Search
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...
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...
Rumor Mongering Always Leads to Bad Results
Rumor Mongering Always Leads to Bad Results It’s amazing what you can learn if you just ask. The recent needless confusion over a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau information request is a prime...
Community Bank Customer Service Can’t Be Shut Down
Community Bank Customer Service Can’t Be Shut Down The government shutdown has come to an end, though the debate over federal policies and spending is far from over. Among the chattering classes,...
The Sound of Progress
The Sound of Progress I’ll admit it—I’ve been told a time or two that I march to the beat of my own drum. And that’s perfectly fine by me. As you well know, we at ICBA proudly represent just one...
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...
ICBA "Going Postal”
ICBA "Going Postal” I’m all for outside-the-box thinking. Fresh ideas and brainstorming are as important in community banking as they are in any other business. But sometimes an idea comes along...
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...
Note to Regulators: Exercising Fiduciary Responsibility is Not a Community Bank Board Problem - But You Might Make It One!
Note to Regulators: Exercising Fiduciary Responsibility is Not a Community Bank Board Problem - But You Might Make It One! As community bankers we have a fiduciary responsibility to our customers...
Let’s Cut Call Report Paperwork Down to Size
Let’s Cut Call Report Paperwork Down to Size Regulatory paperwork continues to occupy far too many community bank resources that could be dedicated to improving local communities, and the problem...
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...
Regulatory Capture Old News for Community Banks
Regulatory Capture Old News for Community Banks A new report exposing the New York Fed’s coddling of Wall Street megabanks—particularly Goldman Sachs—is making waves in Washington. And why...
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...
Let’s Take Last Week’s Convention Energy to Washington
Let’s Take Last Week’s Convention Energy to Washington ICBA’s national convention is always an incredible experience. If you haven’t witnessed nearly 3,000 members of the community banking industry...
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...
April is a Flurry of Community Banking Activity
April is a Flurry of Community Banking Activity Wow. I don’t think there’s much more you can say with the flurry of activity going on at ICBA and throughout the community banking industry right...
Regulatory Burden Is Capturing Big Headlines
Regulatory Burden Is Capturing Big Headlines While ICBA continues our full-court press toward advancing community bank regulatory relief all the way through Congress and to the president’s desk, we...
Take Charge: Combat Call Report Encroachment with ICBA Petition
Take Charge: Combat Call Report Encroachment with ICBA Petition Before I was ever a community banker, I was a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute and an officer in the U.S. Army. One of the...
Millennials Are the Future for Community Banks
Millennials Are the Future for Community Banks Forget what you think you know about Generation Y. The nation’s millennials—the biggest and most diverse generation of customers in our nation’s...
The Midterms Are Over, but the Community Bank Battle Continues
The Midterms Are Over, but the Community Bank Battle Continues Well, the 2014 midterm elections are in the books. It’s all over but the shouting (almost). With all the close calls, potential...
A Thanksgiving Blessing: the Libor Fix
A Thanksgiving Blessing: the Libor Fix As we look toward Thanksgiving with thoughts on all of life’s blessings, community bankers recently got a bit of good news that we can all be thankful for....
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...
Community Bankers to Washington: Let’s Work Together To Get the Job Done
Community Bankers to Washington: Let’s Work Together To Get the Job Done Last week’s ICBA Washington Policy Summit showed once again that community bankers are not only willing to go the extra...
Record-Setting Fines Still Megabank Pocket Change
Record-Setting Fines Still Megabank Pocket Change The recent guilty pleas and fines against five of the world’s largest financial institutions demonstrate not that regulators are finally cracking...
Common Sense Prevails on Capitol Hill
Common Sense Prevails on Capitol Hill Sometimes common sense really can prevail in Washington. It’s been known to happen before, but the latest example was the House’s recent removal of an onerous...
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...
Staying True to Our Mission
Staying True to Our Mission In an era of seemingly perpetual political gridlock, it’s important to pause on occasion to consider why we community bankers put so much effort into political advocacy....
Guest Blog: Giving Credit Where It’s Due—with Community Bankers
Guest Blog: Giving Credit Where It’s Due—with Community Bankers By Terry J. Jorde Congratulations, community bankers! This week we saw once again that our industry’s hard work and determination on...
Retailers Fishing for Distractions Amid Data Security Push
Retailers Fishing for Distractions Amid Data Security Push Congress is an intentionally deliberative body. It was structured by our founders to ensure collective participation in shaping government...
Loan-Loss Plan Is Direct Hit on Community Bank Lending
Loan-Loss Plan Is Direct Hit on Community Bank Lending The following op-ed originally appeared Nov. 9 on American Banker’s BankThink blog. It is no wonder that the banking industry strongly opposes...
Community Bank Persistence Pays Dividends
Community Bank Persistence Pays Dividends It wasn’t exactly what ICBA was advocating; nevertheless, nearly all community banks scored a major victory with the industry’s hard-fought exemption from...
Mortgage Relief Recognizes Community Banks’ Unique Role
Mortgage Relief Recognizes Community Banks’ Unique Role It was a long time coming, but persistence paid off when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently updated its mortgage regulations...
Study Affirms Community Banks’ Small-Biz Leadership
Study Affirms Community Banks’ Small-Biz Leadership It’s something ICBA and the community banking industry say all the time: community banks are the nation’s leading small-business lenders. And the...
A Voice That Must Be Heard
A Voice That Must Be Heard “You say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and then again and again and again and again, and about the...
Digging Deep and Making a Difference This Holiday Season
Digging Deep and Making a Difference This Holiday Season While many Americans are gearing up for the holiday season, ICBA and community bankers are gearing up for a bustling couple of weeks in...