COVID-19

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The business, economic and financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be understated. While our families, friends, and clients are adjusting to these difficult, uncertain and stressful times – protecting our families, friends and communities from the spread of the virus, working from home, avoiding public spaces, and social distancing – businesses large and small are suffering from shutdowns, closures, breaks in supply chains, and the loss of business and revenue.

At a time when distressed situations will undoubtedly increase, it is logical, and reassuring, that Bankruptcy Courts will remain open for business in order to provide relief for troubled companies. The procedures may differ as many Bankruptcy Courts have implemented changes in order to address concerns raised by the potential spread of the virus. In this vital way, the Courts will continue to function uninterrupted.
Continue Reading Bankruptcy Courts Remain “Open For Business”

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We regularly work with financial institutions to navigate the challenges of implementing, maintaining, and using security procedures for commercial customers’ use of treasury management services. Security procedures are an integral part of the relationship between the financial institution and its commercial customers. Financial institutions offer (and frequently require) commercial customers to use the institution’s security procedures, which are agreed to be commercially reasonable, to originate payment orders (e.g., wire transfers and ACH Entries) from the customers’ accounts.

Issues often arise when one or more of a customer’s authorized users is not able to use his standard security procedures to access a financial institution’s physical or electronic payments systems to either originate or confirm a payment order. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and concern over the implementation of preventative measures, including more companies asking or requiring employees to work remotely, financial institutions should consider which customers may need to update, amend or supplement the ways that its customers can make payments, whether this be through adding authorized users or implementing alternative methods to send payment orders.
Continue Reading Considerations for Financial Institutions Regarding Security Procedures for a Remote Workforce

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In response to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, on March 6, 2020, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued an Interagency Statement on Pandemic Planning on behalf of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union Administration, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the State Liaison Committee.

The Statement identifies actions that financial institutions should take to minimize the potential adverse effects of a pandemic and provides specific items that should be addressed in a financial institution’s business continuity plan (BCP).  Due to the wide variety of possible ramifications from a pandemic, BCPs should be updated to provide for a “preventative program, a documented strategy scaled to the stages of pandemic outbreak, a comprehensive framework to ensure the continuance of critical operations, a testing program, and an oversight program to ensure that the plan is reviewed and updated.”
Continue Reading Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Issues Statement on Pandemic Planning

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Like most companies, you are preparing for how COVID-19 might affect your operations. Equally as important:  the conversations you should be having with your borrowers that range across multiple industries and sectors.  How is COVID-19 likely to impact their business? Are they proactively analyzing and implementing protocols to reduce costs, and better ensure continuity of supply?

These conversations, if approached correctly, can provide an opportunity to learn more about your customer’s business, while simultaneously pinpointing concerns that might affect their livelihood. And this crisis presents an opportunity to provide guidance and support to your customers, beyond the typical lender/borrower relationship.
Continue Reading Bankers: Are you having the right conversations with your customers around COVID-19?