On April 17, the Federal Reserve Board announced an interim final rule that temporarily relaxes lending restrictions on member banks who make Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to businesses owned by certain bank insiders.
On March 31, 2020, the SBA and the Treasury Department released initial guidance on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), providing further key details regarding how the SBA plans to administer the loan program.
With the vast uncertainty generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the immediate challenges that Ohio’s financial institutions must confront, especially at this time of year, involves how to handle their annual shareholder or member meetings.
In December of 2019, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jesús García announced the introduction of the Bank Merger Review Modernization Act (the act), which would “…restrict harmful consolidation in the banking industry and protect consumers and the financial system from ‘Too Big To Fail’ institutions.”
Beginning in October 2019, more than a dozen individuals through at least four law firms have filed hundreds of new lawsuits against businesses alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990’s Title III (starting at 42 USC §12101), as well as local New York state (N.Y. Exec. Law Article 15) and New York City Human Rights Laws (starting at N.Y.C. Admin. Code §8-101).
By 6-1 vote, the Ohio Supreme Court recently ruled that under Ohio criminal law, a bank that cashes a forged check and then recredits a depositor’s account is a “victim” such that the person who forged the check may be required to pay restitution to the bank.
Lenders in Ohio frequently incorporate cognovits, or confession of judgment provisions, into promissory notes, guaranties and other loan instruments. T
Branch purchase and sale transactions, involving sales and acquisitions of defined assets and assumption of defined liabilities (P&A transactions) can be more complex and document-intensive than whole-bank mergers.
Last month, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois confronted a bank’s potential liability for false information obtained (and even allegedly encouraged) by bank employees in the processing of consumer loans.
Due to the evolving sophistication of criminals, security breaches continue to occur on a regular basis. When such breaches occur, the victims of breaches often look to the law to make them whole.
Being an Ohio-chartered bank or trust company, or institution-affiliated party of same (IAP), becomes a bit more comfortable with the addition of the new “bona fide error” protections of Ohio Sub. H.B. 489, effective March 20, 2019.
With Ohio entering the medicinal marijuana age, bankers unfortunately continue to have no clear direction when it comes to banking marijuana-related businesses (MRBs).
In a proposal reminiscent of the recent comprehensive changes to Ohio banking law that effectively eliminated legal differences between Ohio-chartered banks, savings banks, and savings and loans, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on September 10, 2018, issued a proposal to enable federal savings associations (FSAs) with consolidated assets of $20B or less to, in effect, opt in to becoming full national banks with the same rights and privileges as national banks and subject to the same “…duties, restrictions, penalties, liabilities, conditions and limitations that apply to national banks.”
Jeffery E. Smith
Scott A. Herkamp
David A. Froling
Rodney A. Holaday
Christopher A. LaRocco
George L. Stevens
Kimberly J. Schaefer
David M. Aldous
Nelson D. Cary