ICBA Newsroom
The ICBA Newsroom collects and centralizes all the NewsWatch Today articles, press releases, Main Street Matters blogs, advocacy letters and other news that impacts community bankers.
Fannie, Freddie Update PMI Standards
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac revised eligibility requirements for private mortgage insurers, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced. The updates include changes to: risk-based asset requirements, the treatment of approved risk-transfer transactions, and risk-transfer credit arising from counterparty risk associated with reinsurance transactions. The standards establish minimum financial and operational requirements for doing business with the enterprises.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Housing Finance/GSEs
Agencies Issue Customer Identification Program Exemptions
Federal regulators exempted loans for property and casualty insurance policies from Customer Identification Program rules. Banks engaging in insurance premium finance lending must continue to comply with all other regulatory requirements implementing the Bank Secrecy Act, including the requirement to file suspicious activity reports.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Compliance
Boston Fed Encourages Tokenization Collaboration
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston researchers encouraged stakeholders to continue collaborating on the development of payment tokenization. Noting that tokenization mitigates risk by eliminating the need to store and transmit a customer’s primary account number, a new paper says that collaboration will help expand its use in e-commerce, evaluate third-party token service providers, educate consumers, and anticipate future innovations.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Payments
FinCEN Wants to Talk BSA Reporting with Hurricane-Affected Banks
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said financial institutions affected by Hurricane Florence should contact FinCEN and their functional regulator as soon as practicable to discuss any delays in their ability to file Bank Secrecy Act reports. FinCEN can be reached at FRC@fincen.gov.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Advocacy
Facebook Breach Affects 50M Users
Facebook announced a security breach affecting nearly 50 million accounts.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Data Breach Data Security/Fraud
‘Tax Reform 2.0’ Passes House
The House passed legislation to permanently extend the lower individual tax rates included in the tax reform law signed late last year. Known as “Tax Reform 2.0,” the package of bills would lock in lower rates set to expire at the end of 2025, though it is not expected to be taken up by the Senate. In addition to cutting the top C-corp rate, the ICBA-supported Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the individual rates affecting Subchapter S banks.
October 01, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Taxes & Budget
DOJ Indicates Support for ADA Website Flexibility
The Justice Department told members of Congress that it is evaluating whether to issue guidance on web accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Responding to a bipartisan letter from 103 members of Congress requesting clarity, the DOJ stood by its interpretation that the law applies to websites, but left room for a flexible approach.
September 28, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
ADA
Contactless Payments Reboot: Get Ready, Get Set
The time has come for community bank card issuers to begin ramping up their contactless payments strategy. More than half of the top 100 U.S. merchants are already contactless enabled and smaller merchants are also speeding to adopt contactless point-of-sale technology in a bid to improve the cusotmer experience.
September 26, 2018 |
Payments Quarterly
Free Credit Freezes Are Here
A provision of S. 2155 requiring credit reporting agencies to freeze consumer credit reports at no charge took effect Friday. These security or credit freezes restrict access to credit files to reduce identity theft.
September 24, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
CFPB
Chelsea Groton Bank Named a Winner of the 2018 Top Workplaces Award for Third Straight Year
Chelsea Groton Bank has been awarded a 2018 Top Workplaces honor by The Hartford Courant, for the third year in a row. The Top Workplaces lists are based on the results of an employee feedback survey administered by Energage, formerly WorkplaceDynamics, a leading research firm that specializes in organizational health and workplace improvement. Several aspects of workplace culture were measured, including alignment, execution, and connection.
September 24, 2018 |
News
Bureau Opening Regional Office in Atlanta
The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection said it will relocate its southeast regional office from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, Ga., in late 2019. The bureau already has regional offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco that host supervision staff, enforcement attorneys and other personnel. The southeast regional team has been temporarily based out of the bureau’s D.C. headquarters since its inception.
September 24, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
CFPB
ICBA to IRS: Maximize Sub S Access to Tax Deduction
ICBA and other banking groups called on the IRS to reconsider its approach to implementing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s 20 percent tax deduction for pass-through businesses. In a joint comment letter, ICBA said the agency should allow all permissible banking activities to be eligible for the deduction.
