Pub. 3 2013-2014 Issue 4

O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S - H E L P I N G C O L O R A D A N S R E A L I Z E D R E A M S January • February 2014 7 CEDCO Small Business Finance Corporation Your Best Soursce for SBA Real Estate Loans New Easier Qualification Uninterrupted access to money through a monthly SBA-backed bond auction Low fixed-rate financing Low down payments CEDCO Small Business Finance Corporation Colorado’s SBA 504 Loan Expert TM 1175 Osage Street, Suite 110 Denver CO 80204 Denver 303-893-8989 Grand Junction 970-243-1852 www.cedco.org  More stability for your operation  A stronger balance sheet  An asset to sell when you’re ready AS A LEADING SBA 504 LENDER WE MAKE IT EASY FOR YOU  Buy, Build, Remodel or Expand Real Estate  Purchase and install long-lasting equipment  Fast, expert processing - with low loan costs  Refinance may be an option  We lend up to $5 million: borrow up to $20 million when combined with bank financing  Interest rate as low as 5.25%, fixed for 20 years  Down payments range from 10% to 20%  Most small Businesses are Eligible STREAMLINED PROCESSING  Front Range and mid-mountains call Jeff or Mary Jane 303-893-8989  Western Colorado call Pat 970-243-1861 From the temporary focus on new mortgage rules, we now return to our main agenda of action on the biggest regulatory burdens. We are planning two kinds of surveys, in addition to the two national surveys CBA pioneered last summer (10% of all U.S. banks gave us their regulatory burden priorities). First an informal survey of bankers about early ramifications can be used for discussions at bankers’ meetings in the next couple months, and second a more formalized one several months can assess the customer impact of the new rules and precisely what elements of the rules caused which problems. We are focusing on issues that impact bank customers. We’ve developed a long list of such issues and are working to narrow this to a very short list. To maximize the chances of success the number of changes we seek has to be few – but powerful. From the short list, our next steps will be to figure out how to address the issues. Some can be addressed by regulators, others in court and others in Congress. For those in Congress we will find our champions and the specific language we seek to lighten banks’ load. The themes will be: • The smothering weight of regu- lation hurts constituents/cus - tomers by reducing access to credit for many customers, in- creasing its cost, and driving in- dustry consolidation (contrary to government’s often stated objectives). Banks experience “trickle down” application of large bank practices being ex- pected as “best practices” for smaller banks. • Members of Congress don’t understand that banks are risk averse; they and regula- tors don’t comprehend that banker cautionmeans they will not make loans if they are not comfortable with compliance readiness, and the risks of regulatory criticism, software readiness, litigation, loan per- formance… • Regulators are single minded andminutely focused on assur- ing bank safety and soundness and compliance regardless of impact on banks or customers when they really need to foster and facilitate credit availability so long as it is provided in a safe and sound manner. • Despite community-bank-friendly rhetoric by national political leaders, the federal government is prompting industry consolidation, and abandoning the dual bank- ing system by its pervasive preemption of state law. This is an ambitious effort that has the odds against it. None- theless CBA feels that is what we need to do to represent Colorado banks well. We’ll stay in touch. Let us know your feedback. n Don Childears, CBA President/CEO