Room Blocks Open for Quad States Convention in Rapid City
 We will be BANKING BEYOND BORDERS at the 2017 Quad States Convention June 4-6 at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, S.D. Hosted by the South Dakota Bankers Association, this year’s event will include bankers from South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming—we’re not in Kansas anymore!
Convention hotel blocks are now open for reservations. Attendees will receive special convention rates at two Rapid City hotels—Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn and Best Western Ramkota Hotel. Rooms are going fast, so make your reservations now. See room reservation details.
The full convention agenda and registration will be available in March. Be watching for more convention details to come, including vendor materials, at the SDBA's website.
Bankers Can Visit with Lawmakers at SDBA State Legislative Day
The SDBA 2017 State Legislative Day is bankers opportunity to stay up-to-date on both state and federal legislation which could affect the banking industry and to visit with state legislators.
The SDBA State Legislative Day will be held Wednesday, Feb. 8, at the Ramkota Hotel & Conference Center in Pierre. The day will include a luncheon and banking legislation review, a session with Gov. Dennis Daugaard, and an evening reception with state legislators and constitutional officers.
This year's featured afternoon speaker is Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor for The Cook Political Report, where she is responsible for U.S. Senate and governors races. Duffy will discuss the new administration in Washington and what it may mean for business and banking.
Learn more and register to attend.
U.S. Senators Seek to Raise Cybersecurity Profile on Hill
Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) yesterday introduced legislation that would create a Senate Select Committee on Cybersecurity, raising the profile of the important issue on Capitol Hill. Jurisdiction over cyber issues is currently shared or divided among several other Senate committees.
The new committee would include the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Appropriations, Armed Services, Banking, Commerce, Foreign Relations, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, in addition to at-large members.
“Cybersecurity policy is one of the most complex and significant challenges facing Congress, yet the Senate’s structure to investigate and address cyber issues is diffuse and inadequate,” said Gardner. “This has led to an uncoordinated policy response to recent cyber attacks on government agencies, businesses and infrastructure.... As cyber threats evolve, so must U.S. cybersecurity policy.” Read more.
Judge Dismisses ICBA Credit Union Lawsuit
A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) challenging the National Credit Union Administration’s 2016 member business lending rule. ABA supported the ICBA litigation that challenged the member business lending rule and amendments that weakened the statutory MBL cap, including making it easier to exclude nonmember loans from the cap calculation.
Judge James Cacheris said that ICBA lacked standing to sue, ruling that it could not demonstrate harm from the 2016 regulatory changes. In an unusual move--contrary to Supreme Court precedent that judges not rule on the merits of the case if standing is not granted--he also ruled that NCUA did have the discretion to interpret the statutory language as it did and that the challenge to the MBL rules were time-barred because the underlying 2003 rule was not sufficiently “reopened” in 2016 to allow the challenge.
ABA remains supportive of the legal effort and will closely monitor any appeals and developments in the case, as well as in a separate lawsuit filed by ABA over NCUA’s expansive field of membership final rule. Read the ruling. For more information, contact ABA’s Thomas Pinder.
Ely: FCA Failed to Correct Loan Reporting Errors
The Farm Credit Administration has failed to correct inaccurate loan classification data reported by 29 Farm Credit System Banks between 2011 and 2015, Bert Ely reported in the latest edition of Farm Credit Watch yesterday. The errors were concentrated in two of the four districts served by the Farm Credit System, Ely noted: those served by AgriBank and AgFirst Farm Credit Bank.
While the banks correctly reported the total amount of loans outstanding, many loans were not correctly classified in individual loan categories, meaning that “whatever reliance the FCA placed on data by type of loan was misplaced” during that four-year period, Ely said.
He added that while the affected institutions were required to resubmit the year-end Call Report for 2015 and their loan classification data for 2013 and 2014, they were not required to submit any corrected Call Reports between 2011 and 2014. Furthermore, these incorrect Call Reports are still accessible through the FCA website, which makes no mention of the errors contained in the reports, Ely noted. Read Farm Credit Watch.
Mnuchin to Revisit Regional, Midsize, Community Bank Regs
In written responses to Senate Finance Committee members following his confirmation hearing last week, Trump Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin strongly endorsed efforts to provide regulatory relief for regional, midsize and community banks.
“[T]aking a fresh look at all aspects of the Dodd Frank legislation should be one of our highest priorities and if confirmed I look forward to working with Congress on this important priority,” he wrote. “It is important that we have a regulatory environment that supports credit flows to all aspects of our economy, particularly in rural and less populated areas, and that small- and mid-sized institutions are not suffering from an inappropriate regulatory burden.”
Mnuchin emphasized--as ABA has long advocated--that regulation must be tailored based not only on asset size.
“I believe in a regulatory framework that is determined by complexity and activity, not simply size,” he said. “I endorse rethinking regulatory requirements facing large regional banks in order to regulate the banking sector in a more effective manner. In particular, we should examine whether it is appropriate for financial institutions that engage almost exclusively in traditional banking activities with consumers and businesses to be subject to measures intended for our largest and most complex financial institutions.”
He said that his top priority in addressing financial sector regulation is to spur economic growth, adding that any efforts to revisit the Dodd-Frank Act will be to “addressing regulatory issues that limit banks' abilities to lend to small and medium-sized business that will create economic growth and create more jobs.” Read the questionnaire.
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