ABA: Community Financial Trade Associations Urge Congress to Close Stablecoin Loophole Threatening Trillions in Local Lending
A coalition of national trade associations representing thousands of community banks and credit unions today issued a unified call for Congress to take urgent action to prevent what they warn could be a multitrillion dollar disruption to local lending across the United States. In a new joint letter to the U.S. Senate, the CEOs of the American…
ICBA: ICBA Joins House Financial Services Committee in Support of Legislation to Transform Community Bank Regulation
Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey today joined a House Financial Services Committee fireside chat at the U.S. Capitol in support of the committee’s new Main Street Capital Access Act opens in a new tab(H.R. 6955). Following Romero Rainey’s testimony opens in a new tablast year at the committee’s first hearing of the…
ICBA: ICBA Urges Reform to Credit Union Tax Exemption
Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey issued the following statement on the year’s first reported acquisition opens in a new tabof a tax-paying community bank by a tax-exempt credit union that has already acquired a community bank. “With tax-exempt credit unions continuing their troubling pace of acquiring tax-paying community banks into…
ICBA: ICBA Opposes PayPal Application to Form Industrial Loan Company
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) today expressed strong opposition to PayPal’s application opens in a new tab to form an industrial loan company—a type of financial institution that receives federal deposit insurance while avoiding full regulatory oversight. “The FDIC should deny ILC applications from PayPal and other Big Tech companies and not allow these nonbank firms to benefit from the federal safety net while avoiding prudential regulation…
ICBA: Analysis Shows Permitting Interest on Payment Stablecoin Holdings Would Reduce Community Bank Lending by $850 Billion
As Congress crafts legislation to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets markets, the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) today released new data showing the harmful impact on local economies of allowing crypto exchanges, affiliates, and other intermediaries to pay interest, yield, or rewards on payment stablecoin holdings. Based on macroeconomic modeling from new industry research, ICBA estimates that continuing to allow crypto intermediaries to pay interest or yield on payment stablecoin holdings would reduce community bank…
ICBA: ICBA Opposes OCC’s Approval of Five National Trust Charter Applications
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) today expressed opposition to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s conditional approval opens in a new tab of five national trust bank charter applications from nonbank fintechs. ICBA has repeatedly said in letters to the OCC that the agency lacks statutory authority to expand trust powers under Interpretive…
ICBA: ThinkTECH Accelerator Debuts 10th Cohort to Continue Driving Community Bank Innovation
The Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) today announced the selected companies for the 10th iteration of its award-winning ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator program (AP10). The solutions span a broad array of offerings – from responsible AI for compliance to tools that accelerate small business growth, modernize lending, expand investing options, and strengthen fraud defenses –…
ICBA: New ICBA White Paper Calls on Policymakers to Close Industrial Loan Company Loophole
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) today released a comprehensive white paper detailing why policymakers should close a legal loophole that allows industrial loan companies and their parent companies to skirt regulatory oversight, endangering consumers and the economy. In “Closing the Industrial Loan Company Loophole: An Urgent Priority to Prevent Systemic Risk and Consumer Harm,” ICBA…
ICBA: Statement on CFPB’s New Proposal to Implement Section 1071 Small-Business Reporting Requirements
Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey issued the following statement on today’s updated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed rule to implement Section 1071 small-business reporting requirements. “ICBA and the nation’s community bankers commend the administration for making needed improvements to the CFPB’s 1071 rule to help mitigate the negative impact of…
ICBA: ICBA Urges OCC to Deny Coinbase’s Application for a National Bank Charter
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) urged the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to reject Coinbase’s application for a national trust bank charter for its subsidiary, Coinbase National Trust Co. (CNTC). In a letter to the OCC, ICBA outlined serious concerns with the application, stating it failed to meet requirements of the National…