By Rose Oswald Poels, WBA president and CEO
It’s hard to believe we are just over halfway through 2026! I’m proud to reflect on the many ways the Wisconsin Bankers Association has strengthened the mission of Wisconsin banks so far this year. Much of our success is thanks to WBA’s active and engaged membership. Below are a few accomplishments we’ve achieved to date:
Housing Grant Awards
In April, WBA announced $50,000 in financial literacy, housing, and economic development grants. This funding was awarded directly to our member banks to help bolster the important work they do to support the people and businesses in their communities. These initiatives ranged from developing first-time homebuyer education to financial assistance for down payment and closing costs to qualified borrowers in Wisconsin. These important projects directly help Wisconsinites reach brighter financial futures.
New Member Portal Launch
One of our most significant investments this year was the successful launch of WBA’s new member portal! WBA staff spent nearly two years planning and working through a database conversion to introduce a seamless online experience to our members. The new portal provides members with a single convenient place to access event registrations, community groups, and the WBA Best Practices Library. The CEO Dashboard provides bank leaders with a view of their institution’s engagement with WBA services. This project required a tremendous amount of teamwork, and I appreciate all the positive feedback we have received from members so far!
Second Fraud Summit Success
Last month, we hosted our second Fraud Summit after a successful first year! We launched the event in direct response to members who wanted more resources to address increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts. We brought in fraud experts and bankers to share anecdotes about fraud attempts they are seeing in their own branches — from scams powered by AI and phone spoofing, to social engineering and romance cons. We’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from membership and plan to make the Fraud Summit an annual event.
Advocacy Wins
WBA’s advocacy efforts this year have rung in meaningful results for Wisconsin’s banking industry. At the state level, among other priorities, WBA led the effort to fight fraud through the successful passage of crypto kiosk legislation which imposes daily transaction limits and liability provisions on owners, among other requirements. Federally, WBA was pleased to see some regulatory relief materialize for the industry in the form of revisions to the capital rules and extended timing of compliance exams by regulators. We also saw meaningful housing reform enacted into law with the passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.
WBA will remain actively engaged in federal policy matters for the industry through the rest of the year. There are many ongoing issues including additional regulatory relief, and fighting the cryptocurrency industry as they seek to maintain a loophole in the law related to the payment of interest/yield/rewards for money held in a stablecoin account.
Third Class of BOLT Leadership Academy
Supporting the next generation of banking leaders is just as essential as our advocacy efforts to preserve the future of Wisconsin’s banking industry. We launched our third class of BOLT (Building Our Leaders of Tomorrow) Leadership Academy, a program designed to educate emerging banking leaders with advanced industry knowledge and a robust peer network. Members of the new cohort are already making a difference — a few participants represented Wisconsin during both WBA Washington Summits this past spring and spoke directly to policymakers!
Record Number of Associate Members
WBA associate membership reached 187, the highest number of associate members to date. These partnerships not only provide important resources to WBA, but also offer WBA members a wide variety of meaningful products and services.
I am proud of what we have all accomplished together so far this calendar year! I look forward to continuing this success as we move through the next few seasons. Thank you for taking an active part in ensuring a strong future for the Wisconsin banking industry.