September 24, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Wolters Kluwer Announces Interoperability with RSA Archer to Provide Regulatory Data Feed
Are You Leveraging Your Card’s Core Benefits?
ICBA Bancard’s Senior Vice President of Card and Payment Products, Julie Hanson, says that many times when she is discussing debit and credit card portfolio strategies with community bankers, they are unaware of the many core benefits that are baked into their Visa and Mastercard programs.
September 10, 2018 |
Payments Quarterly
Chelsea Groton Bank Proudly Introduces A Switch Hotline
In order to assist individuals and families in switching to a better banking experience, Chelsea Groton Bank is pleased to introduce a new Switch Hotline, which will provide prospective customers the convenience of switching to Chelsea Groton Bank over the phone, during and after hours, by calling 860-448-4195 (Monday – Friday: 8am – 7pm, Saturday: 9am – 1pm).
September 07, 2018 |
News
OneRD Guaranteed Loan Rule
How to build a successful payments strategy
Customer expectations and fierce competition—it’s never been more important to think strategically about your payments offering.
September 01, 2018 |
Independent Banker
Payments Growing the Community
Meet the winners of ICBA’s 2018 National Community Bank Service Awards
Whether they are overhauling local education, main streets or even their own reputation, ICBA’s 2018 National Community Service Award winners were unafraid to dig deep—figuratively and sometimes literally—to effect change.
September 01, 2018 |
Independent Banker
USDA Details Trade Payments Alongside Mexico Deal
Roselle Bank Begins Renovations of Operations Center
Roselle Bank, which has served central and northern New Jersey for nearly 130 years, has begun renovating its operations center, located at 108 West Third Avenue, Roselle, NJ across from the bank’s main branch. The facelift is part of Roselle Bank’s comprehensive initiative to enhance customer convenience and overall banking experiences.
August 27, 2018 |
News
Crestmark Closes 18 Transactions Totaling More Than $46.9 Million in the First Half of August
Crestmark secured a total of $46,935,891 in financial solutions with 18 transactions for 14 new clients in the first half of August.
August 24, 2018 |
News
Agencies Advance 18-Month Exam Cycle
Federal regulators issued interim final rules to enact an ICBA-advocated provision of the S. 2155 regulatory relief law expanding eligibility for the 18-month exam cycle. As authorized by the ICBA Plan for Prosperity-inspired law, the interim final rules generally apply the extended exam cycle to institutions with less than $3 billion in total assets.
August 24, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Lenders Increasingly Ready for Single Security: Survey
Fannie, Freddie Ending Rental-Market Expansion
United Bankers’ Bank Promotes Mary Williams to SVP, Chief Operations Officer
United Bankers’ Bank (UBB) has promoted Mary Williams to SVP, Chief Operations Officer, effective August 6. Williams succeeds Anne Hofstede who retired after 41 years of service at UBB.
August 17, 2018 |
News
Visa Examines Digital Trends and Consumer Expectations
A Visa study examines how digital trends are reinventing consumer expectations. This shift in the ecosystem is driven by universal connectivity, prevalent social media use, the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and increasingly interactive user experiences along the entire customer journey and across all channels.
August 15, 2018 |
Payments Quarterly
Automated Systems, Inc. Announces Gold Level Envision Partner Status
Tell HUD to Amend Disparate-Impact Rule
ICBA Collecting Stories on Benefits of S. 2155
Roselle Savings Bank Announces Name Change, New Logo, Branch Upgrades, and New Products
Roselle Savings Bank, which has served central and northern New Jersey for nearly 130 years, has changed its name to Roselle Bank as part of its initiative to further enhance customers’ overall banking experience. The change is part of the bank’s strategic repositioning, as its functions extend well beyond the parameters of a typical savings bank. The brand refresh will focus on outlining new capabilities and debuting an array of new banking products for both business and consumer. The bank also has plans for renovations to its company headquarters, new operations center and main office branch located in Roselle, NJ
August 08, 2018 |
News
Meta Financial Group, Inc.® Completes Acquisition of Crestmark® Bancorp, Inc.
