By Rose Oswald Poels, WBA president and CEO
WBA’s 2025–2026 fiscal year comes to a close this week, and I want to take a moment to extend my sincere gratitude to you and your team for your continued membership in and support of WBA. Without question, the strength of our Association lies in the active involvement of members like you, and I am proud of all we have accomplished together to support a strong and resilient banking industry in Wisconsin.
WBA’s work this year kept the industry moving forward on several advocacy fronts. Wisconsin passed WBA-supported legislation to create a new law protecting consumers from fraud associated with virtual currency kiosks, prevented certain digital assets from being exempt from state regulatory oversight, and kept any interchange bill from being introduced. On the federal front, this year saw the successful conclusion of two issues which WBA long advocated on: a significantly narrowed Section 1071 data collection rule and the rollback of new Community Reinvestment Act rules to the more workable, pre-existing version. WBA’s advocacy efforts also continued to call for long-overdue regulatory threshold increases, feedback on forthcoming stablecoin implementation, and recommendations for regulatory burden reduction.
Much of our success springs from the participation of our membership. Over the past year, 251 members attended WBA Capitol Day in Madison, and 43 attended a Washington, D.C. trip. We also had 286 branches of 44 banks participate in the WBA Power of Community Week, which brought bankers directly into their communities for service work. WBA delivered timely legal, compliance, and consumer resources, and continued to help members reduce benefit costs — saving banks over $2.8 million through our Association Health Plan. You will find more details about these and other significant accomplishments in the July/August 2026 “Year in Review” issue of Wisconsin Banker.
Looking back on our numerous advocacy successes and the valuable resources we have delivered to members, I am optimistic about the great progress we will continue to make in the coming fiscal year.
I also want to thank WBA Board Chair Joe Peikert who began his term last month, past Chair Paul Northway, the officers, and the rest of the 2025–2026 WBA Board, for their involved leadership. I am proud of what the membership, board, and WBA staff has accomplished together for the benefit of the industry.
Please watch your mail this week for your WBA dues invoice for the upcoming 2026–2027 fiscal year, which begins June 1. If you have any questions about your invoice or membership, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly. I look forward to continuing to work with and for you in the year ahead!
