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Main Street Heroes
Main Street Heroes Last week, Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and David Vitter (R-La.) showed that they stand with Main Street America by filing a bill that does something real and meaningful about...
Surprise, They’re At It Again
Surprise, They’re At It Again In the latest news from the “color me unsurprised” department, JPMorgan Chase is reportedly under investigation for manipulating energy prices and lying under oath...
Doing the Right Thing
Doing the Right Thing My upbringing at home, at the military college I attended, as an officer in the Army and during my banking career infused in me the values I hold dear today—duty, honor,...
The Fair Lending Inquisition
The Fair Lending Inquisition There’s not much that Washington can do to surprise me. As a community banker for 25 years, and in my time here at ICBA, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly of...
Credit Unions, Farm Credit System Should Be Weaned from Taxpayer Subsidies
Credit Unions, Farm Credit System Should Be Weaned from Taxpayer Subsidies In case you hadn’t noticed, the credit union industry has been making a big deal lately about its own tax subsidy. The...
Another Day, Another Fine?
Another Day, Another Fine? We’ve all been subject to countless articles and opinion pieces on the fifth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Everyone wants to know what we’ve learned...
Stage is Set for Key Congressional Battles
Stage is Set for Key Congressional Battles With the 113th Congress’ committee assignments and leadership structures in place, the legislative wheels for the next two years of policymaking are...
Wall Street, You Need Help
Wall Street, You Need Help If the first step in recovery is admitting that you have a problem, then Wall Street might need an intervention to wean itself from the too-big-to-fail problem. In the...
Public Growing Increasingly Sick of Too-Big-To-Fail Disease
Public Growing Increasingly Sick of Too-Big-To-Fail Disease Well, it’s official: the community banking industry’s push to end the too-big-to-fail plague once and for all has gained momentum. From...
Senate Letter on Too-Big-To-Fail, Basel a Solid Step Forward
Senate Letter on Too-Big-To-Fail, Basel a Solid Step Forward Community bankers received a double dose of good news this week with a letter from a bipartisan group of U.S. senators to financial...
Help Community Bank Voice Blossom in Washington
Help Community Bank Voice Blossom in Washington Spring is just about my favorite time of year in Washington. The weather warms and puts an end to the winter chill. The cherry blossoms bloom and...
Wall Street Lobbyists and Cicadas
Wall Street Lobbyists and Cicadas I have been in Washington for 10 years as CEO of ICBA, and I have seen everything from the Wal-Mart bank charter fight to the financial crisis and Wall Street...
Taking the Community Bank Message to Wall Street
Taking the Community Bank Message to Wall Street It’s always a privilege for me to engage in honest discussion and debate about the top issues facing our nation’s Main Street community banks. So a...
Basel III, Leverage Ratio Capitalize on Tiered Regulation
Basel III, Leverage Ratio Capitalize on Tiered Regulation It’s been a long time coming, with a few delays and several thousand comment letters, but regulators have finalized their key Basel III...
Too Big to Ale: Megabank Anticompetitive Behavior Hard to Swallow
Too Big to Ale: Megabank Anticompetitive Behavior Hard to Swallow One of the many problems related to our nation’s proliferation of too-big-to-fail banks is that it distorts our otherwise...
Megabank Fines Today, Community Bank Regulations Tomorrow
Megabank Fines Today, Community Bank Regulations Tomorrow Well that didn’t take long. A week after JPMorgan Chase paid $410 million to settle allegations that it manipulated energy markets, the...
Wall Street Offers No Shortage of Reasons to Take On Too-Big-To-Fail
Wall Street Offers No Shortage of Reasons to Take On Too-Big-To-Fail With the too-big-to-fail threat continuing to hang over the U.S. financial system, the question on the minds of many Wall Street...
(Double) Standards of Accountability
(Double) Standards of Accountability While much of the nation’s financial policy cognoscenti spent last week musing on the lessons learned since the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, some FDIC officials...
Chairman Bernanke Reports Progress in Fight for Tiered Regulation
Chairman Bernanke Reports Progress in Fight for Tiered Regulation Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had some positive things to say this week about the nation’s community banks. Noting that...
Gridlock? Congress Getting Along on Community Bank Reg Relief
Gridlock? Congress Getting Along on Community Bank Reg Relief What gridlock? While bipartisanship can be hard to come by here in Washington, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have...