Wow! More than 80 BOL users converged upon The Court of Two Sisters last night for our first-ever F2F BOL users meeting. It was great to get to meet the people behind the names we know so well and to meet many loyal users who have never even posted.

BOL Guru Ken Golliher was recognized as coming the farthest for the shortest period of time -- he flew down from Louisville just for the BOL get-together! BOL Guru Andy.Zavoina (Andy's gone dot) was honored for being an incredible supporter of the site -- over 1415 posts and counting!

Members of the 100 Poster club and above who were present got a BOL golf shirt (coming soon to the Banker Store!).

We're taking notes on what we're learning at the conference (which has a record attendance), and I encourage everyone to use this thread to give some insight into what the speakers are saying (and have already said). I'm hoping that Andy will, as in past years, post his presentation on his site and put up a link to it.

More later. . . After a late night, we have a 7:10 a.m. meeting for the ABA Compliance magazine board. Argh.

It was good to hear from someone there at the conference for all of us that are unable to attend. Wish we could be there to soak up all that great information, too! Will we be able to order tapes of any of the sessions once the conference is over?

We are not there this year, but will be next year, so here is a plug. Go look at the Vendor exhibit booths. They will welcome you to kick the tires, and take a free pen. Its painless and some of those folks may have what you have been looking for.

Click on the link on our Home page to check out all the new pictures from the ABA NRCC in New Orleans.

For those of us not in New Orleans and able to read nametags and match faces, we need some captions!

Looks pretty wild and crazy!!!

CAPTIONS -- please add to them. I'm too sleep-deprived to get everyone straight -- especially since I can't find my attendee list to double-check names. If you're pictured and your name isn't list, excuse my feeble memory and identify yourself!

page 1 - The Court of Two Sisters -- the New Orleans hot spot where the BOL get-together was held. It's also shown in page 28.

page 2 - Chris Spellman from UMB Financial is on the right. To his left is Keith Monson, also from UMB Financial.

Page 3 - Dan Noga and his wife.

Page 4 - Brenda Canterbury, Louvera Walden

Page 5 - Al Miller and his wife.

Page 6 - Ken Golliher (in Hawaiian shirt), Dodie Bauman in the orange print shirt on the right, Debbie Crawford, far right.

More later. Gotta get some more pictures up!

Semi info from the conference and semi from private discussions with regulators; the announcement last week of enforcement of deceptive practices is a big deal to the regulators. I didn't think this was going to be a huge deal. I was sure we could have been penalized in the past and like most banks, we try to do things "right".

But the regulators made a big presentation. I would guess they see usage of these new powers on the horizon.

Sorry. It was poor manners not to first thank Mary Beth & Co. for the reception, the shirt and the special gift. It was wonderful and we're still talking about it with each other.

Be sure to check out the picture slide show from the conference.

Part 1

OFAC news: OFAC will be posting FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) on its Web site to aid people in complying. They are urging bankers to submit questions they would like to see included. Do it quick! They are supposed to have the Q&A up this month.

Some questions are really more suited for bank regulators because they deal with OFAC and banking-specific laws/regs. In those instances, John Byrne said the ABA will be spearheading an effort to put together a list of questions to submit to the bank regulators.

Did you know you can email OFAC? Their representative yesterday said they do respond to email. Their email address (which you can also use to submit questions you think they should include on the FAQs, is ofac_feedback@do.treas.gov.

OFAC Areas to watch: Loans: even think about who the guarantors are and whether they're on the list. ACH transactions (there is only an exception for ACH transactions posted in batch mode that are all domestic.)

There was apparently some lively discussion in the morning discussion about how OFAC applies to Cuban citizens who are residents of the U.S. The statement was made that the Cuban OFAC sanctions apply to transactions with such individuals. Maybe someone who participated in that discussion can share more about it. . .

Consumer Insurance Protection rules -- if we can pull together questions on some of the areas we still find fuzzy, ABA's Paul Smith is committed to working work with the regulators to get answers. They're already working on one issue relating to fixed annuities.

