80% of FDIC special assessment comment letters from community bankers

Community bankers responded in force to ICBA’s grassroots advocacy campaign supporting the FDIC’s proposal to exempt community banks under $5 billion in assets from its special assessment.

Grassroots Campaign: Of the roughly 232 comment letters submitted to the FDIC on its special assessment proposed rule, more than 80% came from ICBA members, all of which expressed support for the proposal. ICBA thanks community bankers for their participation.

ICBA Comments: In its comment letter last week, ICBA expressed strong support for exempting community banks under $5 billion in assets from the special assessment and urged the FDIC to finalize the rule as proposed.

Background: Since the immediate aftermath of the March bank failures, ICBA has called on the FDIC to exempt community banks from bearing financial responsibility for the failures. ICBA said in an April letter to FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg that community banks should not be held responsible for losses to the DIF caused by the miscalculations and speculative practices of large financial institutions.

Resources: The ICBA National Campaign—a national public awareness campaign that launched in March to differentiate and elevate community banks among consumers—has supported the differentiation effort. Community banker resources are available in the ICBA National Campaign Toolkit.

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