Washington, D.C (Feb. 27, 2018)—Independent Community Bankers of America® President and CEO Camden R. Fine issued the following statement on today’s agency webinar on how community banks can implement the Current Expected Credit Loss accounting methodology.

“ICBA and the nation’s community banks commend the federal banking regulators for conducting today’s webinar and confirming that community banks can continue using their understanding of their local markets to comply with the Current Expected Credit Loss standard, which for most community banks will be effective in 2021. Regulators and the Financial Accounting Standards Board are doing their best to address ICBA concerns and ensure that CECL’s implementation is scalable and flexible for community banks and the communities they serve.

“Regulators today reaffirmed that community banks may use spreadsheet calculations, historical losses, qualitative adjustments, and loss-rate methods that are appropriate to their circumstances and risk profile. Rather than requiring local community banks to institute and maintain complex and expensive credit modeling systems, regulators are working to ensure local institutions can continue making localized financial decisions.

“ICBA will continue working with the banking regulators to ensure loan-loss reserve requirements are implemented by community banks with minimal expense and disruption to their local communities.”

About ICBA

The Independent Community Bankers of America®, the nation’s voice for nearly 5,700 community banks of all sizes and charter types, is dedicated exclusively to representing the interests of the community banking industry and its membership through effective advocacy, best-in-class education and high-quality products and services. For more information, visit ICBA’s website at www.icba.org.

###