Capital Briefs: FDIC: Home-State Caps Rule Out-of-State Loans

Loans made by state-chartered banks to out-of-state borrowers are governed by the home state's interest rate caps, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. concluded Wednesday.

According to the interpretive opinion, a loan made by a Maryland branch of a Virginia-chartered bank would be governed by Virginia usury laws, for example. The only exception would be if three key lending decisions- approval of the loan, communication of the approval to the borrower, and the borrower's receipt of the funds-occurred in Maryland. In such a case, Maryland law on interest rate ceilings would apply.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency came to a similar conclusion in a Feb. 17 opinion concerning out-of-state loans made by national banks.

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