Reps. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas) for introducing the measure, which passed the House unanimously in the previous Congress. “H.R. 1259 would help to assure that whatever definition of rural is ultimately used by the CFPB, there would be an avenue to apply to the Bureau to extend the definition of rural in those inevitable cases where a county may have been inappropriately excluded,” ABA said.

In related news, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) joined Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on Friday in asking CFPB Director Richard Cordray to adopt a petition-and-appeal mechanism for rural designations on his own and to relax requirements for what areas qualify as rural or underserved. Read ABA’s letter.  Read the senators’ letter.

FDIC's Gruenberg Testifies on Operation Choke Point

 
Guidance that FDIC issued in 2012 listing types of businesses associated with higher-risk activity was not intended to discourage banks from serving such businesses, FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg told a House subcommittee on Tuesday.

In testimony at a hearing on the FDIC’s role in the Justice Department’s Operation Choke Point, Gruenberg stated that his agency’s guidance related to third party payment processors included examples of merchant categories associated with high-risk activity in order to illustrate trends. However, “these examples led to misunderstandings regarding the FDIC’s supervisory approach to institutions’ relationships with TPPPs, resulting in the misperception that some deposit accounts or banking relationships with specific categories of merchants were prohibited or discouraged,” he said.

Gruenberg detailed how the FDIC has sought to correct the situation, including by issuing a clarification last summer that removed the list of examples and establishing new procedures for examiners to follow if they recommend a bank terminate a deposit account relationship.

ABA has been a vocal critic of Operation Choke Point, which has caused many banks to end relationships with legal businesses, and has welcomed FDIC’s actions to distance itself from the program. Read Gruenberg’s testimony.

ABA: CFPB Prepaid Rules Could Harm Underbanked Customers

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed rules for prepaid products include some onerous provisions that could create insurmountable compliance barriers for banks offering the cards, ABA said in a comment letter on Monday. This would be particularly harmful for “underbanked” individuals, many of whom rely on prepaid accounts as an alternative to traditional deposit products.

One barrier is the CFPB’s proposed treatment of overdrafts, which “effectively prohibits linking prepaid cards to overdraft services ... and prohibits imposing any fee when an account is in overdraft status,” ABA said. Without a penalty for overdrawing the account, underbanked prepaid customers would lose an opportunity to learn how to prudently manage their finances.

“The result will be the suppression of a promising option to move people without bank accounts into financial products offered by insured depository institutions,” ABA explained. “Thus, rather than creating guardrails, the proposed overdraft services treatment, coupled with other onerous provisions, will create regulatory potholes and barriers to needed and valuable financial products.” Read the letter. For more information, contact ABA’s Nessa Feddis.

New ABA Online Tool Allows Consumers to Find Routing Numbers

 
ABA has launched a new online tool that allows consumers to look up bank routing numbers. The tool searches the database containing all of the routing numbers -- also known as ABA numbers or routing transit numbers -- for U.S. financial institutions.

“The term ‘routing number’ is the most-searched-for term on aba.com,” said ABA SVP Diane Poole. “We responded by developing an easy-to-use search tool, so consumers can quickly and confidently find any bank’s routing number.”

Banks are encouraged to post a link to the tool on their websites as a customer resource. It allows users to enter a financial institution’s name and location to find a routing number, or enter a routing number to find the institution’s name, and it can be found at routingnumber.aba.com.

Instituted by ABA more than a century ago, the routing number was created to ensure accuracy by assigning a unique nine-digit numerical identifier to a financial institution. Used for check processing, electronic funds transfer and online banking, the numbers continue to serve as the backbone of payment processing. Read more about routing numbers.