SDBA Provides Three Options to Attend Women in Banking Conference

Women in Banking Photo We don’t know about you, but we at the SDBA are COVID-ed out! Our yoga pants are worn out from working at home, we still haven’t mastered “new math,” and it’s the “freshman 15” all over again. Never have we needed each other more. Never have we needed a diversion more. Never have we needed some FUN more!

Join us Sept. 23-24, 2020, for Lead Strong: Women in Banking, which promises to educate, enlighten and engage. This year, we are providing three registration options. Join us live at the Sioux Falls Convention Center, join a watch party in Rapid City at the Mount Rushmore Society Room or join virtually via Zoom from the comfort of your home or office. All sessions will be recorded for viewing at your leisure.

For those choosing to join live in Sioux Falls or Rapid City, social distancing will be practiced and the use of masks is strongly encouraged. We will continue to closely monitor the COVID situation to ensure the safety and well-being of our members. Should the need arise to hold this event only via Zoom, your registration will automatically convert to virtual.

Register early to receive a goodie box, which will be mailed to each virtual participant or available at your seat if attending live. Be sure to have access to a device (computer, tablet or smartphone) for some interactive activities throughout the day. Learn more and register.

Bipartisan Bill Would Extend COVID-19 Relief to USDA RA Borrowers

The ABA yesterday welcomed the bipartisan Rural Equal Aid Act, which would provide six months of payment relief for borrowers using the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development loan programs. The bill—introduced by Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa) in the House and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in the Senate—provides equal treatment for RD loans to that provided under the CARES Act for Small Business Administration borrowers.

“Banks are an important part of rural America, and the Rural Equal Aid Act will allow banks to better serve their customers in rural areas,” ABA said in a letter to Axne. “ABA has long supported USDA Rural Development lending programs and was very involved in the development of OneRD, which streamlines the loan making process within USDA Rural Development.” Read the letter.

SBA Updates Guidance on PPP Forgiveness, Loan Reviews

The Small Business Administration Tuesday night released several elements of guidance for Paycheck Protection Program lenders and borrowers. The agency added three new frequently asked questions to its FAQs on PPP loan forgiveness. The new questions address how lenders should handle forgiveness applications for PPP borrowers who also received Economic Injury Disaster Loan advances.

SBA also issued two new questions on its main PPP FAQ document. The new FAQs clarify that whether fees are paid to an agent or other third party is immaterial to SBA’s guarantee of a PPP loan or to its payment of feeds to lenders, as well as that vision and dental benefits do not count toward the cash compensation cap of $100,000 for PPP payroll costs.

Finally, SBA released an interim final rule describing procedures by which a PPP borrower may appeal certain SBA loan review decisions to the agency’s Office of Hearings and Appeals. It also outlines circumstances when borrowers may request appeals; for example, the rule states that borrowers may not appeal lenders’ PPP loan decisions to OHA, although borrowers may ask SBA to review lender decisions to deny loan forgiveness applications.

View the forgiveness FAQs.
View the main PPP FAQs.
Read the interim final rule.
For more information, contact ABA's Dan Martini.

Small Businesses Targeted Through Spoofed SBA COVID-19 Relief Webpage

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an alert yesterday about an unknown malicious cyber actor who is spoofing the Small Business Administration's COVID-19 relief webpage through phishing emails. The phishing emails contain a malicious link to a fake page used for re-directs and credential stealing. The phishing email subject line currently reads, “SBA Application – Review and Proceed,” and the sender is marked as “disastercustomerservice@sba[.]gov.”

The alert provides more information, including the IP address, indicators of compromise and recommended mitigations for small businesses and organizations to take to strengthen their cybersecurity posture. Read the alert

Coming Soon: Register to Join #BanksNeverAskThat Anti-Phishing Campaign

Starting Sept. 1, banks are encouraged to register to participate in ABA’s new #BanksNeverAskThat anti-phishing campaign—a fresh, bold plug-and-play campaign that ABA has created to fight phishing fraud by turning bank customers into expert scam spotters. The industry-wide initiative is one of ABA's biggest consumer protection campaigns in its history.

Registered participating banks will receive a toolkit full of ready-to-use assets. Designed to be humorous, eye-catching and engaging, the kit includes videos, GIFs, social posts, printables and more to help educate and protect bank customers. Participation in the campaign is free and available to all banks—and materials can be used as-is or branded with a participating bank’s logo.

