Washington, D.C. (April 11, 2022) — The Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) earned an Association Trends 2022 TRENDY Award for its campaign opposing a plan to require banks to report customer account information to the IRS.
ICBA’s #KeepMyBankingPrivate initiative—which received the silver award for best advocacy campaign—enlisted community bank customers and consumers nationwide to speak out against the proposal, which has been pulled from legislation and not reintroduced.
“ICBA applauds policymakers for excluding the IRS bank reporting proposal from congressional legislation and the administration’s fiscal 2023 budget, which reflects the broad opposition expressed by consumers through ICBA’s #KeepMyBankingPrivate campaign,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said. “ICBA appreciates the acknowledgement of this important campaign—and we share this recognition with the community bankers who informed their customers of this policy proposal and the consumers who spoke out against it.”
Introduced last year, the proposal would require banks and other financial institutions to report to the IRS on the deposits and withdrawals of business and personal accounts — raising privacy, due process, and data security concerns. In response, ICBA developed the #KeepMyBankingPrivate campaign to help community banks inform their customers of the proposal and how they could speak out — which led to more than 700,000 consumer messages to policymakers, 17 million hashtag impressions and 16 billion media views.
ICBA will continue working to ensure this widely opposed bank reporting requirement is not reintroduced or advanced in Congress.
About ICBA
The Independent Community Bankers of America® creates and promotes an environment where community banks flourish. ICBA is dedicated exclusively to representing the interests of the community banking industry and its membership through effective advocacy, best-in-class education, and high-quality products and services.
With nearly 50,000 locations nationwide, community banks constitute roughly 99 percent of all banks, employ nearly 700,000 Americans and are the only physical banking presence in one in three U.S. counties. Holding nearly $5.9 trillion in assets, over $4.9 trillion in deposits, and more than $3.5 trillion in loans to consumers, small businesses and the agricultural community, community banks channel local deposits into the Main Streets and neighborhoods they serve, spurring job creation, fostering innovation and fueling their customers’ dreams in communities throughout America. For more information, visit ICBA’s website at www.icba.org.
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