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“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” and Neither Does ICBA
“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” and Neither Does ICBA Usually the time I spend on a plane is a way to lose myself in a book, reflect, catch up on work or perhaps enjoy a movie. On a recent trip,...
Stop Punishing Main Street Banks and Their Customers
Stop Punishing Main Street Banks and Their Customers Hey, here’s an idea. Let’s punish the thousands of small community banks that played by the rules and stuck by their customers during the...
Love is in the Air for Community Banks
Love is in the Air for Community Banks I’m not one for schmaltzy dramas. For those of you who don’t know, I’m more likely to take in a movie with scenes from Gettysburg or Omaha Beach. But this...
ICBA Convention Recognizes America’s Financial Foundation
ICBA Convention Recognizes America’s Financial Foundation Last week several thousand community bankers met in San Diego at the national convention of the Independent Community Bankers of America....
Interchange Legislation—A Reason to Dig Deep
Interchange Legislation—A Reason to Dig Deep The will of the nation’s community bankers to make their voices heard in Congress has never ceased to amaze me. Once again, it is time for community...
Cramdown: A Bad Idea That Continues to Smolder
Cramdown: A Bad Idea That Continues to Smolder Sometimes bad ideas are like grease fires—they can be hard to extinguish for good. In fact, one bad idea that ICBA has repeatedly doused with common...
Drawing Parallels to a Nation at War With Itself
Drawing Parallels to a Nation at War With Itself I just got back from an Executive Committee meeting in the great state of New Mexico. On April 12, 1861, guns in Charleston harbor opened up on Fort...
Big-Box Stores Selling Smoke and Mirrors on Interchange
Big-Box Stores Selling Smoke and Mirrors on Interchange A recent Washington Post op-ed suggests that small businesses should be wary of the promises of big-box retailers. A study conducted by David...
Strike Zones, 60 Votes and the Interchange Amendment
Strike Zones, 60 Votes and the Interchange Amendment When I was young I was a baseball player—a southpaw pitcher. I learned early on that each umpire had a slightly different variation on the...
The Genius of General Grant and Community Banks
The Genius of General Grant and Community Banks General Grant did not win one single battle against General Lee’s vaunted Army of Northern Virginia until the last nine days of the Civil War—but he...
ICBA: Celebrating Independence Every Day
ICBA: Celebrating Independence Every Day Like many of you, I got to enjoy our recent July 4th holiday with the essential ingredients for celebrating our Independence Day: family, friends, food and...
ICBA Looking Ahead at One-Year Mark
ICBA Looking Ahead at One-Year Mark It’s hard to believe, but one year ago President Obama signed into law perhaps the most significant financial reform bill in my lifetime. A year later, the...
Backdoor Bailout for Wall Street, Back of the Hand for Main Street
Backdoor Bailout for Wall Street, Back of the Hand for Main Street After nearly a decade of living inside the beltway, not much happens in Washington that surprises me anymore. But I was astounded...
Jackson Hole, Bernanke and Lagarde
Jackson Hole, Bernanke and Lagarde I returned from the Jackson Hole Federal Reserve Economic Symposium having listened to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Bernanke and International Monetary Fund...
How You See the Glass Sets Your Future
How You See the Glass Sets Your Future Experience has convinced me that Norman Vincent Peal was right! How you think of the future will determine it. If you always see half-empty glasses, that is...
Cockroaches and Community Banks
Cockroaches and Community Banks The exterminators are at it again. Another “pundit” is spraying around the latest prediction on the demise of the community banking industry. This particular...
Merchants Having it Both Ways on Interchange and Fraud
Merchants Having it Both Ways on Interchange and Fraud A recent security breach helps demonstrate that when it comes to fraud and interchange price fixing, merchants apparently are looking to have...
Regulatory Burden, Community Banks, and Voices
Regulatory Burden, Community Banks, and Voices There is no doubt that community banks are suffering under a plethora of stifling and, in many cases, unnecessary regulations. For several decades...
Assessment Savings a Testament to Community Bank Resilience
Assessment Savings a Testament to Community Bank Resilience For years we made the case that the deposit-insurance assessment base is unfair for community banks. And for years no one seemed to...
