Executive Letter: Advocacy in Action: Meeting with Regulatory Leadership
By Rose Oswald Poels
Last week, nine bankers joined WBA’s Heather MacKinnon, VP – Legal and Communications and I in Washington, D.C. for our annual trip to meet with federal regulators. The small group format once again proved productive and resulted in impactful advocacy and conversations. In the span of only two half-days, the group met with senior officials from the FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve, as well as CSBS and Congressman Bryan Steil. We discussed regulatory relief, tiered regulation, indexing for community banks, deposit insurance reform, payments fraud, community bank capital standards and mutual capital, modernization of Regulation O, preemption and protection of National Bank Act, and emerging issues such as the Debanking Executive Order, stablecoin, the GENIUS Act, and the Clarity Act.
Our conversation with FDIC Deputy to the Chairman of Policy Alex LaPore and Director of FDIC’s Division of Risk Management Supervision Ryan Billingsley focused on several issues noted above as well as WBA’s concern that there is an out-sized focus by examiners in Wisconsin enforcing the National Flood Insurance Act. We also stressed the need for the Community Bank Leverage Ratio to be revised before it is more widely adopted by community banks. While FDIC representatives noted the agency remains neutral on deposit insurance reform as legislation advances in Congress, bankers urged greater transparency in deposit insurance analysis and data. Finally, we also raised industry concerns regarding the shortening of hold periods under Regulation CC exemption rules, emphasizing that extended hold times are often necessary when fraud is suspected to allow banks sufficient time to verify check legitimacy.
The topics discussed during our conversation with OCC Assistant Deputy Comptroller Brent Acree, Senior Advisory for Thrift Supervision Charlotte Bahin, and Director of the Office of Financial Technology Dave Stankiewicz were similar to those with FDIC. We also discussed the importance of continuing its focus on preserving preemption for nationally chartered banks.
Finally, our conversation with FRB’s Aleksandra “Aleks” Wells, senior advisor to Fed Governor Michelle Bowman, also focused on the need for regulatory relief and for tiered regulation and indexing for community banks, in particular on adjustments to BSA/AML filing requirements and to Regulation O limitations. The group also suggested greater transparency in branch and bank merger applications and recommended an automatic approval process for branch applications by well-rated institutions.
Participate: Be an Advocate in Action!
Each year WBA has three Washington, D.C. fly-ins: two Hill-focused events in the Spring in conjunction with ABA and ICBA, and then a Wisconsin-only regulatory-focused trip in the Fall. As stated above, these meetings are impactful as bankers are able to meet directly with decision makers and influencers regarding banking issues. Changes in policy and greater issue awareness do occur as a result of these meetings, and I highly encourage you to consider attending either our Hill visits or next year’s regulatory trip!
I would like to thank the following bankers for joining WBA last week: David Feldhaus, Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago; Corey Hoze, Associated Bank; Gary Kuter, Bank of Sun Prairie; Jeff Langkamp, Bank Five Nine; Kat Detloff, Ladysmith Federal Savings and Loan; Kristen Gagliano, North Shore Bank; Robin Christian, Premier Community Bank; Timothy Schneider, Bank Five Nine; and Todd Nagel, IncredibleBank. If you are interested in joining WBA on this trip next October, please let me know!
