DBA Digest for January 17, 2025

There's Still Time to Sponsor!

2025 DBA Washington Visit - March 5-7

Sponsorship opportunities are available through February 7th for the DBA Senior Executive Washington Visit, March 5 to 7. Sponsorship opportunities are open to all associate members who would like to participate in the event. Join these prestigious sponsors: Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, Richards Layton & Finger, and Discover!

Sponsorship includes opportunities for representatives from your ­firm to select to attend any of the following:

• Wednesday March 5th reception and dinner. 
• Thursday March 6th luncheon.
• Thursday March 6th evening reception. 

Take advantage of this unique networking opportunity to meet with top leaders in both the financial services and legislative realms. See the form below for full details and to reserve your organization’s place.

The List of Sponsors Grows!

2025 Teach Children to Save Day!

The list of sponsors for the new 2025 Delaware Teach Children to Save Day comic book continues to grow! Join Sponsors: Barclays, Wells Fargo, WSFS, TD Bank, Artisans' Bank, M&T Bank, Visa, Comenity Bank, County Bank, First Citizens Community Bank, and Shore United Bank!

Joining The Great Investo and Penny on their adventure into saving will be The Mystical Saveroo, the Savings Genie. The book will teach the importance of saving for a financially independent future. Each student will receive a copy of the book to keep. Sponsorships of the comic book are available. Please contract Sarah Long or Greg Koseluk for more information on sponsoring.

The 2025 event will be throughout the week of April 7th. Banker registration will begin in February, so stay tuned!

Don't Miss These Upcoming OnCourse Learning Webinars!

IRA Annual Update 2025 - January 22nd

The last 20 years of IRA rules have endured many changes, but the last 4 years have been the most significant. From the SECURE Act of 2020, to the Proposed Regulations of 2022, the SECURE Act 2.0 of 2023, to the Final Regulations of 2024, the IRA world was turned upside down. It’s no wonder everyone is so confused.

In this fact-packed two-hour webinar, we will explain all these changes and give you great pointers on how to prepare your IRAs for the changes taking effect in 2025. If you don’t get your beneficiaries set up on payments correctly for 2025, they may be subject to an IRS 25% “late penalty."

Audience: Anyone even remotely involved in answering IRA questions would greatly benefit from this two-hour session, including the frontline CSRs and tellers, the call center, the IRA operations department, as well and any trust or investment officers who handle IRAs.

CRA: New Rules and Current Requirements (all day streaming session) - January 23rd

After what has seemed like an endless series of irregular periods of action, the OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC have finally issued their long-awaited amendments to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations. We’ll also address the state of CRA today – what is necessary to achieve an Outstanding (or Satisfactory) rating? We’ll be living with the current CRA regulations for likely a few more years, so it’s important to understand what it takes to succeed today, as well as plan for the future. We’ll pay particular attention to the timeframes involved, as implementation will be somewhat of a phased process.

Audience: This streaming event will be useful for anyone in the institution who has any sort of direct responsibility under the CRA, including compliance professionals, risk managers, auditors, legal counsel, as well as anyone on the lending side who will be responsible for any of the many activities, products, services, and activities that will be evaluated under the new standards. And of course senior management and Boards of Directors will benefit by understanding what the new requirements entail and the timeframes for compliance with the new standards.

Learn more and browse all the webinars via the link below.

Bank of America Private Bank Market Minute

A stronger-than-expected December jobs report last Friday sent the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury charging higher, closing the week around 4.76%—the highest since October 2023 and more than 100 basis points (bps) higher than when the Federal Reserve (Fed) first cut its target interest rate in mid-September 2024. In tandem, major U.S. Equity indexes traded lower as investors digested the possibility that 2025 may bring a slower pace of monetary easing than originally expected. The S&P 500 declined 1.9% last week, finishing last Friday more than 4% below its December 6 high. The Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average similarly fell 2.3% and 1.9% over the week, respectively. Dominating U.S. economic new 256,000 jobs were added in December, well above consensus estimates of 165,000. The unemployment rate was expected to remain at 4.2% but instead fell to 4.1%. Juxtaposed against these signals of a strong labor market, year-ahead expectations rose from 2.8% to 3.3% in January per the University of Michigan’s preliminary Consumer Sentiment survey. Longer-term inflation expectations also warmed from 3.0% to 3.3%. Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s December meeting further emphasized that risks have shifted to the inflation side of the Fed’s dual mandate.

Ballard Spahr Elevates 12 Attorneys to Partner, Of Counsel

Ballard Spahr announced today that five attorneys have been elected to the firm partnership and seven have been elevated to of counsel. The attorneys of the 2025 promotions class hail from four of the firm’s five departments and are based in the firm’s Philadelphia, Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. offices.



“These lawyers embody the qualities that set Ballard apart: a commitment to excellence in legal services, an unwavering client focus, and a spirit of collegiality and collaboration,” firm Chair Peter Michaud said. “They have played a crucial role in our firm's achievements, and we are proud to celebrate their well-earned promotion.”