Bank Director Standards of Care and Protections: A Fifty-State Survey

In light of the litigation against bank directors spawned by the Great Recession, particularly suits by the FDIC against former outside directors of failed banks, the American Association of Bank Directors decided to conduct a fifty state survey of director standards of care and related issues. The Appendix to this Survey summarizes AABD’s findings, organized by state. Founded in 1989 in the midst of the S&L crisis, the American Association of Bank Directors is devoted to serving the information, education and advocacy needs of individual bank and savings institution directors. Bank regulators expect financial institution boards of directors to make informed policy decisions and to act independently to supervise the institution. One way for Boards of Directors to demonstrate that they are both informed and independent is through membership in AABD – the only banking trade association in the United States which exclusively serves individual directors rather than their financial institutions.