ROB NICHOLS President and CEO American Bankers Association WASHINGTON UPDATE The U.S. banking system has long been the envy of the world. The reasons for this are many, but at the core, it’s because our nation has cultivated a vibrant, thriving financial services sector made up of banks of all sizes, charters, business models and risk profiles. Each one of these institutions has an important role to play in the overall economic ecosystem: from the community bank guiding a family through the purchase of a first home, to the midsize bank helping a small business manage its cashflows, to the regional bank providing commercial loans to promote the building of new retail centers and office spaces, to the large, globally active institution that supplies credit to multinational firms that provide thousands of jobs in the U.S. The breadth and diversity of our financial services sector is something no one should ever take for granted. That’s why ABA joined forces with the nation’s 51 state bankers associations to deliver a powerful message to members of Congress in the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank failures in March: the U.S. banking system remains the deepest and most resilient in the world, and policymakers in Washington need to keep it that way for the good of the country. That message continues to hold true in the wake of the unfortunate failure of First Republic Bank in early May. The sudden and swift collapse of these institutions is something that both banks and bank policymakers can and must learn from. But in recent days, there have been some in Washington who have seized this opportunity to advance misguided policy proposals — many of which have nothing to do with the failures of these banks. These include proposals that would make it significantly harder for community banks to compete and new capital requirements for larger banks that would limit their ability to lend at a time of economic uncertainty. Past experience has taught us that we are stronger and most effective in our advocacy when we speak with one voice and that there can be harmful consequences when we don’t. AMERICA’S BANKS ARE STRONGER TOGETHER 10
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