Community Banker Representation

Position

• To ensure community bank views are considered by key policy bodies, ICBA supports the appointment and election of ICBA member bankers to public and private sector boards, advisory groups and task forces that influence the development of regulations and policies affecting the banking industry.
• ICBA supports the statutory requirement that at least one member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System have experience as a community banker or community bank regulator.
• ICBA strongly supports the existence of the FDIC’s Advisory Committee on Community Banking, the Federal Reserve’s Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council (and the Federal Reserve Banks’ similar local advisory councils), the CFPB’s Community Bank Advisory Council, the OCC’s Mutual Savings Association Advisory Committee and the OCC’s Minority Depository Institutions Advisory Committee.

Background

Community banker participation is essential to ensure community banking views are considered by a variety of key policy bodies. The various councils and committees sponsored by bank regulators are important avenues through which community banks can provide the agencies with advice and recommendations on a broad range of policy issues that impact community banks and the communities they serve.

The councils and committees foster a dialog and help ensure that the policies and rules adopted by the regulators will take proper account of the unique role community banks play to support a vibrant small business sector and healthy local communities, especially in a challenging regulatory environment.

Likewise, community banker participation is essential to ensure community banking views are considered by other key policy bodies such as Federal Home Loan Bank boards of directors, NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association, the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group, the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, the FASB Small Business Advisory Committee, the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, and special task forces.