Bryan Cave is hosting the kick-off event for the Atlanta Chapter of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists on Monday, August 22nd, from 2:00pm to 4:00pm. All AML/CTF professionals in the region are welcome to attend, and the event is open and complimentary to all.
August 22, 2011 ׀ 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Fourteenth Floor
1201 W. Peachtree Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30309
RSVP Here
Final interchange regulations under the Durbin Amendment of the Dodd Frank Act will go into effect October 1, changing the rules for interchange transaction fees. The Bryan Cave Payments team will present a live webinar and Q&A session on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 from 2:00 to 3:00 pm EDT explaining what the new interchange and routing rules mean for the prepaid industry and how to comply.
The Durbin Amendment:
What Does the Final Ruling Mean for Prepaid?
You can register for free online. Attendees are encouraged to submit in advance and without attribution, any questions they would like addressed during the webinar. Please enter your questions when you register.
The Webinar will be presented by Judie Rinearson (Bryan Cave – New York), Linda Odom (Bryan Cave – Washington, D.C.) and Courtney Stolz (Bryan Cave – Washington, D.C.).
CLE credit for this webinar will be available for attendees in California, Georgia, Illinois, New York and Virginia.
Accommodating more than 150 takeoffs and landings an hour and 80 million passengers a year, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is a global economic engine and a centerpiece of business in the Southeastern U.S. In 2009 the airport generated direct business revenue – sales to airlines and service companies directly dependent on the airport – of $32.5 billion and is Georgia’s largest employer. On Tuesday, May 10, 2011, the man in charge of this facility, General Manager Louis E. Miller, will speak at a Business Over Breakfast event hosted by Bryan Cave’s Atlanta office. The breakfast begins at 7:30 am, and registration is available online.
Mr. Miller assumed the Hartsfield-Jackson GM position in 2010 and previously managed Tampa International Airport in Florida. Chief among his immediate duties is overseeing completion of Hartsfield-Jackson’s new Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal, scheduled to open in 2012. This million-square foot, 12-gate terminal will connect to the airport’s existing 28-gate international terminal in a plan to meet an annual international passenger volume the FAA projects to reach 13 million by 2015.
Jerry Blanchard recently spoke to the national sales meeting of the Federal Home Loan Banks on the topic of How the Regulators View the FHLB’s.
The FHLB system has been a major source of liquidity to its over 8,000 members during the financial crisis and faces many challenges as the system deals with:
- shrinking demand for loan advances;
- losses incurred in mortgage backed securities that have led to a number of the FHLB’s having to enter into Consent Orders with their primary regulator; and
- greater Congressional scrutiny of all government sponsored entities.
Banking regulators deal with the consequences of FHLB policies and actions when financial institutions are taken into receivership. In some instances, the availability of FHLB advances may have led to some banks to incurring more risk than they would have otherwise incurred.
Jerry’s presentation addressed how the banking regulators view the role of the FHLB ‘s and how those views might affect bank examinations in the future. If you would like more information, a copy of Jerry’s FHLB presentation is available online, or reach out to Jerry Blanchard to discuss further.
A new rule affecting the garnishment of accounts that contain federal benefit payments will go into effect May 1. Currently, banks are faced with difficult decisions when dealing with the garnishment of these accounts, which have occasionally led to liability for banks and potential hardships for depositors. By changing the procedures that banks must follow when they receive a garnishment, the new rule aims to remedy these problems and create workable solutions.
To help you sort out this new rule, the Georgia Bankers Association will host a telephone briefing, Interim Rule on Garnishments, on Thursday, March 28, at 2 p.m. Join Bill Custer and Julia Fenwick with Bryan Cave LLP, Atlanta, as they discuss how the new rule affects your organization and what your bank needs to be doing now to bring itself into compliance.