Meta Financial Group Inc.® (Nasdaq: CASH) ("Meta" or the “Company”) the holding company for MetaBank®, announced today that it completed the previously announced acquisition of Crestmark® Bancorp Inc. and its Michigan state-chartered bank subsidiary, Crestmark Bank. Crestmark has provided business-to-business commercial financing for over 21 years.
August 01, 2018 |
News
ICBA Meets with White House, OMB on Sub S Deduction
ICBA met with staff from the White House and the Office of Management and Budget on the Treasury Department’s proposed regulation to implement a 20 percent tax deduction for shareholders in Subchapter S banks and other pass-through entities.
July 31, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
ICBA Grows Advocacy, Member Relations and Marketing Departments with New Hires
ICBA today announced three new hires. David “Chip” Bartlett will serve as vice president of congressional relations, Sean Murphy as vice president of member relations for the Midwest region, and Leela Vosko as director of marketing engagement.
July 30, 2018 |
Press Release
Data Breaches Reach New Record in 2017: Report
The number of U.S. data breaches hit a new all-time high in 2017, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Identified breaches rose 44.7 percent last year to 1,579.
July 30, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Data Breach Data Security/Fraud
Senate Taking Up Flood Insurance Extension
The Senate this week is scheduled to take up House-passed legislation to extend the National Flood Insurance Program. The House bill would extend the NFIP, which is scheduled to expire on Tuesday, through November.
July 30, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Flood Insurance
FDIC Needs Better IT Coordination: Watchdog
The FDIC has not developed sufficient strategies for several information technology transitions, the agency’s inspector general said. The Office of the Inspector General said the FDIC failed to adequately address IT security concerns, adequately communicate with agency stakeholders on transitioning to the cloud, or implement an enterprise architecture to guide its IT initiatives. It recommended better coordination and including the agency’s IT plans in its governance processes and framework.
July 30, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Agencies/Regulators
FS-ISAC Advises Closer Look at Cyber Insurance
Not understanding cyber-insurance policy riders can come back to haunt covered parties, the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center reported. In its latest weekly report for community financial institutions, FS-ISAC cites the rise in claim denials by insurance providers and inconsistencies across carriers.
July 30, 2018 |
ICBA NewsWatch Today
Cybersecurity
ICBA Names NextGen Scholarship Award Recipients
ICBA today announced the recipients of its 2018 NextGen Scholarship Awards.
July 27, 2018 |
Press Release
Succession Planning
Consumers National Bank Promotes Kennie Baker To Commercial Deposit Specialist
Minerva, Ohio–Consumers National Bank announced today that it has promoted Kennie Baker to Assistant Vice President, Commercial Deposit Specialist. Baker will report to Derek Williams, Senior Vice President of Retail Banking and Operations, and will call on businesses in the eastern Stark, Columbiana and Jefferson county markets.
July 26, 2018 |
News
Keshaun Clark Honored by Alexandria Chamber of Commerce for 40 Under 40
Keshaun R. Clark, Vice President, Business Development Officer, has been recognized by the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce as a 40 Under 40 honoree.
July 24, 2018 |
News
CoastalSouth Bancshares, Inc. Closes Merger with First Citizens Financial Corporation
CoastalSouth Bancshares, Inc. (“CoastalSouth”), the parent company of CoastalStates Bank (“CSB”), announced the closing of its merger with First Citizens Financial Corporation (“FCFC”), the parent company of Foothills Community Bank (“Foothills”). Along with the merger of FCFC with and into CoastalSouth, Foothills merged with and into CSB.
July 24, 2018 |
News
Clinton Savings Bank Employees Donate Over Six Hundred Dollars to the Neady Cats Organization
Clinton Savings Bank (CSB) recently presented over six hundred dollars to the Neady Cats Organization, located in Sterling, MA. Money was raised by allowing CSB’s employees to participate in a “dress down” day after donating to the cause along with a Bank match. All the proceeds collected will benefit the Neady Cats organization directly and help to provide necessities and medical care for the loving animals in their shelter.
