The financial regulatory agencies’ joint rule on private flood insurance acceptance took effect on Monday, July 1. The rule is the long-awaited implementation of the 2012 Biggert Waters Act provision that requires federally-regulated lending institutions to accept private flood insurance policies that meet certain statutory criteria, in satisfaction of the mandatory purchase requirement.

In a letter to the heads of the financial regulatory agencies last Friday, ABA called for greater clarification on how banks may serve businesses dealing with hemp—a low-THC strain of marijuana that was removed from the Controlled Substances Act by Congress as part of the 2018 Farm Bill.

In advance of Wednesday's 85th anniversary of the Federal Credit Union Act’s enactment, new research released on Tuesday found that credit unions are falling short of their mission to serve households of “small means.” In fact, according to the research by respected analyst Karen Shaw Petrou, credit union members are disproportionately from middle- and upper-income households, and credit unions’ lack of “mission compliance” deepens U.S. economic inequality.

Do you have a question about how the Federal Reserve System affects you? Wondering about economic disparities, regulating big banks or the Fed's recent interest rate decisions? Curious about how the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis gathers data and informs its work within the Federal Reserve System?

On June 16, the Vermillion Police Department (VPD) investigated the discovery of two fraudulent credit card “skimmers” at Pump & Pak, located at 629 Stanford St. in Vermillion, according to a report by the VPD. Staff at the business noted customers’ comments about how the countertop card readers did not feel quite right and ultimately found that a “second face” had been installed over the top of the readers. The VPD has retrieved those items as evidence and has determined that their intended purpose was to record and/or transmit credit card information fraudulently. Investigation into the incident is continuing, including an attempt to determine exactly when the skimmers were installed. The readers at Pump & Pak are no longer believed to be compromised since the removal of the devices.

If you are an amateur photographer and would like the opportunity to have your creativity displayed in homes and businesses across South Dakota, this is your chance.

Send the SDBA your photos of farms, barns, agricultural activities, historical South Dakota locations, county fairs, carnivals, parades or festivals, fall colors, winter snowfalls, spring flowers, summer fun, etc.. Any photo that shows the history and beauty of the great state of South Dakota qualifies. All photos submitted will be judged and the top photos will be featured throughout the 2020 Scenes of South Dakota calendar. The deadline to submit a photo is July 29, 2019. Photo submission form. 

June 15 is Elder Abuse Awareness Day in South Dakota, which provides an opportunity for communities to promote a better understanding of abuse and neglect of the older population throughout the state.

As the Federal Communications Commission prepares to vote Thursday on a proposal permitting telephone companies to block unwanted calls, ABA submitted two letters to the commission explaining how it could result in the erroneous blocking of lawful calls placed by banks. The letters expanded upon arguments made by ABA and other trade groups in a separate communication late last week urging the FCC to seek feedback before moving forward with the proposal.

In remarks Wednesday at a meeting of community development bankers, FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams highlighted several ongoing initiatives at the agency to strengthen and sustain the nation’s community banks, including the highly-anticipated reform of the Community Reinvestment Act regulations.

McWilliams stressed that modernization of the Community Reinvestment Act will focus on clarifying exactly what bank activities qualify for CRA credit. The revised regulatory framework will also address the lending offered beyond a bank’s brick-and-mortar market area, as well as ways to ensure that CRA investments target those most in need within the community. While she did not put a timeline on the reform process, she noted that she continues to meet regularly with her counterparts at the OCC and Federal Reserve “to see if we can come to a broad agreement on a set of priorities for CRA reform.”

The National Credit Union Administration board last Thursday proposed a rule that would allow federal credit unions to have up to 50% of their deposits come from other credit unions and government entities, up from a 20% cap. As NCUA acknowledged in its proposal, the 20% cap dates to the late 1980s and was imposed “because of the asset/liability management problems related to public unit and nonmember shares that arose at certain FCUs, which resulted in material losses for the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund.”

Question: How do you climb a mountain? Answer: One step at a time.

