Pub. 4 2014-2015 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 2015 7  Congratulations 2014 Graduates from Colorado We congratulate you on completing the rigorous 25-month program and joining the more than 20,000 alumni who have gone on to leadership positions in their organizations, associations and the financial services industry. Best wishes for continued success! 5315 Wall Street #280, Madison, WI 53718 | Ph. 800-755-6440 | Please visit gsb.org Sponsored by: Educating Professionals, Creating Leaders Brandon P. Moore Vice President - Loan Operation FirstBank Lakewood Barry T. Schroeder Vice President FirstBank Conifer Ashley N. Stewart Vice President FirstBank Boulder drug has been legalized and where there exists an appropriate regulatory scheme, to serve the industry. The bill has not seen much progress, but we hope it will sometime in the near future, as the current state of affairs poses as serious threat to public safety with large amounts of cash being transacted with and stored, unsecured. While it remains to be seen if a newly approved marijuana credit union will gain footing in Colorado without NCUA insur- ance or access to the payments system, CBAwill continue to work toward a lasting solution to the issue: an act of Congress. Also at the federal level, CBA, its state association cohorts together with the ABA have found traction in obtaining some regulatory relief for banks. The ABA/Alliance Regulatory Relief Task Force, led by CBA, worked to gain support for H.R. 2673, seeking to make portfolio loans considered compliant with QM and QRM. Although the bill ultimately was unable to see passage during the 2014 session, the measure got a lot further than we thought it would, and it has good 2015 prospects. The task force will continue its work toward relief for bank- ers, and we are pleased with the progress we made in garnering attention to the overly burdensome requirements banks face. CBA and others pushed back at regulators and lawmakers as they looked to pile onto banks already struggling not to buckle under the weight of thousands of pages of new regulations im- posed by the Dodd-Frank Act, Basel III and others. We voiced strong opposition to increased data collection and reporting requirements under HMDA. We railed against tedious Basel III standards on highly capitalized banks and against proposed ex- pansion of the FarmCredit System. And, we spoke out in defense of the industry against false accusations by retailers following a series of data breaches at points of sale across the country. Your commitment, support, and most significantly, your hands-on involvement, has allowed CBA to maintain a superb record of influence and success here in Colorado and in Wash- ington D.C. We will be traveling there again in late January to meet with Colorado’s newly elected Members of Congress to advocate on your behalf. Thank you for your dedication to and participation in our work toward a stronger economy and environment for your industry, your banks and most especially, your customers.  Don Childears President and CEO Colorado Bankers Association