Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP Greenville partner Neil Grayson was quoted in an article published on July 18 by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The article described how a top Federal Reserve official is calling for changes to how the agency reviews branch and merger applications, as a recent surge in community group protests, which are sometimes deemed unfounded, has led to prolonged approval timelines.

Grayson commented “it is a pretty consistent practice” for the regional Reserve Bank to lose the discretion to approve a merger under delegated authority "in any merger in which a protest is filed, regardless of the acquiring bank's CRA record and regardless of whether the protest is filed by a serial protestor and is inconsistent with the bank's supervisory record." Grayson added, “I agree with Governor Bowman that the Board should improve its approach to processing applications in cases where a member of the public has made an adverse comment, particularly when the recent supervisory record addresses the concerns raised and is consistent with approval."

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