FDIC

GreatAmerica Financial in Iowa is looking to form a bank so it can offer more products to small and midsize companies.

Sen. Mark Warner led a group of Democratic senators in calling on bank, credit union and GSE regulators to give detailed instructions on helping consumer and commercial borrowers hurt by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The agencies recommend steps banks should take to proactively prevent disruption of operations, minimize contact between staff and customers, and plan for how affected employees reenter the workplace, among other things.

Most states have some kind of pricing limit on consumer loans. But proposals for a national usury law divide even Democrats, some of whom are concerned about restricting credit.

Nonbanks hold a disproportionate percentage of the worst-rated loans, but banks hold a majority of the market, and risk management safeguards are largely untested, according to an interagency report on shared national credit.

In another rollback of the bank trading ban, the federal agencies unveiled a plan to allow financial institutions to invest in multiple companies through certain fund structures.

To guard against headwinds in the agricultural sector, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. recommended that institutions consider the “overall financial status” of farm loan borrowers.

Regulators already finalized a rollback of the proprietary trading ban section of the rule but signaled then that their overhaul was not finished.

With fintech firms appearing stuck in neutral in their efforts to seek bank charters from federal regulatory agencies, observers say state licensing options could be in vogue again in 2020.

The board- and management-level handing of CRE concentration was the chief concern of FDIC examiners, making up more than 56% of all the supervisory recommendations regulators made in the two-year period.