InfoBytes Blog
FDIC finalizes policy statement on bank employment standards
On July 24, the FDIC issued a final rule, which formalizes the agency’s Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDI Act) Section 19 policy statement covering individuals seeking to work in the banking industry who have been convicted of certain crimes. In general, Section 19 of the FDI Act prohibits, without the prior written consent of the FDIC, any person who has been convicted of any criminal offense involving dishonesty, breach of trust, or money laundering—or who has entered into a pretrial diversion or similar program in connection with such an offense—from participating in the banking industry. In August 2018, the FDIC updated the statement of policy to, among other things, expand the criteria of de minimis offenses for which the FDIC will not require the filing of an application (covered by InfoBytes here), and in November 2019, the FDIC issued the proposed rule to finalize the policy statement (covered by InfoBytes here).
The final rule, among other things, (i) exempts all individuals whose covered offenses have been expunged; (ii) expands the scope of the de minimis exception for certain qualifying offenses involving the use of false or fake identification, as well as for small-dollar, simple theft offenses; (iii) eliminates waiting periods for applicants who have had only one qualifying covered offense; and (iv) allows a person with two de minimis offenses to qualify for the de minimis exception, and decreases the waiting period for two such offenses to three years (or 18 months for those who were 21 or younger at the time of the offense).