Bank Regulatory

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Troutman Pepper Locke Partner James Stevens will serve as a panelist for “The 21st Century ROAD to Unlocking Community Bank Growth” webinar, hosted by S&P Global Market Intelligence on September 17. The webinar will bring together industry leaders to examine how the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act could reshape the community banking landscape, with discussion covering reciprocal and brokered deposit treatment, new bank formation, and challenges facing rural depository institutions. Register here.

ATLANTA – Troutman Pepper Locke advised Georgia Banking Company, Inc. (GBC), parent company of Georgia Banking Company, in the completion of a $55.0 million private placement of 6.75% Fixed-to-Floating Rate Subordinated Notes due September 1, 2036. The Notes have been structured to qualify as Tier 2 capital under bank regulatory capital guidelines. GBC intends to use the net proceeds to replace existing debt and for general corporate purposes. For more information, click here.

On August 27, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced a series of significant actions designed to improve transparency, consistency, and clarity in bank supervision and enforcement. The actions — which include a joint final rule with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), two revised policies and procedures manuals (PPMs), and a proposed rulemaking — reflect the agencies’ stated commitment to refocusing supervisory attention on material financial risks over process, documentation, and other nonfinancial concerns. Notably, the Federal Reserve did not join in these actions, and as of the date of this post, has not issued any comparable guidance or commentary.

On August 18, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register to implement § 3 of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act or Act) — the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the U.S., enacted on July 18, 2025. A payment stablecoin is a digital asset that is, or is designed to be, used as a means of payment or settlement, and whose issuer is obligated to convert, redeem, or repurchase it for a fixed amount of monetary value while maintaining a stable value relative to that amount. The GENIUS Act expressly excludes national currencies, bank deposits, and securities from the definition of payment stablecoins.

James Stevens, partner and co-leader of Troutman Pepper Locke’s Financial Services Industry Group, was quoted in a recent S&P Global Market Intelligence article by Claire Lawson, “Bank7 Eyes Expansion, Low-Cost Deposits in Unconventional Century Financial Play.” The article examines Bank7 Corp.’s unusual attempt to acquire a 71% ownership stake in Century Financial Services Corp. through a stalking horse bid in the U.S. District Court of Arizona. Industry observers have described this structure as highly uncommon in the bank M&A space.

On August 5, the SOLO Network announced a FinCEN-observed bank reliance pilot developed in coordination with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The pilot represents the first coordinated engagement across all four agencies to operationalize bank reliance at scale and could significantly reshape how financial institutions approach customer due diligence and identity verification.

On July 31, the OCC and FDIC jointly issued a proposed rule to significantly amend their existing Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations that have been in place since 1995.  While the proposal would retain key elements of the regulatory framework, it seeks to better align the regulations with CRA’s statutory mandate of encouraging banks to meet the credit needs of their communities by making “targeted” substantive, technical, and process-oriented changes and narrowing the scope of the rules.  Toward that end, the proposal focuses on the lending test, ensures that community development grants reach the communities they are intended to benefit, and narrows the range of retail banking services the agencies consider for CRA credit by excluding deposit services.  The proposed rule also seeks to provide greater clarity on how a bank receives CRA consideration and to reduce burden on banks (particularly community banks). Notably, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) did not join the proposal.

On June 16, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a cease and desist order against United Texas Bank, N.A. citing deficiencies in its Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) compliance program that resulted in violations of law or regulation. The action is notable not only for its substance, but for its context. The order was issued as a condition of the bank’s conversion to a national bank charter supervised by the OCC.

Earlier this year, on May 18, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board published its second notice of proposed rulemaking implementing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act). The proposal sets operating standards for permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs) that are subsidiaries of federally insured credit unions and updates the NCUA’s share insurance and capital rules.

The Road to Housing Act takes aim at one of the most persistent pain points in community banking: the risk that everyday deposit relationships — particularly those involving custodial arrangements and reciprocal deposit networks — get swept into the regulatory definition of “brokered deposits.” Sections 901 and 902 of the legislation offer meaningful, targeted relief, providing both structural clarity for institutions that rely on payment services arrangements and expanded safe harbors for reciprocal deposit programs. For community banks, these changes could meaningfully expand deposit stability without triggering the heightened regulatory scrutiny that brokered deposit classification brings.