This month’s Unbiased Banker focuses on budgeting points with a particular emphasis on the ICBA Nationwide Neighborhood Financial institution Service Awards. With that two-pronged focus, I can’t assist however contemplate the connection between our position of service and the influence regulation can have on our very capacity to serve.
Inherent to our enterprise mannequin is a ardour to help our communities, one that enables for flexibility to fulfill the person wants of our prospects. On the opposite finish of the spectrum, rigidity is intrinsic to regulation. That pressurized relationship continually wants calibration to make sure that our prospects and communities stay the precedence, and regulators and legislators want to grasp that regulatory constraints usually restrict a group financial institution’s capacity to help its prospects.
For instance, there’s quite a bit being mentioned in regards to the overdraft guidelines, how they’ll get written and what impact they’ll have on the communities we help. Overdraft is a service we offer to our prospects—one that’s clearly disclosed and articulated—and our prospects select to derive worth from it. Overzealous regulation will restrict a product particularly designed to guard their pursuits.
Doing what’s proper for our prospects stays our chief precedence and our tenet, and there’s definitely a lot we will do exterior of our banking companies to make that occur.
Neighborhood banks stand out in at this time’s monetary companies house as a result of our enterprise mannequin is determined by an ecosystem the place the financial institution solely advantages when prospects do.
Simply have a look at this 12 months’s Nationwide Neighborhood Financial institution Service Award recipients. American Financial savings Financial institution in Honolulu runs the Kahiau Giving Marketing campaign to learn native nonprofits. First Neighborhood Financial institution of the Heartland in Clinton, Ky., began its Make a Distinction Program with the purpose of supporting foster kids and has expanded it to not solely improve that imaginative and prescient but additionally to include an added group service focus every month.
The place I’ll be this month
I’ll be attending the Neighborhood Bankers of Georgia Annual Conference and persevering with to advocate for group banks right here in Washington, D.C.
These honorees exemplify the spirit of group banking, one which we stock with us in our on a regular basis actions on behalf of our communities.
Neighborhood banks stand out in at this time’s monetary companies house as a result of our enterprise mannequin is determined by an ecosystem the place the financial institution solely advantages when prospects do. That’s why ICBA focuses a lot of our work on telling these tales to legislators and regulators, ensuring they perceive how group banks present up for his or her communities. They should see that we deal with these we serve.
That’s why I can say with confidence that irrespective of the regulatory pressures that come to bear, we’ll proceed to thrive. And since we lead with a spirit of service and a concentrate on doing the best factor by our prospects, our communities will flourish as nicely.
Rebeca Romero Rainey
President and CEO, ICBA
Join with Rebeca @romerorainey
