Year: 2026

The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) has announced that it will resume accepting pennies from banks and credit unions at commercial coin distribution locations beginning January 14. See our ALERT of Dec. 26, 2025. The FRB had stopped accepting penny deposits at some commercial coin distribution locations late last year – exacerbating penny shortages in some areas and prompting U.S. Treasury guidance on rounding cash transactions to the nearest…
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On November 5, the appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Riffard v. Bank of America N.A. was voluntarily dismissed before briefing began. In 2022, the Circuit Court of Milwaukee County had held that the National Bank Act (NBA) preempts the Wisconsin notice of default and right to cure notice (RTC) provisions of the Wisconsin Consumer Act (WCA),1 finding that the RTC provisions impermissibly limit a national bank’s ability to set the terms of credit.2 A 2018 Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions letter came to the same result.3 But in a February 18, 2025 opinion, the Court of Appeals of Wisconsin reversed the Circuit Court’s decision and remanded, finding that NBA preemption did not apply, characterizing the RTC provisions as a (mere) “procedural” requirement to access…
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How many times have you heard someone suggest giving the regulator a call?

Legal issues arising in connection with statutes and regulations that are subject to a state or federal regulatory authority can and frequently do involve difficult interpretations. The statutes and regulations often contain ambiguities, lack of definitiveness and, all too frequently, apparently contradictory provisions. Sorting through this morass and applying rules of statutory construction is the job of an attorney…
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Just before Christmas, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) issued two notices of proposed rulemaking regarding national banks’ and federal savings associations’ real estate lending powers with respect to the payment of interest on funds held in escrow accounts. The first asserts “longstanding powers of national banks and federal savings associations to establish or maintain real estate lending escrow accounts and to exercise flexibility in making business judgment as to the terms and conditions of such accounts, including whether and to what extent to offer any compensation paid to customers or to assess any related fees.” The second is a preemption determination that concludes that federal law preempts the New York interest-on-escrow law that was the subject of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Cantero v Bank…
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