Pub. 6 2017 Issue 1

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 20 A WINNING GAME PLAN FOR 2017 By Rob Nichols, President and CEO, American Bankers Association T O SAY THE 2016 ELECTION CHANGED the outlook for banking policy is something of an understatement. It fundamentally altered the landscape and potentially set the stage for a very productive year in Washington. That’s not to say there won’t be challenges. Here’s what bankers hoping for meaningful regulatory relief need to know. With a Republican House, Senate and White House, odds of pro-growth legislation being enacted are significantly increased but not guaranteed. For any bill to succeed, it will need 60 votes in the Senate. That means bipartisan support — and strong grassroots engagement by bankers — is essential. That said, it’s clear our industry will be starting 2017 with our advo- cacy efforts closer to the 50-yard line than our own 5-yard line. This greatly improves our odds of scoring important successes for economic growth. The outlook is also positive on the regulatory side, where new leadership at the banking agencies will provide many signifi - cant opportunities to improve banking conditions. The Trump administration will have the task over the next several months of appointing new heads of the OCC (Comptroller Tom Curry’s term expires in March), FDIC (Chairman Marty Gruenberg’s term expires in November), Federal Reserve Board (Janet Yel - len’s term as chair expires in February 2018) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Director Richard Cordray’s term expires in July 2018). ABA will work collaboratively with the new leadership at these and other key regulatory agencies as we seek to reform and modernize the regulatory system itself. Of course, the agenda in Washington will be very crowded, and we’ll need to work together to make sure our policy priorities get — and stay — on Congress’ radar. It helps that our priorities are geared toward helping our customers, clients and communities thrive, a goal that clearly aligns with lawmaker concerns. In fact, when ABA’s Government Relations Council leadership and Board of Directors met in December, the bankers discussed the value of advocating not just much-needed changes like mortgage lending regulatory relief and simpler capital rules, but also policy solutions that are less parochial in nature and help the economy grow. These include ways to help those with heavy student debt, as well as to create urban housing solutions and a stronger Small Business Administration. The council and board members agreed that it made sense to embrace such big-picture issues given the role bankers play as community leaders and economic stewards. It’s even more important that the policy positions we advocate are positive and forward-looking, and tell the story of what banks are for, not what we are against. We are for economic growth. We are for job creation. We are for prosperity for our communities. Such optimism drives our industry, and it’s what should drive our advocacy, too. It’s far more compelling than an anti-this, anti-that platform. So how can we best take advantage of the more favorable legislative and regulatory climate to ensure our “Blueprint for Growth,” as we are referring to our policy priorities, is ad- vanced? The single most important way is for you and bankers like you to actively engage at the grassroots level. That means working closely with your state bankers association to ensure your state’s lawmakers — whether they are newly elected freshmen or seasoned politicos — are hearing from you and your colleagues early and often. It also means showing up in force at this year’s ABA Gov- ernment Relations Summit, March 20 ‑ 22 in Washington. This event is the largest industry meeting in our nation’s capital, with around 1,000 bankers with a range of titles and responsibilities attending each year. Given all that is at stake this year, I hope we will double that number. This simply must be our largest and best attended summit ever. To that end, if you’ve attended the summit before, please come again and bring a colleague. And if you’ve never attended the summit before, make this your year to start. (Find out more at aba.com/Summit. ) The 2016 election was a game-changer in many ways, but there’s one thing that remains the same: it will take the help of bankers from the C-suite to the tellers on the front lines to move the ball down the field and score meaningful legislative victories. WASHINGTON UPDATE