Pub. 3 2015 Issue 2

21 Summer 2015 The Community Banker Fine Points FREEDOM AND LENDING By Camden Fine, President and CEO of ICBA L et freedom ring. Let eco- nomic liberty and opportu- nity flourish. Let credit flow on Main Street. This month, on the heels of celebrating our nation’s birth to secure personal freedom and economic opportunity, Indepen- dent Banker highlights recently successful lending by commu- nity banks. The magazine’s cov- erage represents snapshots of our industry, because there are far too many worthy community bank lenders to highlight in any single issue. So the coverage is part recognition of and tribute to the pivotal role community banks play in deploying local deposits to support people and local economies. (See the stories starting on page 20 and page 42.) Available, affordable credit is the indispensible lubricant in our nation’s mighty economic engine. In immeasurably diverse ways, credit empowers progress and helps fulfill individual ideas and dreams—the foundation of American opportunity, freedom and prosperity. Knowledgeable, responsive lending—along with processing secure payments and safeguarding savings—is fundamental to the relation- ship-based model all communi- ty banks follow. Every community bank wants—and in fact counts on—its customers succeeding financially as much or more tomorrow as they do today. Inherently, that involves respon- sibly providing credit to as many people as possible who need it. Often when other financial institutions fail to meet con- sumers’ needs, it’s community banks that step up to provide the credit that helps Main Street succeed. However, an underlying storyline amid this month’s Independent Banker coverage is how hard community banks must work today to continue to provide responsible, needed credit on Main Street. At almost every turn, from counterproduc- tive compliance requirements to misfit prudential mandates, one-size-fits-all overregulation is imposing costly burdens that are distracting if not downright hindering community banks from their primary role of providing useful, job-creating credit. Fortunately, ICBA and community bankers have secured several important and unprecedented exceptions for community banks from some, but not enough of, the newest Dodd-Frank Act provisions and mandates. But those sensible policy victories only stemmed a tide of excessive regulation already weighing down com- munity banks. The truth is that many misdirected regulations designed for Wall Street megab- anks and nonbanks continue to shackle Main Street credit, as in- dicated by numerous indepen- dent studies and a mountain of testimony from Main Street community bankers. The evi- dence is clear and overwhelm- ing, and today few policymakers in Washington deny it. With constant input and encouragement from ICBA, Congress continues to work on legislation to provide meaning- ful regulatory relief for com- munity banks. Many measures derive directly from ICBA’s Plan for Prosperity policy proposals. All of which would free commu- nity banks from regulation truly aimed at megabanks, and many of the proposals would directly help community banks focus their limited time and resources on Main Street lending. Amer- ica’s consumers, families and small businesses—and anyone with a personal stake in our economy—will benefit from the measures. That’s our primary message to Congress as we—with help from you and everyone at your community bank—push to secure meaningful regulatory relief this year. For so many important reasons, for so many people, let credit flow on Main Street. Let freedom ring! Reg Relief Resource Review ICBA’s Plan for Prosperity regulatory relief legislative measures online at www.icba.org/PFP2015