The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last Friday announced the appointment of all-new panels on its advisory boards, including the Community Bank Advisory Council (CBAC). 

Jeanni Stahl, senior vice president and chief risk officer at MetaBank in Sioux Falls, was one of seven appointments to the CBAC board. Stahl has more than 25 years of financial services industry experience in roles in both business development and risk management. At MetaBank, she has responsibilities for overseeing a large network of innovative payment and lending products offered through nationwide delivery channels. She worked as a senior bank examiner at the FDIC for eight years examining banks throughout South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. She then served in leadership roles at two Midwest financial institutions before joining MetaBank in 2009. Stahl regularly speaks at industry payments conferences on third-party risk management and compliance. 

The start of a new school year is a great time for your bank to get engaged with the youth in its community—and the ABA has two easy ways for you to do so. Get Smart About Credit and Lights, Camera, Save! are programs that challenge teens to expand their financial capabilities in fun, interactive ways.

Looking for an out-of-the-box way to encourage teens to be savvy with their money? Register to be a local host for this year’s Lights, Camera, Save! contest that encourages teens to use video to communicate the value of sound money management. 

Get Smart About Credit is a volunteer opportunity for bankers to raise awareness about the importance of using credit wisely—with presentation guides on identity protection, money management, paying for college, careers in banking and more. Sign up to attend a free webinar on Thurs., Sept. 13, at noon CDT to learn more about the program, its free resources (available in both English and Spanish) and the new materials on careers in banking.

The South Dakota Bankers Association is currently offering advertising in its 2019 South Dakota Bank Directory, which is an indispensable reference tool for financial executives and those conducting business with financial decision makers in South Dakota.

A limited number of full-color ads are available on the directory's tabbed divider pages. Full-page and half-page black-and-white ads are also available in the front section of the directory. The deadline to place an ad is Friday, Sept. 28. Ads are due Oct. 15. More information and the advertising form. 

American Banker Magazine on Tuesday published its sixth annual list of the 85 best banks to work for, with two SDBA member banks and one associate member making the list. Dacotah Bank, Aberdeen, was named number 49, and First PREMIER Bank, Sioux Falls, was named number 71. SDBA associate member Bell Bank, Fargo, was number three.

For the banks that made the list, lavishing employees with perks and benefits is part of the culture. These banks’ largesse also extends beyond their employee base. Volunteering in the community and charitable contributions are a cornerstone of their philosophies.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Monday announced details of actions the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will take to assist farmers in response to trade damage from unjustified retaliation by foreign nations.

President Trump directed Perdue to craft a short-term relief strategy to protect agricultural producers while the Administration works on free, fair and reciprocal trade deals to open more markets in the long run to help American farmers compete globally. USDA will authorize up to $12 billion in programs, consistent with its World Trade Organization obligations.

Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU)  in Mitchell, S.D., has heard from various financial institutions, including experts in the trust management sector, about the crucial void in trained professionals in the trust management field. DWU consulted with industry leaders regarding this need and will now offer the first-ever trust management certification in the United States. 

The FBI recently released an alert regarding “Unlimited Operation” attacks increasing against U.S. financial institutions. The Graduate School of Banking of Wisconsin-Madison is offering the hot-topic online seminar "FBI Warns of 'Imminent Threat' to U.S. ATMs" on Tuesday, Aug. 28 at 10 a.m. CDT. 

Since 2016, these types of attacks have cost the U.S. 2.5 million in losses by leveraging stolen card data against an institution whose ATM systems have been compromised. The settings on these systems are altered to bypass the safety controls that limit cash withdrawals.

Huron Police are warning businesses to be on the lookout for fake $100 bills. 

Several weeks ago, the Huron Police Department (HPD) received reports that counterfeit bills were being circulated at local businesses. HPD detectives spent several hours talking to witnesses, interrogating suspects and watching surveillance video, which resulted in an arrest in connection with those reported incidents. The HPD is once again receiving reports of counterfeit $100 bills being passed in town at local businesses.

Based on the needs of community bankers, Compliance Alliance provides its members an all-inclusive set of bank compliance tools and services that help them stay up-to-date with consumer and regulatory requirements. Compliance Alliance is the only banking industry compliance resource that is owned, operated and managed by 30 state bankers associations, including the South Dakota Bankers Association.

