In July of this year, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) will merge into the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the primary federal regulator for thrifts will disappear after almost 70 years of oversight. Although there have been some public pronouncements on transition issues and the OCC and OTS have held public outreach meetings, senior executives of federal thrifts are still concerned about how the merger will affect the operations, examinations and regulatory relationships at their institutions. In order to answer some of the questions arising from the OTS/OCC merger, the Financial Institutions group of Vedder Price is hosting a luncheon on April 27, 2011 at noon (Central) at its Chicago office. Hear how the OCC/OTS merger will affect your institution from a former OCC examiner, former OCC attorney and former thrift regulatory attorney. For those who cannot attend the presentation in person, a dial-in number will be available.

Selected topics to be discussed will include:

• How will safety and soundness, compliance and CRA examinations differ under the OCC? How do examination philosophies differ between the OTS and the OCC?
• What effect will the merger have on OTS regulations, applications and supervisory guidance?
• What are the ramifications of having the Federal Reserve as the sole regulator for savings and loan holding companies instead of the OTS?
• What are the benefits of retaining the thrift charter? Should conversion to a national bank or state charter be explored?
• How does the OCC’s emphasis on risk management impact thrift examination?

Speakers

• James M. Kane, Chair of the Financial Institutions group at Vedder Price and formerly the chief legal officer of the OCC in Chicago for 12 years.
• Molly Curl , Bank Regulatory National Advisory Partner, Grant Thornton. Molly was a national bank examiner with the OCC for eight years and for 15 years was in charge of regulatory and compliance areas for a multi-billion dollar holding company with both bank and thrift subsidiaries.
• Daniel C. McKay, II, a senior partner of the Financial Institutions group at Vedder Price and formerly a thrift regulatory attorney with the OTS’s predecessor in Chicago and Washington, DC.

We hope you can join us. If you have any questions regarding the conference, please contact Dan McKay, +1 (312) 609-7762 or dmckay@vedderprice.com