and strategize for a generational leadership transition and, yes, apprising customers of harmful policies being touted by the BIG GOVERNMENT crowd in Washington, Kansas bankers are increasingly on guard not simply for the bank, but for their customers too. Kansas bankers educating and informing their customers of misguided legislation or regulations emitting from Washington, D.C., reached a fever-pitch I hadn’t seen before in 2021 when a federal legislative proposal surfaced that would have forced banks to share customer data on accounts with total annual deposits or withdrawals of more than $600 to the Internal Revenue Service. When this proposal was gaining traction in Congress, the banking industry educated the masses and led to the IRS reporting proposal being shelved, with strong opposition coming from federal lawmakers from both political parties. The pushback on the IRS reporting proposal was an important lesson for me and, I believe, for our industry. With an ever-increasing number of legislative and regulatory proposals negatively impacting banks and bank customers, last fall, KBA’s Board of Directors directed your KBA staff team to establish a consumer-focused non-profit platform designed to educate Kansans on any proposed policy that will restrict their control of personal financial decisions or jeopardize the safety and security of their personal financial information. Free Market Kansans (a 501 C 4 non-profit) launched on Jan. 8, and the new platform is now actively educating Kansas consumers of ill-advised proposals that expand government overreach into the personal financial decisions and free-market options available to every Kansan. I hope you’ll check out www.freemarketkansans.org to learn more, and I hope we can count on you to spread the word on FMK to your bank colleagues and your bank customers. “We who live in free market societies believe that growth and prosperity, and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down.” — President Ronald Reagan 7
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