18 HќќѠіђџȱ юћјђџ юџѐѕȱ2014 FEATURE One of the greatest privileges of serving as your Independent Community Bankers of America chief executive is the opportunity to stay in touch with so many community bankers throughout the country. Recently a few of you have asked me privately whether I truly believe that community banks have a future. Most concerning, some of these questions have come from community bankers leading very successful institutions. While I don’t make many predictions, I’ve never shied away from speaking out about what I truly believe. And there’s one thing I’m ęȱȱȯȱ¢ȱ- ing still has a bright and prosperous future. Not only that, I believe the greatest opportunities in the history of community banking lie ahead for us. Have any doubts? Look around: Thriving, growing and continually innovating community banks are everywhere on Main Street America. Your institutions have all the products, services and expertise that your customers need and want, including technology for any generation. Most encouraging of all, today’s consumers more than ever understand and Ĝȱȱ¢ȱ ȱȱ- ship-based business model of community banks. Yet even knowing this, a hitch ȱ¢ȱ¢ȱȂȱędence would be understandable. The prolonged weariness and wariness from the Wall Street crash and “great recession” have taken a terrible toll on nearly everyone. Even before the ȱȱȱ ȱ ȱę- cial meltdown, you have endured a steadily doubting drumbeat from some industry pundits and consultants. These modern-day snake oil salesmen and naysayers, emboldened by their self-indulgent and self-fulęȱǰȱȱ¢ȱ questioned the long-term viability of our industry’s business model. Can community banks continue to ȱĜȱȱȱǵȱ Can they continue to deliver the necessary product and technology ¢ǵȱ ȱ¢ȱȱȱęȱȱ ¢ȱěȱȱǵ Will their capital sources hold up? Will their superior service and ex- ȱȱȱĴǵȱ ȱȱ customer loyalty endure? Certainly, these questions are worth asking and evaluating, but you have consistently managed all of these issues extremely well. Unfortunately, what these questions overlook is that the greatest problems facing ¢ȱȱ¢ȱȯȱȱę- ing economy causing havoc with your core lending revenues, combined with misdirected regulation clogging the gears in Main Street’s economic engine — have nothing to do with any shortcomings of the community banking model. What’s gone awry has been the Wall Street/ Washington, DC, axis of excess, not the community banking model. As long as we continue to tell our industry’s good story, community banks remain well-positioned to gain tremendous market share throughout ȱęȱȱ¢ǯȱ ȱ all of our industry’s successful work on Main Street and in Washington’s policy circles, we must not doubt or become distracted from the great opportunities in our future. The momentum is on our side and continues to gain pace, so don’t lose focus now. No community banker should doubt our industry’s bright and prosperous future. ICBA and its community banking leadership have never doubted it. As a former community banker of 20 years, and as your industry advocate in Washington for more than a decade, I have never doubted it. Ȃȱ ȱ яќѢѡȱѡѕђȱ Ѣѡѕќџ Camden R. Fine is president and chief executive Ĝȱȱ Independent Community Bankers of America. He came to ICBA from Midwest Indepen- ȱ ǰȱ ěȱ ¢ǰȱ ǯǰȱ ȱȱȱ and organized the bankers’ bank and served as president and CEO for nearly 20 years. A long-time member of ICBA prior to becoming the association’s president and CEO, Fine served on several associa- ȱȱĴȱȱȱȱ ȱȱȱǯȱ ȱȱ ȱȱȱDZȱǯęȓǯǯ
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