12 JULY / AUGUST 2018 education. ICBA will continue to promote the community bank profession and is fully committed to helping community bankers and their staffs grow in all stages of their community banking careers. “With advocacy, innovation and education being key priorities, I know that ICBA will be doing everything possible to create and promote an environment for community banks to flourish.” The community banking industry recently enjoyed a major legislative victory with the passage of S. 2155. What insights can you offer about how this and other legislative progress will affect community banking? “The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, S. 2155, is a community banker victory, and we want to thank all of the community bankers who stood up, told their story and advocated for our industry. Suffice it to say, our years of advocacy included hundreds of meetings with policymakers on Capitol Hill and at the White House, tens of thousands of community banker messages to lawmakers, congressional testimony, joint state association letters, petitions, articles, opeds and more. “But it was all worth it. By working together and pressing tirelessly for needed change, we will be able to better serve our customers and communities. “There are beneficial regulatory relief measures in this law for community banks of all sizes. It will unravel many of the suffocating regulatory burdens our nation’s community banks face and puts community banks in a much better position to unleash their full economic potential. “Many of the provisions that were included in the law reflect ICBA’s Plan for Prosperity regulatory relief platform, which was originally launched in February 2013. ICBA’s Communities First Act preceded it. As a community banker who also served as ICBA chairman, I can tell you that regulatory relief has been job No. 1 at ICBA for a very long time, and will continue to be well into the future. “But as you know, ICBA’s quest for commonsense regulation is not over. While this new law will make a positive difference for community banks, there is plenty more work ahead of us. We will continue looking for ways to create and promote an environment where community banks flourish, and we won’t take no for an answer.” Where is future progress needed? “As I said, I’m very focused on innovation and education. We need to continue to innovate as an industry, and ICBA is here to help shepherd and serve community banks in this space. In fact, we’ve dedicated significant resources to it. ICBA brought on Kevin Tweddle, ICBA’s chief innovation officer, a year ago. His role is to help community banks partner with financial technology solutions that work for them. “We also released a Fintech Strategy Roadmap in March, written in collaboration with Hunton & Williams LLP, to help community banks navigate all of the options that are available to them. I encourage all community bankers to look at the roadmap, A “selfie” brings together attendees of the 2018 ICBA LIVE Convention in March, gathering to thank the Senate for its passage of S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. Continued on page 14. Rebeca Romero Rainey is joined by her husband John at the closing banquet of the 2016 Indiana Bankers Association Annual Convention.
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