ABA will host a free informational webinar on Sept. 8 at 1 p.m. CDT at which attendees will hear about the importance of joining this nationwide campaign to educate consumers about phishing scams, the benefits to your bank and your customers, best practices for deploying the ready-made assets on your social media platforms and more. The public-facing #BanksNeverAskThat campaign will kick off on Oct. 1 as part of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Preview the campaign and website.
Register for the webinar.
Sign up for a reminder to register at aba.com/BanksNeverAskThat.

Fed Announces Details of FedNow Service

The Federal Reserve last Thursday released more details about its forthcoming FedNow service to provide real-time payments settlement and clearing, including phased elements of the FedNow service. In a speech last Friday, Fed Governor Lael Brainard outlined several key features of the “initial service offering” based on feedback from banks and other market participants—many of which were advocated by ABA:

Fraud prevention. To address the increased risks of fraud with instant, irreversible payments, “banks will be able proactively to set parameters that limit transaction activity in the FedNow service based on banks’ knowledge of their own customers,” Brainard said.
Liquidity management. To support funds availability for 24/7 payments when intraday overdrafts cannot be covered by transfers from Fed accounts, the Fed will create a liquidity management tool that will allow participating banks to pool funds to cover outflows, and the tool will be available to participants in other instant payment services, such as the Clearing House’s RTP network.
First steps toward interoperability. To facilitate future connectivity with other real-time payment services, FedNow will use the widely accepted ISO 20022 standard for exchanging financial data. The Fed said it is “committed to working towards compatible standards and operating procedures with [RTP], which will enable interoperability through the model of payment routing, and has initiated discussions on this subject with the existing private-sector service toward that end.”

Future features may include alias-based payments, bulk payments and enhanced remittances, but FedNow is intended to launch “as soon as practicably possible” with “baseline functionality,” the Fed said. However, the service is still not expected to be available until the Fed’s previous estimate of 2023 or 2024.

Read the FedNow release.
Read Brainard’s speech.
For more information, contact ABA’s Steve Kenneally.

Banks to Receive Update Forms for 2021 South Dakota Bank Directory

The SDBA has again retained BLR – Business & Legal Resources, a division of Simplify Compliance LLC (“BLR”) to publish the 2021 South Dakota Bank Directory. BLR of Brentwood, Tenn., has an excellent reputation in directory publishing throughout the United States.

BLR will be emailing update forms for the 2021 South Dakota Bank Directory to all SDBA member banks next week. The purpose of this questionnaire is to obtain data about your bank--including correct address, telephone numbers, officers and directors. It is important that you respond promptly with the information requested by Sept. 23. If you assign this responsibility to someone else on your staff, please share the letter with them and forward the questionnaire to the appropriate person as soon as it arrives.

In January, all SDBA member banks, branches and associate members will receive a complimentary copy of the new bank directory and will have the opportunity to purchase additional bank directories for senior management, directors and key staff members. If you have any questions about the 2021 Directory, contact Alisa Bousa.

FDIC to Host Webinars on Calculating Deposit Insurance Coverage

The FDIC will hold four free webinars for bank employees and officers on how to calculate deposit insurance coverage this fall. Each webinar presentation will be identical, followed by a Q&A session with FDIC experts. The live webinar series is complemented by three deposit insurance coverage seminars that are available on-demand on the agency's YouTube channel. Register for the webinars and access the on-demand recordings.

Compliance Alliance

Question of the Week

Question: We have a husband and wife who are opening a new joint checking account with our institution. The husband has had an individual account with us for a while, but the wife has never had an account with us. Can we still use the Regulation CC new account exception hold for deposits into the account?

Answer: The commentary provided below makes clear that if any of the joint account holders do not have an account with the bank, the bank may use the new account hold under § 229.13.

If two customers that each have an established individual account with the bank open a joint account, the joint account is not subject to the new account exception. If one of the customers on the account has no current or recent established account relationship with the bank, however, the joint account is subject to the new account exception, even if the other individual on the account has an established account relationship with the bank.

Comment (B)(1)(b)(vi) to § 229.13: https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/6000-2500.html#fdic6000sup1229ApxE

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