The refund loan business remained in a state of rapid change over the holiday as Republic Bank and Trust, which is moving to take over bank products, said it was requested by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to have a February meeting about the future of its RAL business. Republic is moving to take over part of the business that has been dropped after Santa Barbara Bank & Trust was forced out by regulators.
The notification of the meeting was given by Republic Bancorp., the parent of Republic Bank and Trust, in filings made last week with the SEC. No other details were released. That followed announcements that Republic will fund the bank products for 90 percent of the locations of Liberty Tax and 75 percent of the bank product business of Jackson Hewitt. Last year, Republic had provided 25 percent of the Jackson Hewitt bank funds.
That still leaves thousands of businesses who worked directly with Santa Barbara, scrambling for a solution, according to Gene Goldenberg, VP of marketing for CCH Small Firm Services, which owns the ATX and Tax Wise lines.
"We are working with our customers and SBBT and with the other banks to ensure that all our customers are banked," said Goldenberg, who noted, "The situation is in flux at the moment."
Pacific Capital Bancorp, Santa Barbara's parent, has signed a non-binding letter of intent to sell its tax division to a private equity firm and expected that the unit will remain intact under the direction of Richard Turner. The name of the potential purchaser has not been revealed and the sale is apparently dependent on the purchaser's ability to provide capital to underwrite the loan programs
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
