The regulatory rollback, passed late last Month, contains three major benefits for local lenders, according to those familiar with the legislation. Those benefits include: reducing the costs of staying within regulatory compliance, eliminating annual stress tests for banks below the $250 billion asset mark and changing the rules associated with who can qualify for a mortgage.

Tucker Herndon, managing partner of law firm Burr & Forman's Nashville office, said in a phone conversation the rollback means banks will "be able to lend money more easily."

Under the new regulations, banks with $250 billion in assets will be subject to a yearly stress test to prove they can survive a financial crisis. Those organizations are deemed too big to fail. Previously, Dodd-Frank required those tests at the $50 billion level.

Herndon said this change means Tennessee banks that could hit that $50 billion mark in the coming years - such as Nashville-based Pinnacle Financial Partners and Memphis-based First Tennessee Bank - will "no longer have a collar on their growth." Pinnacle has $23 billion in assets, while First Tennessee has $40.5 billion in assets, according to their most recent filings with the U.S. Security & Exchange Commission.

Read the full article "What this regulatory rollback means for Nashville banks."