According to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 10-city index, housing prices fell 16.9 percent in the one-year period from May 2007 to 2008. It was the biggest decline in the 21-year history of the index. As home values tumble across the United States, banks are experiencing mounting losses in their loan portfolios.

Most financial institutions’ anti-money laundering (AML) budgets will grow “modestly” over the next two years, according to a recent study by the Aite Group. 

Of all the regulatory requirements a bank has, strategic planning is one of the most important, most productive, and really….the most fun. When examiners are reviewing your bank’s strategic plan (as well as the process for the planning session), they have a checklist of sorts that they follow to see how your plan and process stacks up against their expectations.

Small public companies, including community banks, have received a one-year extension on the requirement under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to provide an auditor attestation of manage­ment’s assessment of the company’s internal controls over financial reporting (ICFR).