The SDBA is hosting a Compliance Alliance show-and-tell session on Thursday, Aug. 23, for those banks interested in viewing the tools and services provided by Compliance Alliance. The session will be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Doral Centre, 101 W. 69th Street in Sioux Falls.

America’s banks provide much-needed credit to America’s farmers and ranchers in the form of loans, lines of credit and other financial products and services. In 2017, the industry had $181 billion in outstanding agricultural loans that support the nation’s farmers from the coasts to the heartland, according to statistics from the new America’s Banks website. “Access to reliable credit is key in any successful business,” remarked one Iowa famer in a video on the site. “In farming, with its ups and downs, we rely on our local bank to keep our operation successful." 

To learn more, visit the newly reimagined America’s Banks website, aba.com/AmericasBanks. Bankers are encouraged to share the website, facts and figures, stories and videos with their lawmakers and customers and are invited, when sharing on social media, to use the hashtag #AmericasBanks. 

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has extended for 30 additional days its temporary suspension of the beneficial ownership requirements for certificate of deposit rollovers and loans that renew automatically. The temporary suspension will now expire on Sept. 8. FinCEN is working to finalize a more permanent solution in response to concerns raised by ABA and others in the banking industry. 

As part of the ongoing effort to help banks comply with the customer due diligence rule--which took effect May 11--FinCEN has created an informational webpage that pulls together various documents on the rule.

• Read more about the extension.
• View the webpage.
• For more information, contact ABA's Rob Rowe. 

The U.S. Small Business Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development will present  a panel on rural small business lending and technical assistance on Wednesday, Aug. 8, in Pierre. 

The audience will learn about assistance and loans offered by the SBA, USDA Rural Development, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, U.S. Economic Development Administration, Governor’s Office Economic Development and representatives of banking associations that can assist entrepreneurs start or grow a business. The session will also provide valuable information for lenders wanting to assist rural entrepreneurs. 

The Treasury Department on Tuesday issued a long-awaited report recommending changes to laws and regulations affecting non-bank financial providers and the broader fintech environment. The fourth in a series of reports issued in response to President Trump’s executive order on core principles for financial regulation, this report includes several recommendations long advocated by ABA as part of its efforts to enhance financial innovation.

“We are encouraged to see that the Treasury Department’s fintech report recognizes the innovative technologies banks have already deployed and will continue to develop, both on their own and in partnership with others,” said ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols. “We continue to review the recommendations in the report, but we appreciate that many of the ideas are consistent with the principles set forth in the white paper ABA sent to Treasury earlier this year.”

Reflecting the ongoing evolution of technology, Treasury specifically recommended:

The House yesterday passed an ABA-supported measure extending the National Flood Insurance Program through Nov. 30, providing certainty for lenders and borrowers during this year’s hurricane season. Following the 366-to-52 vote, the Senate must now pass the measure to ensure authorization for the NFIP does not expire as scheduled on July 31.

ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols welcomed the House’s action. “If there is a lapse, many loan closings in high-risk areas will be delayed or otherwise complicated, resulting in additional costs and borrower frustrations,” Nichols commented. He added that “ABA strongly supports both a long-term reauthorization of the program and necessary reforms that will make the NFIP more sustainable, while also balancing concerns over availability and affordability.”

A recent ABA Banking Journal article provided tips for bankers on preparing for a possible lapse in NFIP authorization. Read the article. 

The Trump administration said Tuesday it would extend $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers amid signs the U.S. agricultural sector is beginning to feel the impact of President Donald Trump’s escalating trade disputes with major U.S. trading partners.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the U.S. government would provide incremental payments to support prices of some of the hardest-hit commodities, including soybeans, sorghum, cotton, corn, wheat and pork, according to a story by The Wall Street Journal.

Thanks to the newly-signed regulatory relief bill, most reciprocal deposits are no longer brokered. This comes as banks face intense and increasing competition for deposits.

Join Promontory Interfinancial Network—the nation’s leading provider and inventor of reciprocal deposit placement services—for a free webinar that outlines key provisions of the new law and the impact ICS®, or Insured Cash Sweep®, and CDARS® can have on banks’ balance sheets. The webinar will also cover how banks can use ICS and CDARS to capitalize on the opportunities at hand; presenters will discuss cost-effective ways to use the services to attract high-value relationships (even as deposit competition intensifies) and to lock-in more low-cost funding (even as interest rates continue to rise).

