The Wisconsin Bankers Association is a community of bankers dedicated solely to supporting and enhancing the banking industry in Wisconsin. Founded in 1892, our mission is to actively advocate for, educate, and support our members to help them positively impact the Wisconsin communities they serve.
WBA is a resource and advocate for Wisconsin’s banking industry. Through a wide variety of initiatives and resources, the association helps its members get connected, get ahead, get involved, and get informed.
Get Connected
Information sharing and networking takes place every day online. WBA’s website is the first place where members go to find industry news, access resources and ask questions. WBA’s social media presense, including several different LinkedIn Groups, is another way for bankers to connect.
Get Ahead
WBA is all about helping you and your bank thrive and grow. Bank employees seeking to elevate their professional education and enhance their individual performance do so by attending one or more WBA education programs throughout the year. In addition, WBA offers a specialized leadership development and training as well as a networking group focused on building up banking’s emerging leaders (BOLT).
WBA also offers a variety of resources to help bankers perform their jobs at a high level. Our free legal call program is staffed by several attorneys who field the many member compliance questions that crop up in the face of all the new and changing regulations bankers face today. In addition, WBA has created and collected over 100 checklists, model policies, suggested best practices, manuals, presentations and more are all available to members as well in a variety of topic areas including mortgage lending, agricultural lending, trust, retail banking, security, and financial education. Most of these resources are available for free in our online Best Practices Library.
Get Involved
Being an active participant in your association expands your professional and personal network, develops your leadership skills and helps shape the future of WBA and the profession. Advocacy is an integral part of what WBA does at the state and federal level on behalf of our members. We not only work to advance the industry’s legislative priorities, but we also spend a great deal of time focused on changing bank regulation as well as supporting the industry in the courts through the writing and submission of amicus curiae briefs in cases at an appellate level in Wisconsin that affect the industry.
WBA’s advocacy is not successful without your active involvement as well. In addition to grassroots alerts sent as needed requesting your direct communication with your elected legislators or bank regulators, we also need your participation in our dedicated industry lobby days. WBA hosts a Capitol Day in Madison each spring and organizes Wisconsin banker trips to Washington D.C. in the spring and fall. Be involved in directly shaping your industry’s future by actively participating in these critical advocacy efforts.
Get Informed
Each month WBA members may receive several publications, both print and electronic. These are by far the most valued source of both industry and association information. The Wisconsin Banker paper is considered WBA’s most-read publication providing industry articles and updates. The WBA Compliance Journal is a monthly e-publication full of detailed articles and summaries focused solely on compliance information and changes. Other e-publications include the Executive Letter, The Pundit, Banker News Clips, Consumer Columns, and The Banking Education Center, as well as section e-publications.
WBA also provides summarized quarterly bank data in two separate resources. The WBA Banconomics Report provides benchmarks and a breakdown of industry data from FDIC quarterly call reports categorized by asset quality, liquidity and profitability. Bankers use this resource to create peer comparisons for their own internal use as well as share benchmarking data with their bank board of directors. WBA also compiles summary data into a Bank Impact Statement brochure that is available for bankers to use with their board of directors or shareholders, and is also shared with media outlets and elected officials. The brochure is updated quarterly and includes summary information on the banks in Wisconsin, lending data, along with information and data on the overall economic impact banks in Wisconsin have on the state.
