Last week, CEOs from the largest U.S. banks testified before the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees about several topics, including proposals for a federal 36% rate cap on all loans. In the Senate Banking Committee hearing, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), who is leading efforts on a rate cap bill alongside Banking Chairman Sherrod […]

The session recordings from the 2021 Independents Conference & Expo are now available to registered attendees. Listen to the keynote, general sessions and breakouts, right from the AFSA LIVE(stream) page. WATCH

The featured Premier Business Partner for June is FIS. FIS™ is the world’s largest global provider dedicated to financial technology solutions. FIS empowers the financial world with software, services, consulting and outsourcing solutions focused on retail and institutional banking, payments, asset and wealth management, risk and compliance, trade enablement, transaction processing and record-keeping. FIS’ more […]

Rather than facing a crushing wave of defaults, many banks and credit unions are experiencing above average deposits and flush reserves. Lenders who expected to hunker down and mitigate losses find themselves instead in a race to spur loan growth and find more good borrowers. But the events of the past 14 months have scrambled […]

AFSA was pleased to welcome members and friends back for the 2021 Independents Conference & Expo. Virtual attendees were also able to tune in to the conference session via the AFSA LIVE(stream) sponsored by REPAY. A variety of boards, committees and working groups met in-person for the first time in over a year to discuss key […]

In this episode of the AFSA Extra Credit Podcast we talk with Mark Decker, Director of Business Systems Analysis with the Auto Group at FIS. As we come out of the pandemic, many businesses may be thinking of upcoming projects that were either put off because of COVID or are more important than ever because […]

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced this week the first monthly payments of the newly expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) is set to begin in July. As part of the March stimulus package signed by President Biden, about 39 million U.S. households are expected to receive monthly CTC […]

This week, Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic (SECURE) Notarization Act. The bipartisan would expand the usage of Remote Online Notarizations (RONs), enabling businesses and consumers to execute critical documents using two-way audiovisual communication in different physical locations. AFSA joined other financial services […]

AFSA and Joint Trades yesterday wrote a letter to Congress in support of pre-dispute arbitration clauses and against the “Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act”, a bill which would effectively ban such provisions in private contracts. “The use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in contracts benefits consumers, small businesses, and employees. For example, recent studies have […]

Today, AFSA wrote to the Small Business Administration (SBA) asking that it clarify that finance companies are eligible for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness. “AFSA’s members, like so many businesses across the country, faced sudden and dramatic revenue shortfalls last year. Instead of furloughing staff, those businesses with fewer than 500 employees applied for […]