Best Practices: Impending Mandatory Changes to Florida Notarial Certificates for Acknowledgments and Jurats
Effective January 1, 2020, Florida law requires new language to be used in ALL notarial certificates for acknowledgments and jurats pursuant to House Bill 409 (“HB 409”)/Session Law Chapter 2019-71, which was signed into law in June 2019. Failure to include this additional language may: (i) cause the clerk of the court to reject the ... Read More
Best Practices: How to Deal with a Subpoena for a Customer’s Bank Records
Banks are repositories for vast amounts of financial information. This information may be useful to parties in lawsuits in which the bank is just an innocent bystander. Banks often receive requests for financial information in matters in which the bank has no direct involvement. However, banks have duties to their customers to maintain the confidentiality ... Read More
Best Practices: Closing Instruction Letters
The last few days before a closing can be a hectic time. Each party has its own responsibilities and everyone must make sure that there is an agreement as to when and how a closing will occur. No matter how chaotic this time can be, lenders should consider preparation of written closing instructions to be ... Read More
Best Practices: SBA Seeking Comments to its Export Loan Programs
On September 17, 2019, SBA provided an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (“ANPRM”) seeking the public’s comments to changes to the regulations governing SBA’s Export Loan Programs in an ongoing effort to increase lender participation and usage of such programs. See 84 FR 48807, RIN: 3245-AG95. According to the SBA, small to medium sized businesses ... Read More
Best Practices: Highlights from the Results of the Office of Inspector General’s High Risk 7(a) Loan Review Program in 2019
The Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) established the High Risk 7(a) Loan Review Program in 2014 to minimize losses on high dollar/early-defaulted U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) guaranteed 7(a) loans, and to confirm compliance with SBA program requirements. In 2019, the OIG chose to review 8 high dollar/early defaulted 7(a) loans as part of ... Read More
Best Practices: The Importance of Providing a Detailed Narrative in the Credit Memo When Documenting Credit Elsewhere
The importance of documenting one’s credit elsewhere (“CE”) analysis cannot be overstated. Arguably, no other provision of the Small Business Act has come under closer scrutiny. This is understandable, given that no applicant who may obtain CE on reasonable terms may participate in the SBA’s loan programs. The integrity of the core concept behind the ... Read More
