David Baris is the president of the American Association of Bank Directors. AABD provides bank directors with the resources to serve their institutions effectively and in a manner that will minimize risk of personal liability. It also represents their interests before federal and state legislative bodies, banking supervisory agencies and judicial bodies.
Under his leadership, AABD has advocated that banking agencies:
- Provide due process protections during and after examinations, and in enforcement actions
- Stop the use of its freezing of asset authority by administrative fiat
- Provide bank directors the right to have access to bank records to defend themselves in enforcement and bank insolvency suits
- Reduce regulatory burdens on bank directors
- Clarify that regulatory guidance is not mandatory and that noncompliance with guidance will not be used as a basis to support enforcement actions and a finding of an unsafe or unsound banking practice
- Take enforcement actions against individual directors only if they have engaged in willful violations of law or regulation or willfully engaged in reckless unsafe or unsound banking practices.
- Clarify that bank directors who meet their fiduciary duties under applicable state law are not responsible for bad bank financial results.
- Clarify that bank directors are entitled to delegate many responsibilities to bank management and rely on bank management and others who they reasonably believe can be relied on.
AABD has taken other steps to protect the interests of bank directors, including:
- Filing amicus briefs in cases where a vital interest of bank directors was at stake
- Submitting comments on numerous proposed rules that have an impact on bank directors
- Offering six-hour core courses to bank directors
- Arranging for discounts on D&O insurance premiums for bank directors who participate in the bank director certification program offered by the Institute of Bank Director Education
- Lobbying for amendments to banking legislation to serve the interests of bank directors
Mr. Baris was a partner at the Buckley Firm and at Kennedy & Baris, representing over 200 banks, and Counsel to Akin Gump. He assisted banks in more than 80 bank mergers, more than 50 bank stock offerings, numerous SEC registration and other filings, and helped form more than 30 de novo banks. He also represented banks on defense of numerous administrative actions, suits filed by the FDIC, and adoption of corporate governance measures.
He previously served as Counsel to the House Government Oversight Committee, Legislative Assistant to a member of Congress, and a director of Mutual of Omaha.
He has authored seven books on banking and bank directors and numerous articles on the subject.