ATLANTA, June 8 LAWFUEL – Press Release Service – A new non-profit corporation, The
Financial Institutions Forum, has been launched to offer educational
opportunities to those in the banking industry. The new corporation,
created under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code, will
conduct seminars, lectures, and conferences to instruct and educate the
public on industry regulations and other issues concerning financial
institutions.
The organization is sponsored by law firm Powell Goldstein LLP,
accounting firm Porter Keadle Moore, LLP (PKM), and The Bankers Bank.
Sponsorships from the three founding firms will enable the organization to
provide banking industry executives with low-cost continuing professional
education (CPE) and continuing legal education (CLE).
“Powell Goldstein has been working together with PKM and The Bankers
Bank to offer conferences for five years now with an incredible response,”
said Mark Baran, President of The Financial Institutions Forum and an
attorney at Powell Goldstein. “This organization was created exclusively
for educational purposes, and its programs are meant to complement and
supplement the excellent educational programs currently being offered by
existing state and national associations. The Forum is not designed to
compete with them, but instead to delve deeper into subjects or fill the
gap in areas where these organizations do not concentrate.”
This new organization is dedicated to providing educational
opportunities on banking and finance topics, presented by top-level
speakers, which may not be readily available from local resources. The
Forum, which will have no members or membership fees, will offer
conferences open to the public on topics such as S Corporations, going
private, Sarbanes-Oxley, and executive compensation. The events will be
funded solely through sponsorships and registration fees. For more
information about the organization call 404-420- 5926 or send an email to
info@financialinstitutionsforum.com. The website,
http://www.financialinstitutionsforum.com, will be active in the coming
months.
Participating sponsors:
Powell Goldstein LLP was established in 1909 and has more than 300
attorneys who provide legal counsel to clients in a wide variety of
practices from offices in Atlanta and Washington. The 17 attorneys in
Powell Goldstein’s Financial Institutions Group focus on regulatory,
corporate and securities matters for more than 250 financial institution
clients. For more information, visit http://www.pogolaw.com.
Porter Keadle Moore, LLP (PKM) is a full-service Atlanta-based firm
that provides accounting, auditing, tax, and information technology
assurance and consulting services to over 100 banks throughout the country.
The firm was founded in 1977 and focuses its efforts on banks registered
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, newly formed “de novo” banks,
and S Corporation banks ranging in size from $20 million to $6 billion in
assets. For more information, visit http://www.pkm.com.
Of the 21 bankers banks in the United States chartered specifically to
serve the needs of community financial institutions, The Bankers Bank,
headquartered in Atlanta, is the largest in terms of capital and asset
size. Chartered in 1986, The Bankers Bank has over $2 billion in assets,
more than 300 employees and serves over 1,200 community financial
institutions nationwide. For more information about The Bankers Bank, visit
http://www.bankersbank.com or call 800.277.2265.
About the Directors of The Financial Institutions Forum, Inc.:
Mark Baran – President
Mark Baran is Counsel in the Financial Institutions Practice Group at
Powell Goldstein in Washington. He concentrates his practice on financial
institutions, with an emphasis on the taxation, regulation, and structure
of financial institutions. Prior to joining Powell Goldstein, he was a
director and senior tax counsel in the government relations division of the
American Bankers Association. He was responsible for legislative,
regulatory and educational efforts involving the taxation of financial
institutions, and represented the banking industry before the Congress,
federal agencies, and the court system. Mr. Baran also served as a senior
attorney in the legal division of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
and Resolution Trust Corporation, where he worked on various transactional,
tax, employee benefits, and litigation matters.
Laura A. Snyder – Secretary/Treasurer
Ms. Snyder is the Director of Marketing at Porter Keadle Moore, LLP in
Atlanta and has 15 years of experience in marketing, having assisted
organizations ranging from small closely held businesses to Fortune 50
companies with their marketing communications activities. She has managed
the planning functions for hundreds of events throughout her career and
developed a multitude of collateral materials including websites,
newsletters, product brochures, customer testimonials, and direct mail
pieces. Ms. Snyder is a member of the PKF North American Network’s
SuperMarketer Task Force, which is responsible for developing marketing
programs for the association’s 90+ member firms. She is actively involved
in the Association for Accounting Marketing for which she serves as a Board
member of the Atlanta chapter, and co-chair of the Marketing Achievement
Awards committee.
Walter G. Moeling, IV – Director
Walt Moeling is a partner and Chair of the Financial Institutions
Practice Group at Powell Goldstein in Atlanta, which represents banks,
thrifts, insurance companies, and securities firms nationwide. Mr. Moeling
organizes de novo banks, their holding companies, and their non-bank
affiliates and subsidiaries. He advises financial institutions regarding
raising capital, going private, repurchasing stock, and conversion to
Subchapter S tax status. He also negotiates and structures the purchase and
sale of bank holding companies, financial institutions, non-bank
affiliates, branches, and other financial institution assets. Mr. Moeling
also counsels clients on corporate governance matters, on operational and
regulatory issues faced by financial institutions, and on strategies for
dealing with hostile takeovers and dissident shareholders.
Patrick A. Tuley – Director
Patrick A. Tuley, CPA is a partner at Porter Keadle Moore, LLP in
Atlanta. He has over 20 years of experience in public accounting, most
recently as a partner with a Big Four accounting firm. He has worked with
clients ranging from individuals to international Fortune 50 companies in
the areas of federal, state and local tax compliance; corporate tax
planning; business structure planning; merger and acquisition assistance;
post-acquisition integration analysis and restructuring; state taxability
analysis (Nexus); stock option exercise planning; sales and use tax
research and planning; research and experimentation credit analysis;
individual and closely-held business structuring and tax planning; and S
corporation election, planning and compliance. He has also served as an
instructor for the Bank Tax Institute and the Financial Managers Society.
He currently serves on the Tax Committee of the PKF North American Network.
David Jones – Director
David Jones is a Principal in the Consulting Division of The Bankers
Bank and leads the Compensation Consulting Practice. With over 25 years in
management and compensation consulting, his experience also includes
turnaround business consulting for financial institutions and manufacturing
companies, and business performance analysis. Mr. Jones specializes in
executive and outside director compensation for financial institutions and
is frequently retained to evaluate the appropriateness of executive
compensation and equity arrangements in light of business performance and
returns to shareholders and outside investors. Prior to joining the Bank,
he was a principal in the executive compensation consulting practice of
Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan
Companies. Prior to that, he was Vice President and Principal with
Matthews, Young & Associates, where he led the compensation consulting
practice.