Dr. Richard Deming will be the fellowship keynote at this year's SDBA/NDBA Annual Convention on Monday, June 3. Join Dr. Deming for his session "Above + Beyond Cancer" as he teaches us that through adversity, we can all achieve personal growth. As we focus forward, Dr. Deming will teach us that life is a gift and not a single minute should be “un-lived.”

The heads of the banking agencies told lawmakers that they expect to have regulatory changes from the S. 2155 regulatory reform law implemented by year-end. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee last week, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles said that the agencies are “on track to complete the implementing actions for S. 2155,” adding that they would “have the bulk of the implementing actions completed by the third quarter of this year and all of them completed by the end of this year.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Tuesday introduced a long-awaited bill—S. 1564—calling for a delay in the implementation of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s current expected credit loss standard until a quantitative impact study can be completed to understand its likely effects it will have on the economy.

The bill comes after bipartisan groups of lawmakers from both the House and Senate earlier this month wrote to the heads of several regulatory agencies raising concerns about CECL. ABA—which has long highlighted the procyclical effects of the standard to both lawmakers and regulators—welcomed the bill’s introduction.

The ABA Core Platforms Committee—a group of 20 bank leaders representing community and midsize banks—on Tuesday met with top executives from four of the nation’s largest core processing firms. During the meeting, the bankers shared their concerns on three key issues—data access, API deployment and contract fairness—with FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry and Finastra. The representatives of each participating core agreed to provide written responses by July 15 to explain how they will address those issues and were invited to meet with the committee again in August.

Evolving digital technologies, shifting consumer preferences and increasing competition are creating new challenges for banks. As the banking industry is being transformed, there is uncertainty around what the future of the industry will look like over the next decade. Are you ready to re-imagine the future of banking?

Christie Obenauer’s family-owned bank had a problem. Based in a rural county in western North Dakota, her community had been dealing with the prospect of population decline, but then the North Dakota energy boom brought an influx of newcomers. “It’s a wonderful problem to have.”

While Obenauer’s bank—Union State Bank in Hazen, N.D.—isn’t in the oil patch directly, it serves as a bedroom community for many who commute into the oil areas. It’s also home to large coal-mining operations. In the face of the housing crunch, her bank got involved in financing homes across the western part of the state. And with a need for housing that could be deployed quickly—“We had people thinking they could live in a camper in January, which . . . no. You can’t do it,” she chuckles—she also worked with the Bank of North Dakota and a state agency to develop a secondary market for manufactured homes.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last Thursday issued a proposal to provide relief for smaller institutions from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data collection and reporting requirements. The proposal would increase the coverage threshold for closed-end mortgage loans from 25 loans to either 50 or 100. For open-end lines of credit, the CFPB is proposing to extend for another two years the current temporary coverage threshold of 500 open-end lines of credit. After that, the threshold would be permanently set at 200.

The SDBA is encouraging banks to join the ABA’s Safe Banking for Seniors campaign to help educate older Americans, their caregivers and other family members about how to identify and prevent elder financial exploitation.

The South Dakota Bankers Association (SDBA), the professional and trade association for South Dakota’s financial services industry, recently held elections for three of the nine seats on its Board of Directors. Elected to serve on the SDBA Board of Directors were:

• Pete Mehlhaff, President/CEO, Great Plains Bank, Aberdeen
• David D. Nelson, Senior Vice President/Branch Manager, First Fidelity Bank, Platte
• Kristina Schaefer, General Counsel/Director of Risk Management, Fishback Financial Corporation, Sioux Falls

This is Mehlhaff’s first term on the SDBA Board of Directors and Nelson and Schaefer’s second terms. They started their three-year terms on May 1, 2019.

Technology has sent the world into warp speed and changed many things. Yet, true leadership is based on “ancient” principles. Professional speaker and author V.J. Smith will share the time-tested and core ideas of what separates exceptional leaders from average leaders at the 2019 SDBA/NDBA Annual Convention.