One Size Does Not Fit All
One Size Does Not Fit All The community bank business model is nothing like the Wall Street business model. So why would we want Wall Street firms or mortgage banks to speak for us any more than...
New Report Sheds Light on Wall Street Inequity
New Report Sheds Light on Wall Street Inequity I highly encourage community bankers to read this week’s report from Bloomberg Markets Magazine on the financial assistance provided by federal...
Outrage
Outrage Wall Street Gets the Gold; Main Street Gets the Shaft! We all suspected this, and now it is public. More than 1,000 community banks suffered severe damage as a result of their GSE preferred...
Underdog Champs as Gritty as ICBA
Underdog Champs as Gritty as ICBA Anyone who knows me knows that I am a fanatic St. Louis Cardinals fan. So I was in baseball heaven last Friday night. And it got me to thinking about the Cardinals...
It’s About Community Banks
It’s About Community Banks Do you all recall the now-iconic Bill Clinton 1992 campaign slogan—“It’s the economy, stupid!”? Well, at ICBA, it’s the nation’s community banks, and it always will be....
Community Banks Are Our Business, Our Only Business
Community Banks Are Our Business, Our Only Business I was reviewing some legislative and regulatory items the other day, both from the recent past and current, and I noted several issues where ICBA...
Community Banks Are Financial First Responders
Community Banks Are Financial First Responders “Community banks remain a critical component of our financial system and our economy. They help keep their local economies vibrant and growing by...
Remember This: A Long History of Credit Union Mission Creep
Remember This: A Long History of Credit Union Mission Creep In case you’d forgotten, the nation’s credit unions have been making the rounds in Washington in recent weeks. There were about 5,000...
The Courage to Speak Out
The Courage to Speak Out The statement below made by the eminent economist J.K. Galbraith refers to the excesses on Wall Street that preceded the Great Depression, but it could have been made in...
Watergate and Regulatory Burden
Watergate and Regulatory Burden What do the infamous Watergate scandal and overwhelming regulatory burden on community banks have in common? “Follow the Money.” Many of us remember this quip from...
Heroes
Heroes Hero is defined as a person who has performed a heroic act or service and is regarded as a role model. On Monday and Tuesday of this week in southern Indiana, I looked into the eyes of and...
Credit Union Debate a Matter of Equity
Credit Union Debate a Matter of Equity Regarding the credit union push to more than double their commercial lending authority—TAX FREE—let me offer these examples. Two financial institutions sit...
It’s Not the Trade, It’s Too-Big-To-Fail
It’s Not the Trade, It’s Too-Big-To-Fail Many of us recall the now-famous campaign slogan from the 1992 Clinton campaign—“It’s the economy, stupid.” Bill Clinton used it to great effect. Recently,...
A Different Perspective
A Different Perspective I hold no animus toward anyone or any group that defends its members’ best interests. After all, that is the fundamental reason why associations are formed. That is why ICBA...
Déjà Vu All Over Again
Déjà Vu All Over Again As Yogi Berra said, “Its déjà vu all over again.” JPMorgan Chase recently announced that it lost more than $2 billion in trading complex derivatives. The news of reckless...
JPMorgan Redux
JPMorgan Redux I have gotten hundreds of emails from community bankers commenting on JPMorgan Chase’s $2 billion trading blunder. Below is just one example of an email I received from one of our...
Transaction Account Coverage an Urgent Issue
Transaction Account Coverage an Urgent Issue At ICBA’s recent Washington Policy Summit, I told community bankers gathered in the nation’s capital that our industry is full of passionate advocates....
Small Business is Our Business
Small Business is Our Business Community bankers have a positive story, and we love to tell it. So it’s always a pleasure when others help us get the word out about how community banks contribute...
Here They Go Again
Here They Go Again I’m sorry, but if you repeat a lie often enough, it still doesn’t make it the truth. That hasn’t stopped Wall Street apologists from continuing the stale assault that the...
Trillions for Wall Street, but not one cent for Main Street
Trillions for Wall Street, but not one cent for Main Street “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.” When Robert Goodloe Harper uttered that famous statement he was referring to...
