Firm News

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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The U.S. Treasury issued long-awaited guidance on rounding cash transactions to the nearest nickel on December 23 in the face of potential penny shortages. The guidance, in the form of FAQs, points to a recent report by the National Council of State Legislators (“NCSL”) as an example of how states are likely to respond.

The NCSL’s November 21, 2025 report titled Elimination of the Penny: Cents-able Considerations states: “The most recommended form of rounding is symmetrical rounding whereby if the final digit of the total transaction amount (including taxes) is 1, 2, 6, or 7 cents, the amount is rounded down to the nearest multiple of five. If the final…
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The Dodd-Frank Act amended The Truth in Lending Act (TILA) by requiring that the dollar threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions be adjusted annually by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the exemption threshold from the prior year is not adjusted. The Dodd-Frank Act requires similar adjustments in the Consumer Leasing Act’s threshold for exempt consumer leases. TILA establishes special appraisal requirements for “higher-priced mortgage loans.” The regulations implementing these requirements…
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The U.S. Senate Banking Committee did not hold a markup hearing on the CLARITY Act, the market structure legislation to define which federal regulator will oversee what part of the digital assets (“crypto”) industry, before its Christmas break. Under the Act, the classification of a digital asset (whether as a security or a commodity) will determine the appropriate regulator. See our ALERTS of July 11 and July 18, 2025. While the committee reportedly made significant progress, lawmakers are still negotiating. The committee is working from a Republican draft. Democratic concerns include financial stability, market integrity and ethics. The delay may be disappointing for the industry but may result in a more solid bill. How quickly the committee can get to and complete its work in 2026 is uncertain.
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Plaintiffs filed a petition for rehearing en banc on December 9 with regard to National Association of Industrial Bankers v. Weiser¹ before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Defendants did not object. The Comptroller of the Currency issued a statement the same day criticizing the panel’s decision as fundamentally inconsistent with Congress’s efforts to create competitive equality between state and federally chartered banks and calling on the courts or, if necessary, Congress to remedy the outcome.²
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The early returns are in and the tally does not look good for national bank preemption following the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous landmark decision in Cantero v Bank of America, N.A., 1 but have the U.S. Courts of Appeals gotten the analysis, or even the relevant law, quite correct yet? The first ruling up was the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit’s decision in Conti v. Citizens Bank, N.A.2 In a September 22, 2025, opinion, a panel of the First Circuit ruled unanimously that the National Bank Act (NBA) does not preempt Rhode Island’s law requiring banks to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts. The Conti decision was followed October 2 by a panel of the Ninth Circuit that, by a 2-1 vote, reissued an opinion in Kivett v. Flagstar Bank, FSB, 3 upholding an earlier ruling that the NBA does not preempt a California law requiring banks to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts.
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It is said that when driving in Italy, all roads lead to Rome; in the U.S., when lending on an interstate basis, it seems that all interpretations lead back to Marquette.1

We now have the benefit of the 10th Circuit’s majority and dissenting opinions in National Association of Industrial Bankers v. Weiser (“NAIB”), 2 perhaps the most significant case to explore Section 525 of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA) and of the “making“ of loans on a interstate basis since Marquette…
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