Hey, I know you must be editing out the photos of Compliance Officers whooping it up on Bourbon Street.

Topics for discussion in the days to come:
* collecting monitoring information for telephonic applications (HMDA)
* Reg. B and monitoring info collection rules by year end
* drivers license copies used to discriminate in loan pricing (indirects)
* the OCC was looking at the FHHLDS as a potential regulatory relief issue, it is on hold. (I assume due to HMDA reviews.)

This discussion will take several folks as some of this is from the regulator break out sessions.

Today was excellent.

Mary Beth (and the rest at BOL), thanks for the shirt. I got mine in the mail today, since I was unable to be at the RCC. I'll tell you, though, I about busted a gut laughing when I looked at the label and saw that the shirt is made in Myanmar (Burma), a country on the OFAC Sanction list!

Of course, I know from reading all of Mary Beth's OFAC material on the BOL OFAC page (by the way, the links to information on OFAC's site need to be redone, because OFAC redid their website) that with regard to Myanmar sanctions:

The sale or purchase of goods or services to or from Burma is exempt from these sanctions, provided the transaction does not result in a U.S.person’s acquisition of an equity or income interest in a project for the development of resources located in Burma. (Services constituting the general supervision and guarantee of another person’s agreement for the economic development of resources located in Burma are not exempt.)This trade exemption includes financial services, such as funds transfers, letters of credit, and financing contracts, provided that the instrument is not collateralized by a project for the development of resources located in Burma.

I've been looking at the pictures and I just have to ask: Has Stu Lehr appeared in a dress at any time during the conference? (Anyone who went to the ABA National Compliance School in March knows what I mean!)

Stu has been in standard banker attire for the conference. On Monday, he was awarded the ABA Distinguished Service award. During the speech made before the award presentation, he was referred to as the "Wizard of Compliance". The New Orleans bead necklace he has on in the picture goes with that theme.

I have to pass on my thanks to Mary Beth and the BOL staff, who was well represented. The conference was wonderful and BOL helped make it that way. The people were wonderful, the sessions were wonderful and I both enjoyed myself and learned a lot.

I wish I'd have had more time to visit more of my BOL peers. There just wasn't enough time for everything.

To Mary Beth & everybody at BOL - Thank you for the wonderful evening and the opportunity to match faces with names. Of course, some of us will prefer to remain "unmatched" when it comes to those pictures. So, just remember to put "Trixie LeBleu" when you get to the caption on that picture!

Those of you who could not attend this year really need to get a jump on whining, bribing or whatever it takes to make it to Washington in 2003! The amount of information you get in addition to the networking opportunities is worth almost any price.

Patricia,
I am so HAPPY to hear the the conference will be back in Washington next year! (I had heard rumors that it might not be.) I hated missing this year, but because I live just outside DC, I will pay out of pocket and commute if I have to, but I'll be there next year!
Leslie

June 8-11, 2003, Hilton Washington.

The good thing about this is there is lots of regulator participation possible and that means lots of good insight.

I just posted an article with a dozen of the tips I gleaned. It's just the tip of the iceberg, but take a look:

ABA Notes

Thanks to Mary Beth, George, Barbara, Andy, Carin and all the other wonderful people that made the NRCC all the better. The reception at "2 Sis's" was just great. To see the faces of all regulars on BOL was fantastic. By the way, is "diamond discusser" a new level of excellence. Knowing Andy, I think its a party of one. Thanks for the support, Andy.

Silly me, I forgot to log on. How am I ever going to catch up with Andy if I keep doing that.

It's just not going to happen - catching up to Andy, that is. I look at Andy's numbers - 1437 posts as of 7:30pm EDT on 6/7 and compare them to mine - 218 posts counting this one. Now I've been a member of this forum just as long as Andy. I consider myself to be a fairly knowledgeable guy about compliance. I wouldn't classify myself as shy in offering my opinions and advice. And yet the numbers don't lie - I'm in awe of you, Andy!

Yeah, you're right. I think he is well on his way to being a "titanium talker". I'll never catch him - he's one of a kind.