The third-quarter meetings of 2025 for the Bankers Compliance Task Force (BCTF) supported by Jones Walker LLP were held the week of August 25 in Collierville, Tennessee, and Flowood, Mississippi. Participants heard updates related to bank marketing, artificial intelligence considerations in banking, a fraud in payments presentation, and the latest news from Washington related to fair lending.
One item of note from the meetings and various conversations with regulators is that a bank's focus on fair lending should not change; rather, banks should continue efforts in fair lending compliance to the same extent as in previous years. The only change from a regulatory agency standpoint is that the bank's policies, procedures, and practices will no longer be reviewed for disparate impact.
Examinations will continue to begin with a focus on risk. If risk is perceived, then the next look will be toward the bank's Compliance Management System (CMS) and the mitigants therein. Finally, the examination will focus on redlining and, if a bank has lower numbers in majority-minority census tracts, it must demonstrate efforts made in those areas. The best way to do this is to take a three-pronged approach to:
- Document calls and outreach efforts
- Determine what was learned or gained from the efforts, such as community needs and/or services the bank could potentially offer to meet those needs
- Report those findings to senior management and the bank's board of directors
Additionally, it was reported at the BCTF meetings that stablecoin and cryptocurrency are a priority for the current administration, as made apparent by the recent passing of the GENIUS Act, which creates a federal licensing and oversight structure for "payment stablecoins." The primary concern of the banking industry is for stablecoin issuers to be just as regulated as banks. Banking industry groups are also concerned that a large number of bank deposits could be moved to cryptocurrency. There is a lot yet to be determined in this new area of payments. Additionally, policy makers are working towards a review and revision of 1071 and CRA, they and recently issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on the Section 1033 rules related to consumer data rights, among other issues which should make for a busy end to 2025 and beginning of 2026.
Future meetings of the Bankers Compliance Task Force supported by Jones Walker are scheduled for the following locations and dates:
Flowood, Mississippi and Webex
- November 6, 2025
Oxford, Mississippi
- November 19, 2025
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