Politics Archive

Ahead of the hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on credit and debit card interchange fees, the American Bankers Association joined a broad coalition of national industry groups to communicate to lawmakers the serious flaws of interchange regulations and push back against efforts to ...Read More

By Rob Nichols, American Bankers Association Since arriving at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last October, Director Rohit Chopra has been busy. Under his leadership, the CFPB has issued nearly 60 press releases as well as multiple reports and blog posts, many critical of ...Read More

The Legislature met for two days last week, breaking a consistent pattern of three-day weeks during this Regular Session. Despite the “break” on Wednesday, both legislative bodies put in significant hours last week due to serious debate on a number of substantive and controversial ...Read More

Lawmakers continued its session last week completing days 19, 20 and 21 of the 30-day Regular Session. Legislative leaders have indicated that lawmakers will meet two days this week before taking spring break next week. Concealed Carry Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill Thursday ...Read More

Broadband Expansion The Alabama Senate on Thursday passed legislation sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Clay Scofield aimed at expanding broadband access across the state. Senate Bill 124 would modify the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) Broadband Accessibility Grant program and its ...Read More

ARPA Tax Relief The Senate passed SB 152 Thursday, which would ensure that Alabamians are not required to pay state income taxes on expanded benefits under the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”).  Such pandemic relief benefits include an increased child tax credit, increased dependent ...Read More

by Wes Scott and Richard Hills As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, bank merger activity in 2020 was down substantially from the previous year. However, a significant change of course is expected in 2021 and 2022 based upon the general health and capital ...Read More