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Adding My Voice
Adding My Voice Anyone who knows me knows I hate to pass up any opportunity to talk about community banks. As a community banker for more than 20 years, I’ve seen firsthand the important role local...
Connect
Connect Subscribe to RSS Feed Follow Cam Fine on Twitter ICBA on Social Media Twitter: www.twitter.com/icba Facebook: www.facebook.com/icbaorg LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/icba YouTube:...
Who Is Really Dividing the Banking Industry?
Who Is Really Dividing the Banking Industry? Since my blog is still very new, I thought I would remind everyone that each week I will be sharing some of my thoughts with you on an informal basis....
“Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics” and the Truth about the CFPA
“Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics” and the Truth about the CFPA My fellow Missourian Mark Twain made the following observations about lies: “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” “A lie can...
Standing Like a Rock
Standing Like a Rock Thomas Jefferson once said, “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” ICBA has long had the reputation of standing on principle...
Setting the Tone in Washington
Setting the Tone in Washington For decades Wall Street mega firms and their Washington, D.C. trade group allies have set the financial policy tone in the nation’s capitol. But beginning in early...
Who's on First?
Who's on First? In just a 12-hour period on Monday, March 1, at least four proposals for where to house the consumer-protection function of the larger financial-reform bill were floated on Capitol...
Mr. Lockhart, Old Stories and Shakespeare
Mr. Lockhart, Old Stories and Shakespeare After I read the transcript and viewed the video clip of Mr. Lockhart's remarks on CNBC’s "Squawk Box" in which he said, and I quote: "What we need is...
Is that a light at the end of the tunnel?
Is that a light at the end of the tunnel? The light you see at the end of the tunnel may or may not be a train. We will know shortly. Last evening Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) began circulating a...
Social Agenda???
Social Agenda??? “Once Congress changes the base to an asset test, what is to stop them from thinking up other kinds of incentives that meet whatever social agenda they might have?" [emphasis...
Naked What?—Cover your Eyes
Naked What?—Cover your Eyes As if bankers and politicians don’t have enough to worry about when it comes to public opinion and financial reform, the Senate has been debating whether or not to...
High Roads and Low Roads
High Roads and Low Roads There is no doubt that passions are running high in regard to the financial reform debate. There are many sides engaged in this generational issue. And all sides hold...
The Devil is in the Details
The Devil is in the Details Congress is working to wrap up the financial regulatory reform bill in the next few weeks. Community bankers know better than anyone how important it is to make sure...
Beware Those Unintended Consequences
Beware Those Unintended Consequences With a financial system as sophisticated, complicated and interconnected as ours, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that there are no easy fixes. We didn’t...
Friday Night Lights Out
Friday Night Lights Out Last Friday night, the lights went out for four “too-small-to-save” banks. They faced the ultimate in resolution authority. I knew the bank presidents of two of the four...
A Central Bank With No Center? A Lesson From the Falcon and the Falconer
A Central Bank With No Center? A Lesson From the Falcon and the Falconer A central bank without a central role in the American banking and financial sector? Crazy, right? Absurd, you say? Not so...
The Elephant in the Room
The Elephant in the Room “When elephants stampede; it is the grass that gets trampled.” Thai Army proverb...
The Voices of Main Street
The Voices of Main Street “Only connect,” the novelist E.M. Forster urged people, almost a century ago. And nowhere are connections more important than here in Washington. Thanks to social media...
The Status Quo—Great for Wall Street, Fatal to Main Street
The Status Quo—Great for Wall Street, Fatal to Main Street Today two forces are facing off over financial reform—those who want real reform of Wall Street's greed and damaging practices and those...
Singing Out of the Wall Street Hymnal
Singing Out of the Wall Street Hymnal Just 20 banks of 8,000 now control over three quarters of our nation's assets and over 60 percent of its deposits. Community banks are at a 0.40 to 0.60...
Bailouts, big lies and moral bankruptcy
Bailouts, big lies and moral bankruptcy Evidently we’re not the only ones who are growing dizzy from all the spinning Wall Street is doing as it desperately tries to trick the American public into...
Yes, But is it Right?
Yes, But is it Right? “The problem for Tourre—and Wall Street—is that they're so intent on proving that what they did was legal that they can't see that what they did was wrong.” “With Financial...
Focused
Focused Focus! The singular mission of ICBA is to enhance and protect the community bank charter—period. Never was the benefit of that focus more apparent than last Thursday when the Senate voted...
What’s There to Like?
What’s There to Like? The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and just about every other newspaper in the country are calling the “Wall Street Reform Bill” a win for...
Calm Before the Storm
Calm Before the Storm Lawmakers are often a raucous bunch when they’re together, but Capitol Hill remains unusually quiet after the Labor Day holiday. Most members of Congress are still back in...
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine If you want to know who and what really triggered the financial chaos and calamity through which we all have just lived, a must read is The Big Short by...
FDIC Long-Term Plan Offers Short-Term Relief
FDIC Long-Term Plan Offers Short-Term Relief At a time when good news is hard to come by in the financial services industry, or anywhere for that matter, the FDIC’s recently proposed Deposit...
ICBA Convention on Pace for Banner Year
ICBA Convention on Pace for Banner Year When I was still running my community bank in Missouri, it was always important to me to find a way to get away for a week in March to attend ICBA’s National...
Community Bankers Take to the Hill
Community Bankers Take to the Hill It’s been a great week in Washington. While there is still a long row to hoe on a number of issues facing community banks, we made great progress this week as...
Do You Ever Wonder What It Is All About?
Do You Ever Wonder What It Is All About? Ever wonder about the millions, nay hundreds of millions, in Wall Street and megabank dollars spent on countless legions of lobbyists? For Wall Street and...
Taking Responsibility and Standing Tall
Taking Responsibility and Standing Tall Last week, as the great financial reform debate went into extra innings, temperatures were rising and everyone was tense and tired. When the conference...
Real Facts, and Beer
Real Facts, and Beer Lots of Washington, D.C., "pundits" and some association executives are sending out messages and summaries opining on the Dodd/Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection...
Reputations Intact: Proud To Be a Community Banker
Reputations Intact: Proud To Be a Community Banker One of the sad facts of this modern world in which we live is that we are bombarded with "messaging" nearly 24 hours a day. Our senses are...
Wanted: Sanity in the Exam Environment
Wanted: Sanity in the Exam Environment Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Given that definition, to many observers ICBA’s...
Persistence Pays Off on Small Business Jobs Act
Persistence Pays Off on Small Business Jobs Act The long and winding road of passing legislation to stimulate the small-business sector came to a successful end this week as the House voted to send...
Credit Unions Having Their Cake and Eating it Too
Credit Unions Having Their Cake and Eating it Too It’s official: The nation’s credit unions get to have their tax-exempt cake and eat it too! Federal regulators last Friday afternoon announced a...
A Robo-Sign of the Times
A Robo-Sign of the Times The so-called Masters of the Universe are at it again. Some of the same large financial institutions that caused the financial crisis have engaged in practices that could...
We the People
We the People We the People go to the polls today to engage in our sacred, inalienable right. The outcome of today’s midterm congressional elections will select the citizens who will come to...
A Sea Change
A Sea Change Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh called it a “sea change.” He’s right. Today the FDIC board of directors voted to base assessments on assets minus tangible capital instead...
Overdraft Guidance No Holiday Treat, or The Death of Common Sense
Overdraft Guidance No Holiday Treat, or The Death of Common Sense Happy holidays, folks. In case you missed it, on the day before Thanksgiving, the FDIC released final guidance on...