The presentation will include a brief discussion of the current state of garnishment law, a detailed look at the provisions of the new rule, and step-by-step instructions for banks to follow when implementing these new procedures. The registration fee is $49 for GBA members (and very reasonable for non-GBA members). Registration and more information is available online. If you have questions about the briefing, contact the GBA’s Courtenay Pope at 404.420.2015 or Susie McGehee at 404.420.2010.
On February 18, 2011, Rob Klingler gave the 2011 Regulatory and Legislative Update for the annual Banking and Finance Law presented by the Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia. A copy of the slides used in the presentation is available online.
Jerry Blanchard served as the program chair and gave an update on recent case law developments. BT Atkinson also moderated a panel on Bank Acquisitions and Mergers in Non-Loss Share Transactions. The seminar will also be available on the ICLE’s website as an archived online course, and is eligible for 6 Georgia CLE hours, including 1 trial practice hour.
The market for prepaid card services continues to grow at a dramatic rate. According to industry estimates, users and issuers loaded $124.6 billion onto open-loop prepaid products in 2009, up 61 percent from 2008. Bryan Cave prepaid and consumer law experts Judie Rinearson and John ReVeal will be featured at the 2011 Prepaid Expo, “Prepaid’s Next Phase: Solutions to Achieve Profitability and Increase Distribution in a Changing Industry,” March 6-9, 2011, at the Orlando Marriott World Center, Orlando, Florida. We invite you to join us at this special networking and discussion event—contact us for a special 10% registration discount.
Technological and regulatory changes are rapidly shaping the prepaid industry, and the 2011 Prepaid Expo is the original and largest event designed exclusively for prepaid professionals, more than 1,700 of whom attended the 2010 conference. The conference focal points are interactive dialogue with experts and networking opportunities. Trade organizations including the Retail Gift Card Association, the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association, the Global Prepaid Exchange CEO Round Table, and the Incentive Gift Card Council plan to hold meetings in conjunction with the Expo. Keynote speaker General Colin Powell will speak on leadership, while Robert Safian, Editor and Managing Director, Fast Company, will address innovation as the key to thriving in the competitive prepaid market. Presenters and exhibitors include nearly every major player in the industry, and presentations will cover social media channels, consumer behavior, the Dodd-Frank Act, digitization, the B2B (“Business-to-Business”) prepaid corporate incentives market, payroll cards, international opportunities, and fraud prevention. For more information and for online registration, please visit the conference website.
On Wednesday, March 9, Bryan Cave’s Judie Rinearson will describe increased regulatory scrutiny of the prepaid industry as part of the panel discussion, “What’s on the Regulatory Horizon: How to Best Protect Your Business Over the Next Year.” John ReVeal, a member of the firm’s Financial Institutions group, will be providing interactive expert guidance on bank regulatory compliance during a special “Test Drive an Expert” session on March 8. Please consider attending this year’s Expo, a unique opportunity to enhance or develop your prepaid program and related financial services.
We also invite attendees to join Bryan Cave for a Private Dinner at the conclusion of formal conference activities on Monday, March 7, at the Mikado Steak House, Orlando World Center. Please R.S.V.P. by Friday, February 25, to damaris.poggy@bryancave.com.
New Truth in Lending Act (TILA) rules effective April 1 make dramatic changes to the ways in which loan officers and brokers can be compensated for loan origination services. In addition, these rules were proposed prior to the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act but were finalized afterwards. Changes to the rules made during the interim—and the overlapping Dodd-Frank provisions—could make interpreting and complying with the new restrictions a challenge.
To aid institutions in understanding and dealing with these changes, the Georgia Bankers Association will host a telephone briefing entitled “Loan Officer and Broker Compensation” from 2-4 p.m. on February 16. Join Bryan Cave partner Kalee Vargo and Steve Greene, Managing Member of Helms & Greene, LLC as they discuss how the new TILA rules affect your organization, what your bank needs to be doing now and the best HR and compensation practices going forward. Some of the topics to be covered include what originator compensation is permissible and what is not, safe harbor provisions, the interplay with Dodd-Frank and with wage and hour laws, what steps banks should be taking now and much more. The registration fee is $49 per line and registration is available online. If you have questions about the briefing, contact the GBA’s Courtenay Pope at 404.420.2015 or Susie McGehee at 404.420.2010.