The role of an IT professional is ever-changing, especially in today’s environment. The SDBA Bank Technology Conference set for Sept. 11-12 in Sioux Falls is designed to provide support as you keep on top of technology trends and scams, navigate the business of banking, and build and sustain your bank’s technology strategy. This conference will provide you with an opportunity to learn from industry experts, network with other IT colleagues, and visit with exhibitors to see and experience the latest in products and services.

Sessions will cover cybersecurity, website design, incident response plans, trends and developments, preparing for your next exam, recruitment and retention of IT personnel and much more. Presenters include Lee Wetherington, who will provide the bottom line on fintechs, bigtechs, branches, blockchain and more and how to navigate the most strategically important challenges and opportunities ahead and Dave DeFazio, who will talk about the Amazon Prime effect and surviving in the new subscription society. See the full agenda. Register to attend.

As they implement S. 2155, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC said on Monday that they are beginning the process of determining which financial firms with assets of less than $250 billion will be subject to the requirement to submit resolution plans, also known as living wills. Under S. 2155, the Federal Reserve is no longer required to impose the living will process on bank holding companies with less than $100 billion during the first 18 months following the bill’s passage. After the 18-month period, or sooner at the discretion of the Fed, the requirement ends for bank holding companies with assets below $250 billion.

As recommended by ABA in a February comment letter, the agencies also extended the deadline for 14 U.S. regional banking companies to submit their resolution plans. Originally due by the end of 2018, living wills will be due by Dec. 31, 2019, in order to allow more time for the agencies to provide feedback on their last round of resolution plans. ABA has urged--and Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles has signaled that he wants to pursue--a biennial rather than annual living will process.

The 14 companies receiving the extension are Ally Financial, American Express, BB&T Corporation, Capital One Financial, Citizens Financial, Fifth Third Bancorp, Huntington Bancshares, KeyCorp, M&T Bank, Northern Trust, Regions Financial, SunTrust Banks, PNC Financial Services Group, and U.S. Bancorp. Last week, the Fed and FDIC also sought public comment on living will guidance for the largest U.S. financial institutions. Read more. Read ABA's comment letter. For more information, contact ABA's Hu Benton. 

By a bipartisan 86-11, the Senate last Thursday passed its version the 2018 Farm Bill. The vote sets up a conference between the Senate version and the recently passed House version where lawmakers will address differences in the two bills on nutritional assistance, farm subsidy caps and conservation initiatives.

ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols welcomed the bill's passage. "The reauthorization of this bill will provide critical risk management tools and stability for our nation’s farmers and ranchers and the 2,000 farm banks that serve them every day," he said. "We are particularly pleased that banks and their customers will continue to have access to crop insurance and USDA guaranteed loan programs. Ag bankers use these programs to make loans and manage risk, so they can serve the needs of their customers even in down times."

The bill also included a six-month extension of the National Flood Insurance Program, which is set to expire on July 31. "While work remains to achieve long-term reauthorization and reform of the NFIP, it is essential for borrowers across the nation that the program not lapse," Nichols said. 

A coalition of more than 600 agricultural banking and insurance organizations--including ABA--and other ag industry constituents signed onto a letter to members of the Senate urging them to oppose any harmful amendments in the 2018 Farm Bill that would increase the cost of, reduce or limit participation in, or harm private sector delivery of crop insurance. With the House’s passage last week of its version of the Farm Bill, the Senate must now pass its version before the two bills can be reconciled. 

The groups underscored the importance of crop insurance to America’s farmers and ranchers, noting that without it, many could not qualify for the operating loans they require. In addition, crop insurance currently provides a rapid response solution to natural disasters, provides for environmental benefits, protects jobs both on and off the farm, and is available to all types and sizes of producers nationwide. 

“Crop insurance is food and fiber security insurance, and food and fiber security is national security,” the groups said. “Given the importance of crop insurance, [we] urge you to support America’s farmers, ranchers, rural economies and national security by opposing amendments that would harm crop insurance.” Read the letter.