Three-Day IRA School Most Comprehensive IRA Training
The 2015 IRA School on Sept. 9-11 at the Clubhouse Hotel & Suites in Sioux Falls is the most comprehensive IRA program sponsored by the SDBA.
School instructor Mike Nelson said one can attend as many one-day IRA courses as he or she likes, but they will never be as complete as the three-day school he teaches. In a one-day seminar, attendees learn about a lot of topics, but they never get to cover everything about any topic.
One example is that Nelson covers death distributions in every one-day seminar, which takes half an hour to just more than an hour, depending on the program’s objective. In a school, it will take more than four hours to cover everything about death distributions.
Also, in most seminars you will spend some time on transfers, rollovers and direct rollover, of which will take half an hour to an hour. In the school, it will take four to five hours.
This year, there are more things sitting in Congress that could or will affect IRAs. Nelson said these items may or may not have been passed by the time the three-day school is held, but he will still discuss what they are and how they will affect the customer or the custodian. Learn more and register for the school.
Sec Proposes Executive Bonus 'Clawback' Rule
The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 yesterday to propose a rule that would require exchanges to establish standards for revoking executive bonuses when companies restate earnings. The rule is the SEC’s last executive compensation rule to be proposed under the Dodd-Frank Act.
Under the rule, publicly-listed companies would be required to establish and enforce policies to claw back executive bonuses when the firms make accounting errors leading to restatements of earnings, regardless of the executive’s fault. The clawback would apply to incentive-based compensation that is tied to accounting-related measures, stock prices or total shareholder return.
The clawback window would extend for three years after the bonus is given. All listed companies -- regardless of size and excepting certain mutual funds, would be required to adopt such policies. The comment period closes 60 days after the rule is published in the Federal Register. Read more. For more information, contact ABA’s Hu Benton.
Agencies Release Cybersecurity Self-Assessment Tool
The agencies of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council on Tuesday released a free cybersecurity self-assessment tool to help financial institutions of all sizes identify the cyber risks they face and assess their preparedness. The assessment is based on a 2014 pilot cybersecurity assessment of more than 500 financial institutions.
The assessment includes a profile of inherent risks that is keyed to the characteristics of individual financial institutions, such as technology profile, product lines and size. This is followed by a self-assessment template for five dimensions of cybersecurity maturity and tips for evaluating and interpreting results. It also maps the maturity levels to the voluntary cybersecurity benchmarks developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The assessment will become part of cybersecurity exams this year; for example, the OCC said Tuesday that its examiners will begin incorporating it into exams in late 2015. FFIEC said it will update the assessment as the cyber risk environment evolves and will solicit public comments on the assessment.
ABA welcomed the release of the tool for its tailored approach to cybersecurity, which complements public and private-sector efforts to continue strengthening the cyber defenses of businesses and financial institutions. ABA expects to supplement the self-assessment with other resources to help implement the tool. Access the assessment tool. For more information, contact ABA’s Doug Johnson.
DoL Proposal Would Raise Salary Threshold for Non-Exempt Workers
The Department of Labor on Tuesday released a long-awaited proposal revising the requirements for employees to be exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The proposal would more than double the salary basis test -- the level below which all employees must be paid overtime beyond 40 hours per week, regardless of their duties -- from the current level of $455 per week (or $23,660 per year) to $921 per week (or $47,892 per year).
The proposal would also increase the total annual compensation requirement for highly-compensated employees to $122,148 and establish a mechanism for automatically updating the salary and compensation levels going forward to ensure that they will continue to provide a useful and effective test for exemption. DoL did not propose changes to the duties tests under FLSA, but it did request comment on whether the tests should be changed.
ABA is part of a coalition of employer groups -- the Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity -- that will respond to the proposal. Comments are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. To help bankers understand the proposal, ABA will host a briefing on July 30 at 2 p.m. EDT. Read a summary of the rule. For more information, contact ABA’s Cris Naser.
OCC: Credit, Compliance Risk Growing in 2015
Noting an environment of “high” credit, strategic, compliance and operational risk, the OCC outlined nine priorities for ongoing midsize and community bank supervision in its Semiannual Risk Perspective report released Tuesday.
The OCC said its examiners will focus on strategic planning, credit underwriting, cyber threats, operational risk, BSA/AML compliance, overall regulatory compliance, interest rate risk, fair lending and responsiveness to Matters Requiring Attention.
These priorities respond to increasing credit risk as competition for loans continues to grow, especially in more volatile commercial markets; to elevated compliance risks as banks prepare to implement the new TILA-RESPA integrated disclosures; and to pressure to hit strategic plan targets in a difficult environment. Other risk areas the OCC is monitoring include the effects of oil and gas prices, rising commercial real estate concentrations, accounting for loan and lease losses and exposure to nonbank servicers. Read the report.
Jay Leno Added to ABA Convention Lineup
Acclaimed comedian Jay Leno, the host of NBC’s “Tonight Show” for more than two decades, will be a keynote speaker at ABA’s Annual Convention, Nov. 8-12 in Los Angeles. Since retiring from “The Tonight Show” in 2014, Leno has been busy on the standup comedy circuit and hosting a TV program focused on his collection of classic cars and motorbikes.
Punctuated with humor and personal stories, Leno’s talk at the ABA Convention will discuss the role of hard work, perseverance and a positive attitude for building success in any business. Learn more and register now.
|