Under current law, brokers are generally permitted to be paid yield spread premiums (YSP) and other incentives on loans they originate. The new TILA rules at 12 CFR § 226.36 prohibit the payment of compensation, direct or indirect, to any “loan originator” in connection with a home mortgage loan that is based on any of the loan’s terms (e.g., interest rate, APR), except payment may be made as a fixed percentage of the loan amount (and a creditor may subject such an arrangement to a minimum or maximum fee amount).
Under the new regulations, a “loan originator” is any person in a particular transaction who for compensation or other monetary gain, or in expectation thereof, arranges, negotiates, or otherwise obtains an extension of consumer credit for another person. Significantly, this includes an employee of the lender if the employee meets this definition. A lender is a “loan originator” as well as a creditor in a particular transaction if it does not provide the funds for the loan at consummation out of its own funds or deposits (i.e., if it “table-funds” the loan) and imposes and retains any direct charge on the consumer for the transaction. Thus, a creditor that is a loan originator by virtue of making a table-funded transaction is subject to these new prohibitions as well as Regulation Z’s creditor requirements.
Like Dodd-Frank, the new rules also target the practice of “steering” consumers to loans deemed less favorable to the consumer than others under the new regulatory structure. Dodd-Frank’s Section 1403, however, enacts a new TILA Section 129B(c) that imposes similar restrictions on “mortgage originators,” for which the statute provides a lengthy and distinct definition. The Fed has acknowledged that it will need to follow up its April 1 regulations with rules that implement this part of Dodd-Frank.
Bryan Cave is a co-sponsor of a one-day seminar for bank management and directors on “Overcoming Challenges in Uncertain Times.” This seminar is the 2011 Southeastern Bank Management and Directors Conference and is being presented twice: February 1, 2011, at the Mansion on Forsyth Park, Savannah, Georgia, and February 10, 2011, at the Gwinnett Center in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information and to register, please visit the program’s website.
As the industry emerges from the recent acute credit and liquidity crisis, financial service organizations now face the challenges of evolving customer needs, ongoing changes in the economic landscape and the impact of new regulatory requirements. The 2011 Southeastern Bank Management and Directors Conference will address the following critical questions and more as senior banking executives from across the southeast join forces to develop business strategies for the future:
- A strong community banking system is critical to the health of our country’s local economy. But what does the future hold?
- How will Dodd-Frank and other financial reform measures impact the regulatory environment facing community banks?
- How long will the economic recovery continue at a snail’s pace?
- Will we see deflation or inflation in the near-term?
- How will community banks build a business model that does not rely so heavily on real estate?
- When will our business customers come back in substantial numbers to request loans?
This one-day conference is organized and directed by James A. Verbrugge, Emeritus Professor of Finance and Chair of Banking at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, who is involved in executive education and the EMBA program at the Terry College and serves on several corporate boards of directors.
In October through December, 2010, Bryan Cave attorneys will be presenting a four-part series that explains the key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act under the BAI umbrella. The BAI Regulatory Reform Webinar Series will uncover Dodd-Frank’s operational and revenue impact on financial institutions.
The BAI Regulatory Reform Webinar Series includes the following webinars:
- The Dodd-Frank Act: From A to Z – October 28, 2010 – Rob Klingler
- The Impact of Dodd-Frank on the Future of Bank Operations – November 17, 2010 – Walt Moeling & Jerry Blanchard
- The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau: How it Affects You – December 1, 2010 – John ReVeal
- The Durbin Amendment Impact on Credit, Debit, and Prepaid Cards – December 16, 2010 – Judie Rinearson