The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today invited comments on new agency procedures by which businesses can appeal the CFPB’s designation of a rural or underserved area.

The CFPB today released a new online tool to help creditors determine if properties are located in rural or underserved areas.

A group of senators and representatives today issued a reconciled version of a long-term highway funding bill that includes a modified but still substantial cut to the dividends paid on the Federal Reserve Bank stock that national banks and other Fed member banks are required to hold.

ABA member Roger Porch, VP at First National Bank in Philip, S.D., testified before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday on challenges facing rural banks.

The Senate is scheduled to vote this week on the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S.754), an ABA-supported bill that would strengthen the ability of the public and private sectors to share critical cyber threat information without compromising customer privacy.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today finalized several changes -- many advocated by ABA -- that will increase the number of banks able to benefit from the bureau’s small creditor and rural or underserved area exemptions in its mortgage rules.

To help address the pending shortage of rural property appraisers -- and the implications for agricultural and commercial credit in rural communities -- ABA’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Banking and ABA’s Commercial Real Estate Committee convened a meeting yesterday of key stakeholders from the banking industry, federal government, appraisal industry and others.

The right mix of resources, critical partnerships and creative thinking can spur economic revival in financially battered 
rural areas.

Rural banks face a number of challenges that are compounded by unnecessary, outdated and excessively burdensome regulations, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said today at the fourth of five outreach meetings for the decennial Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act review.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) today released a draft of a sweeping financial reform bill that would provide regulatory relief for banks of all sizes, tailor the regulatory structure for systemically important banks and begin restructuring within the Federal Reserve System and at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.