Oklahoma Bankers Association We make bankers better!
Ready or not, 2026 is here and it’s going to be exciting!
I would say this past year was a pretty successful year both in Washington and Oklahoma City, as far as it comes to legislation killed or passed.
This yea
r is going to present its own set of challenges and hurdles, but as an industry, I know we will be on the front lines fighting.
Before we look ahead to 2026, let’s take a look at some of the accomplishments we had in 2025.
We all know Washington is a crazy place, but somehow there is always some calm within the chaos where things DO get accomplished. I will talk only about issues related to our industry as we could talk for hours about things in Washington that worked or didn’t work over the past year.
We were able to get some major victories in 2025 – some were regulatory, some were via legislation and some of the biggest victories didn’t involve either regulators or legislation.
There were several bill withdrawals when it came to guidance, and we were able to make changes to existing rules and proposed regulations, including those related to brokered deposits, corporate governance, executive compensation, bank mergers and acquisitions.
As an industry, we played a role in the rollback of three critical rules: the 2023 Community Reinvestment Act final rule, the Dodd-Frank Section 1071 final rule and the Section 1033 final rule.
While there were numerous regulatory wins, there were also several legislative victories in the past year:
The inclusion of key bank-related tax provisions in the budget reconciliation bill, including a permanent extension of the Section 199A pass-through deduction rate of 20%.
The inclusion of a modified version of the Access to Credit for our Rural Economy Act in the reconciliation bill that will improve credit access in rural communities.
Approval of a congressional resolution overturning the CFPB’s overdraft rule.
Passage of a law prohibiting credit reporting firms from selling mortgage applicant information to lenders who then barrage those same consumers with unwanted solicitations.
The one item we were happy to see develop toward the end of the year was deposit insurance modernization. This has been a topic many folks have wanted to have and could never get the ball rolling in Congress.
The ABA delivered its plan and the Midsize Bank Coalition introduced its legislative proposal and that jump-started the conversation in Washington. The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on this topic, which gave it the attention it deserved. While the conversation has somewhat continued, there definitely isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach right now.
While Washington was busy, the same can also be said for the 2025 Oklahoma legislature. We had some wins, some setbacks and one thing we hadn’t gotten to experience in a long time.
The OBA introduced several bills this past session but two of them we considered high priority: modernization of the EFS filing system and tackling the crypto-money transmitter machines.
We were successful in moving EFS filings from the secretary of state’s office to the Oklahoma County Clerk’s office. The change hasn’t gone into effect yet, but it will hopefully be happening in the fourth quarter of this year. The clerk’s office has modern infrastructure in place, and the only thing that changes on your end is where you file – everything else stays the same.
The other bill we introduced was incredibly important to the OBA. The bill would hopefully play a significant role in eliminating fraud in Oklahoma especially for our seniors. As you are all aware, there are over 1,900 crypto-money transmitters in the state. These machines look a lot like ATMs and are located in every nook and cranny in Oklahoma. Research shows almost 90% of these machines are used to facilitate fraudulent transactions.
Going into the 2025 legislative session, there were exactly ZERO laws on the books to regulate these machines at the state level. We were able to put into place numerous requirements that will hopefully eliminate the bad actors and only allow the few legitimate machines to operate in this state.
We were able to get this bill through the House without any issues. The Senate was a little more difficult but ultimately it passed and went to the governor.
We felt good the governor would sign the bill into law. We kept in touch with Gov. Stitt’s office and so did the Oklahoma State Banking Department – the Department absolutely played a key role in getting this bill passed through both chambers.
We were all shocked when we learned Stitt vetoed the bill. His explanation made no sense, but a veto is a veto.
We quickly gathered all parties involved and got our ducks in a row to attempt a veto override. To override a governor’s veto you must have at least two-thirds of House and Senate members vote in favor of the bill. It wouldn’t be a problem in the House since we had more than that the first time, but the fun was in the Senate where we had to flip about nine “No” votes to be successful.
We were actually able to get 12 to flip and ultimately the bill went into effect without the governor’s signature. It was a great win and we are excited to see what happens over the next year with the new law in place.
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The Second Session of the 60th Oklahoma Legislature officially begins noon on Monday, Feb. 2 when the governor delivers his annual State of the State address. It is definitely going to be a crazy session being an election year, and you always see a bunch of different ideas during such a session.
There are several issues front and center in the Senate when session starts in February. Taxes are always there as the issue will be to cut or not – I know there is always an appetite to cut taxes. The legislature has made tax cuts over the past couple of years, but this year it might be a little more difficult. Although we don’t know for sure, the rumor is we won’t have the surplus we did in previous years that allowed the legislature to make cuts.
Other issues you will be hear about will be budget transparency, infrastructure investment both in the urban and rural areas, economic diversification and addressing mental health needs.
The OBA is going to introduce several bills this session – here are some points to give you an idea of what we are looking to accomplish.
1. Fraud Transaction Hold/Trusted Contact
Adds new language to and amends Title 6 to accomplish the following:
Allows banks (voluntary) to place a 10-day business transaction hold if it suspects a protected adult (over 62 or as defined by title 43A) is the victim of financial exploitation occurring, having occurred or being attempted.
Allows the hold to be extended by 10 business days if the bank’s investigation leads to a reasonable belief of financial exploitation or upon the request of law enforcement or APS.
Allows banks to reach out to a trusted contact or other person related to the account.
Provides an exception to the Financial Privacy Act for banks to provide information during an on-going financial exploitation investigation by APS or law enforcement.
Immunizes banks for their decision to place or not place a hold and to provide or not provide information during an ongoing investigation.
2. Enhancement of Vulnerable Adult Protection
A bill from the AG that would:
Expand the parameters of what constitutes exploitation to include engaging them to commit a crime.
Provide for criminal penalties for engaging to commit a crime and enhanced penalties for a pattern of exploitation.
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In the next month’s edition of the newspaper, we’ll have a complete list of all the bills filed for the upcoming session and let you know which ones we support and the ones we have an issue with that will need further attention.
I hope your 2026 is off to a great start and should you ever need anything please don’t hesitate to reach out.