July 24, 2018 |
News
FNBC Bank announces LPO in Jonesboro
FNBC Bank CEO and President Marty Sellars has announced the bank’s move into Jonesboro with the hire of Brad Snider as Community President and Brock Fletcher as Vice President and Commercial Lender. Headquartered in Ash Flat, Ark., this move marks FNBC Bank’s entrance into the growing Northeast Arkansas market.
July 24, 2018 |
News
Chelsea Groton Foundation Presents Scholarships to 19 Rising College Students
The Chelsea Groton Foundation recently presented scholarships to a select group of graduating seniors who represent 19 area high schools. Each of the individuals who applied for the scholarships excelled in academia, leadership and extracurricular activities during their high school years, and plans to pursue college degrees.
July 24, 2018 |
News
Regal Bank Promotes Zoraida Duran
Regal Bank recently promoted Zoraida Duran to assistant treasurer and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) administrator at their bank headquarters in Livingston, NJ. BSA administrators work with operations and financial managers to ensure compliance with internal and government regulations.
July 24, 2018 |
News
Fleetwood Bank awards $8,000.00 scholarship to Reese R. Kauffman from Oley Valley High School
Fleetwood Bank is pleased to announce that Reese R. Kauffman, a 2018 Oley Valley High School graduate, has been awarded the 2018 Fleetwood Bank Scholarship. Fleetwood Bank is committed to provide scholarships in the local communities to help families offset the cost of post-secondary education; as well as demonstrate its commitment to the communities we serve.
July 23, 2018 |
News
5-Star Chelsea Groton Bank Among the Top 10% of the Nation’s Banks
BAUERFINANCIAL, the Nation’s Premier Bank Rating Firm, is proud to announce that Chelsea Groton Bank, has once again secured its highest, 5-star rating. A 5-star rating indicates the bank excels in areas of capital adequacy, profitability, asset quality and much more. By earning and sustaining this top 5-star rating for 97 consecutive quarters, Chelsea Groton Bank has also procured a “Top 10%” designation. This means that Chelsea Groton Bank has maintained Bauer’s highest rating consistently for longer than 90% of the industry.
July 23, 2018 |
News
CHELSEA GROTON FOUNDATION Awards Over $189K in Grants to Area Organizations
The Chelsea Groton Foundation awarded $189,585 in grants to 67 non-profit organizations from Connecticut and Rhode Island this spring. This dollar amount marks the greatest total awarded to area organizations in a single giving cycle since the Chelsea Groton Foundation was founded. Inclusive of these donations, the Foundation has provided over $2.8 million in total grants to the community since 1999. The Foundation reviews applications and awards grants two times per year.
July 13, 2018 |
News
THE STATE BANK PROMOTES VICE PRESIDENT
The State Bank is proud to announce the promotion of Linda Gregory to
Vice President. Linda joined the bank in April 1991 as a teller before moving to the credit department, and during her tenure has consistently grown in her role, going from Information Coordinator to Department Manager. In her new position, Gregory will be responsible for overseeing staff workflow on an ongoing basis, compiling various management reports, and managing regulatory and compliance requirements for the loan servicing department, among many other duties.
July 13, 2018 |
News
THE STATE BANK PROMOTES OFFICER
The State Bank is proud to announce the promotion of Stephanie Domina to Officer. Stephanie joined the bank is November 2015 as a branch manager in Birch Run, and more recently moved to The State Bank Chesaning branch to serve as manager there. During her tenure, she has consistently grown in her role. In her new position, Domina will be responsible for normal day-to-day branch activity and employee growth, as well as the facilitation of mortgage renewals.
July 13, 2018 |
News
THE STATE BANK PROMOTES ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT
The State Bank is proud to announce the promotion of Brooke Jansen to Assistant Vice President. Brooke joined the bank in December 2002 as a part-time teller while attending college, and by 2006 was a full-time financial service representative. In 2009, Jansen completed all licensing and certifications to become an associate advisor in the wealth management division before becoming a branch manager as well. She is well versed in all facets of The State Bank’s retail operations, and in her new role will manage all retail operations in the Great Lakes Bay Region branches.
July 13, 2018 |
News
Independent Banker
Independent Banker is the award-winning monthly member publication of ICBA. Continually rated the best news source by community bankers, IB provides timely, relevant information and insights to help community banks continue to flourish.
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