The Antidote to Deposit Concentration? TAG
The Antidote to Deposit Concentration? TAG I recently wrote that extending full FDIC coverage of noninterest-bearing transaction accounts is a matter of urgency. And it is. Congress has to act by...
Ending Crushing Regulatory Burden Job #1 at ICBA
Ending Crushing Regulatory Burden Job #1 at ICBA Ending the crushing regulatory burden on Main Street community banks is and has always been Job #1 at ICBA. But over the past four years, our...
ICBA Welcomes ABA to TAG Extension Effort
ICBA Welcomes ABA to TAG Extension Effort This week’s American Bankers Association announcement that it will join the ICBA-led push for extending full FDIC coverage of noninterest-bearing...
FDIC TAG Preparation Now Essential
FDIC TAG Preparation Now Essential For all of us who’ve spent the better part of a year calling on Congress to extend the FDIC’s Transaction Account Guarantee program, last week’s Senate vote...
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...
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...
Seize the Month: April is Go Time for Community Banks
Seize the Month: April is Go Time for Community Banks Community bankers know we can’t rest on our laurels. We have to strike while the iron is hot—whether it is a loan to a local small business or...
The Dangers of Regulatory Overreach and Those Who Exploit It
The Dangers of Regulatory Overreach and Those Who Exploit It In case you missed it, American Banker this week launched a series that sheds some light on the unintended consequences that can result...
Too-Big-To-Jail Talk is Cheap
Too-Big-To-Jail Talk is Cheap Here in Washington, I hear a lot of talk. People will say just about anything and claim it’s the truth, no matter what the record shows. Well, I’m from the Show-Me...
Free Societies and the Rule of Law
Free Societies and the Rule of Law Operation Choke Point is a U.S. Department of Justice-led joint effort with federal regulators designed to choke off access to banking services by businesses...
Making Progress on Making News
Making Progress on Making News What a difference a year makes. Last summer I embarked on a media tour of New York City. Joined by ICBA’s media expert, Senior Vice President of Media and Public...
Antonio Weiss Not Right for Treasury Post
Antonio Weiss Not Right for Treasury Post Reasonable people can disagree. I’ve always firmly believed that individuals can look at the same set of facts and come to differing conclusions without...
Regulatory Relief Push in Full Swing with Committee Markup
Regulatory Relief Push in Full Swing with Committee Markup The House Financial Services Committee last week advanced five ICBA-advocated bills to provide regulatory relief to community banks. The...
Big Banks' Swaps Push-Out Repeal Is a Pyrrhic Victory
Big Banks' Swaps Push-Out Repeal Is a Pyrrhic Victory The following post first appeared on American Banker’s BankThink blog. It is reprinted below with American Banker’s permission. By Cornelius...
Doing the Right Thing is in the Community Bank DNA
Doing the Right Thing is in the Community Bank DNA Happy 2015. I am humbled and grateful for the opportunity to kick off another year representing the nation’s community banks, an industry that has...
Some Banks More Equal Than Others
Some Banks More Equal Than Others I read the other day that the six largest U.S. bank holding companies have paid more than $150 billion in fines since 2009. Yet, at the same time, not a single...
Accounting Standards Next in Long Line of Cookie-Cutter Regulations
Accounting Standards Next in Long Line of Cookie-Cutter Regulations You’ve heard the old line that an elephant is a mouse built to government specifications? We’re all familiar with how government...
This Month, There’s No Place Like Home
This Month, There’s No Place Like Home It’s hard to believe that the August congressional recess is already upon us, but in many ways the community banking industry is well-positioned to take...
Let’s Put a Stop to Credit Union End Run Around Congress
Let’s Put a Stop to Credit Union End Run Around Congress The United States has three branches of government to prevent any one from having too much power. The tax-exempt credit union industry...
Banks: An Eponym of Epic Proportions
Banks: An Eponym of Epic Proportions When most people want a tissue, they say they need a Kleenex. When you cut your finger, you don’t say you need an adhesive bandage—you need a Band-Aid! When you...