Maine Banking, Community Bank News

MACB IS NOW MBA; JIM CONLON IS THE NEW CHAIRMAN

At the 117^th Annual Meeting June 24 in Bar Harbor, the members of the Maine Association of Community Banks voted to change the name of their organization to the Maine Bankers Association.  Mark Mickeriz of Sanford Institution for Savings accepts the past chairman’s plaque from incoming chairman Jim Conlon of Bangor Savings Bank.  The name change is effective immediately, and over the next several weeks the Association will work to update the website, email addresses, forms, signs and printed materials to reflect the new name.

May 25, 2010 - MAINE HOME SALES UP 62% PERCENT IN APRIL.  Click here for the April 2010 Maine Housing Report.

May 18 - Maine to Join Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System - Beginning on October 1st, all mortgage loan originators doing business with Maine consumers must obtain licenses from the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS).  All employees of federally regulated financial institutions are exempt because they are already supervised by the bank or credit unions’ prudential regulator.  The Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection will manage the procedures include background checks, professional education requirements and successfully passing a national and a state-specific test.

May 12^th -  GOVERNOR BALDACCI ADDRESSES 34TH ANNUAL DIRECTORS’ FORUM. Over 180 attendees welcomed Governor John Baldacci at the Directors’ Forum on Wednesday.  The Governor began by thanking Maine’s bankers for supporting the Maine economy by continuing to be responsible lenders.  He covered a number of topics from his recent visit to the rating agencies in NYC to the state’s fiscal condition, and he also raised questions about how to support small business lending. 

Statewide median sales price increases nearly 10% since March 2009.

Click here to read the March 2010 MREIS Housing Report.

MACB Comments on BofI/BCCP Notice
On February 24, 2010 the Bureau of Financial Institutions and the Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection issued a Notice of Joint Agency Rule-making Proposal regarding Regulation Z-2. MACB submitted comments on the proposed rulemaking.

Read the comment letter

The median sales price of existing single-family homes in Maine remained unchanged during the month of February 2010 compared with February 2009.

MACB joined the other five New England states in a letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Dodd urging him to rework the bill for Maine’s twenty mutual banks.

Banks across Maine donated $10.2 million to charitable causes in their communities in 2009.

The median sales price for a single-family home in Maine was $160,000 in January 2010, an increase of 5.09% from a year ago, and 18.63% more homes were sold in January than a year ago, according to the Maine Real Estate Information Service (MREIS) report released February 26, 2010.

 Maine Housing Report

The Mortgage Bankers Association of America’s National Delinquency Survey for fourth quarter 2009 shows a drop in the rate of delinquencies and foreclosures that has troubled the industry since 2007.

 Fourth Quarter National Delinquency Survey

The MACB CEO Midwinter Meeting was held February 4 at the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport.

Each year, Maine law requires a January 15th Report on the State of the Financial Institutions and Superintendent LaFountain has just issued the 2009 edition.

2009 State of Financial Institutions Report

This holiday season, the Maine Bureau of Financial Institutions is urging consumers to always read the fine print associated with gift cards.

Sixty-four bank leaders of tomorrow braved wintry weather December 9 to attend the 2009 Emerging Leaders Conference at the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport. Senior management decision making, ethics, and social media were among the topics of discussion.