Texas Supreme Court Advisory
Contact: Osler McCarthy, staff attorney for public information
512.463.1441
January 13, 2009
COURT ORDERS NEW CALCULATION FOR INTEREST ON
'IOLTA' ACCOUNTS
Amends Rule 7 for Access to Justice Foundation
The Texas Supreme Court amended rules Tuesday that govern interest on
lawyer-trust accounts to battle dramatically declining interest income that
helps finance state legal-assistance programs.
In 2006 the Court required banks holding Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts
(IOLTA) to pay comparable rates to those accounts as they do for similar
interest-bearing accounts. Among the alternatives to achieve that, banks
could utilize a "safe harbor" that pegged interest to the Federal Reserve
Bank's rate for overnight loans among banks.
But the Federal Reserve Bank's Federal Funds Transfer Rate - one
benchmark by which banks may pay interest on lawyer-trust accounts -
is now set as a range from one-quarter of 1 percent to zero.
"Because the federal overnight bank-loan 'rate' is no longer a rate but
a range, it no longer provides a reasonable benchmark for comparability,"
said Justice Harriet O'Neill, the Court's liaison to the Texas Access to
Justice Foundation. The Court created the foundation to raise money for
legal-assistance programs and to supervise its distribution among legal-aid
agencies across Texas.
The amended rule makes the benchmark rate the higher of 65 percent
of the federal transfer rate, or 65-hundreds of 1 percent (0.65), for banks
that choose the safe-harbor option.
"The rule as amended also affords the Foundation flexibility to determine
the appropriate index periodically, based on overall comparable rates in
Texas," Justice O'Neill said. "This will minimize the need for further rule
amendments as market conditions change."
Revenue from the lawyer-trust accounts has fallen from $20 million in
2007, to slightly more than $12 million last year, to projected revenue
this year of $1.5 million without the amendment. Justice O'Neill predicted
the amended benchmark calculation will raise this year's projected yield
to $3 million, still far below what is necessary to meet the increasing
needs.
"Without the change," she said, "the money we distribute to help the
poor with their legal problems would cover no more than overhead. And in
this economy, when more and more clients face foreclosures, fallout from
the hurricanes, and other hardships that may demand legal help, this rule
change is a slight but needed boost."
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