Pub. 3 2014 Issue 8

November 2014 21 l e a d i n g a d v o c a t e f o r t h e b a n k i n g i n d u s t r y i n k a n s a s T HE TOPIC OF OUR PANEL DISCUSSION was bipartisanship. And even though former Ag Secretary Dan Glickman and former League of Women Voters President May Wilson and I come from different places on the political spectrum, we enjoyed a lively discussion and a lot of agreement. My assessment – part of the recent two-day Domenici Public Policy Conference in Las Cruces, N.M. – is that opposition is a necessary element to eventual compromise, rather than a full- stop roadblock to good public policy. The metaphor I used was to imagine our nation as a ship of state. If the USS United States goes down, we all go down together – Republican and Democrat alike. Adversarial politics is per se destructive. Loyal opposition means to oppose with principle, but then to compromise with the other party to solve the nation’s hugely difficult problems. Elections matter, too. It’s important that we elect people who understand banking and how to effectively solve problems. Elections are your opportunity to create a better policy environment for your bank, customers, community, and our national economy. We have several tools available for participating in the political process. ABA BankPac is one. BankPac made it possible for us to participate in 80 percent of the House races and virtually every Senate race in the last election. BankPac also works closely with your state association’s leadership in deciding which candidates to support. Another tool we’re using is ABA’s Financial Education and Advocacy Initiative, or FEAI. FEAI is not a PAC like BankPac, or a SuperPac like Friends of Traditional Banking. FEAI is a 501(c)(4) and as such it can accept corporate contributions and fund “get out the vote” efforts and educational initiatives. FEAI’s efforts made a significant impact during the 2012 election cycle, with “get out the vote” efforts in five key battleground states. More recently, FEAI has helped increase the industry’s advocacy efforts around tax reform for credit unions and the Farm Credit System. FEAI's education efforts have included activities such as ad campaigns promoting the positive role banks play in their communities, and an informational brochure on the farm credit system to help educate policymakers on the least known of all GSEs. Amplify is a third tool we’re using to create a more favorable political environment. Amplify is a grassroots online platform to help you tell your story to your community, send a letter to Congress, or invite your congressman to visit the bank. It’s open to any and every banker at amplifybankers.com . One of the newest Amplify engagement tools is the interactive Twitter map, designed specifically to help bankers tweet their members of Congress on key industry issues, including regulatory burden, data security, the Farm Credit System and credit unions. The purpose of these three ABA tools — BankPac, FEAI and Amplify — is to make the conversation about banking a positive one. The importance of the role that you and your bank plays in your community is something everyone should agree on. E-mail Frank Keating at keating@aba.com © 2014 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. ELECTIONS MATTER By Frank Keating, President and CEO American Bankers Association