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ACTION ALERT: Tell Congress to Support Rural Communities & Pass ACRE Act in the Upcoming Tax Bill

ICBA and ACB are encouraging member bankers to use the Be Heard grassroots action center to urge their lawmakers to co-sponsor the Access to Credit for our Rural Economy (ACRE) Act, which would exempt taxation interest income on farm real estate and rural mortgage loans in small towns.

With ICBA’s pre-drafted and editable letters. Please reach out to your representative and senators today and urge them to cosponsor H.R. 1822 and S. 838, the “Access to Credit for our Rural Economy (ACRE) Act”, introduced by Reps. Randy Feenstra and Don Davis/ Senator Jerry Moran and Angus King.

Once you submit your letters, you will be re-directed to CALL your Members of Congress. This should take just about five minutes, you will be directly connected with the offices easily, and we have provided a pre-drafted script with key talking points. Calling directly is a powerful way to make sure our advocacy is fully effective!

The ACRE Act would exempt taxation on interest income from farm real estate and rural mortgage loans, allowing community banks to offer lower loan rates and more efficiently serve their borrowers. This important legislation will help sustain and revive rural economies while providing community banks with benefits they can pass on to customers allowing their customers to benefit from the same tax benefits as other lenders already have for these two loan categories.

Please urge lawmakers to include ACRE Act in the tax package.

Click this link and ACT NOW! Thank you for taking the time.

Source: ICBA; ACB

CRA final rule rescinded

Three federal bank regulators propose to rescind the Community Reinvestment Act final rule pointing to pending litigation as the reason for pulling back the 2023 rule.

The Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. also plan to reinstate the CRA framework that existed prior to the final rule, which was issued in October 2023.

“The agencies will continue to work together to promote a consistent regulatory approach on their implementation of the CRA,” according to a joint announcement.

The October 2023 final rule was the first major revision to CRA regulations, which were established in 1977, in nearly three decades.

Michael Barr, who was the Fed’s vice chair for supervision at the time the rule was finalized, called the final rule a “win-win for all” when it was announced.

“Fair lending is safe and sound lending, and the CRA regulations we promulgate today will help make the financial system safer and fairer,” he said at the time.

But updates drew ire and legal action from industry groups and were also blocked by a Texas judge.



Source: Banking Dive

Community bank priorities for stablecoin legislation

As Congress works to advance legislation to establish a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, ICBA released an issue brief with updates on the status of current legislation as well as ICBA’s key priorities and continued engagement.

The issue brief offers insights on the expected passage this year of bipartisan legislation that would establish a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, a currently unregulated market.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (R-Ark.) and House Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) on Wednesday introduced the STABLE Act, which is expected to be voted on by the committee as soon as next week. The Senate Banking Committee recently passed its stablecoin bill—the GENIUS Act—by a bipartisan vote of 18-6 with changes addressing some of ICBA’s key issues.

ICBA continues to advocate for these key issues to protect economic stability and preserve the vital role of community banks:

• Nonbank issuers should not be granted Federal Reserve Master Accounts.
• Community banks must be permitted to use stablecoin reserve funds held as demand deposits for lending.
• Big Tech or other commercial firms must not be allowed to leverage their reach over consumers to dominate the payments industry by issuing stablecoins or affiliating with stablecoin issuers.
• There should be a defined federal floor for regulatory standards that applies to all issuers.

Source: ICBA

An article from

Gerrish-Smith-Tuck

Capital Planning for the New Year

In 2024, a number of banks were taking the overall strategic

approach of “Survive till ’25.”

In this article by Philip Smith and Charles Plunkett with ACB Associate Member Gerrish-Smith-Tuck, discuss strategies to "get as much new capital as possible from the fewest number of people to reduce the time and cost of obtaining the new capital."

Click here to learn more.

Source: Gerrish-Smith-Tuck

FDIC to end reputation risk exams

The FDIC plans to eliminate reputational risk from its supervisory framework, the agency's acting chair, Travis Hill, wrote in a letter to Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

"While a bank's reputation is critically important, most activities that could threaten a bank's reputation do so through traditional risk channels (e.g., credit risk, market risk, etc.) that supervisors already focus on," Hill wrote. "Meanwhile, 'reputational risk' has been abused in the past, and adds no value from a safety and soundness perspective as a stand-alone risk."

Hill said the FDIC, in collaboration with the Treasury department, is developing a framework to allow banks to participate in digital asset activities and will formally remove references to reputational risk from supervisory documents.

The FDIC's announcement follows the OCC's move to stop reputation risk examinations for regulated institutions.

Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Bill would harm consumers, reduce choice

ICBA and other groups warned Congress that any legislative initiatives to expand the power of the federal government to intervene in the U.S. credit card market would harm consumers, small businesses, and financial institutions.

In a letter to members of the House and Senate, ICBA and the other financial trade groups said the Durbin-Marshall bill—introduced in previous Congresses by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Reps. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) as the Credit Card Competition Act—would reduce choice, increase costs and fraud risks, create economic challenges for smaller financial institutions, and jeopardize the nation’s payment card system.

ICBA has strongly opposed the Durbin-Marshall efforts, including via joint letters from ACB    and with state community banking associations and industry groups, its partnership with the Electronic Payments Coalition, and ICBA polling conducted by Morning Consult that found more than 7 in 10 adults say changing the technology that is used to conduct credit transactions at the register is risky.

Source: ICBA

Executive order combating check fraud

ICBA applauded the Trump administration for working to combat the threat of check fraud by addressing the Treasury Department’s use of paper checks.

In a new executive order, President Donald Trump ordered the Treasury Department to transition from paper checks to electronic payments for all federal disbursements and receipts. The EO notes the use of checks imposes unnecessary costs and raises the risks of fraud, lost payments, theft, and inefficiencies.

The EO directs the Treasury Department to cease issuing paper checks for all federal disbursements related to intragovernmental, benefits, vendor, and tax-refund payments—to the extent permitted by law—by Sept. 30, 2025.

In a national press release, ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said ICBA:

• Is available to work with the Treasury Department as it transitions away from paper checks to ensure more secure payments.
• Is partnering with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to combat check fraud by offering community banks in-branch educational materials.
• Continues to support the growth of instant payments options like the FedNow Service.

Amid a dramatic rise in check fraud, ICBA has encouraged community banks to use the Treasury Department’s Treasury Check Verification System to catch canceled, duplicate, or other problematic Treasury checks at the time of presentment.

Source: ICBA

FDIC axes 'problem' asset data

The FDICs recent move to stop disclosing assets on its "problem bank list" will help quell conjecture about what institutions are on the list and negative impacts from that speculation, but the decision also removes a key data point on the health of the industry.

The FDIC will no longer disclose the total assets of banks on its "problem" list, taking away one of only two data points the agency disclosed on the matter. In a Feb. 25 statement, acting Chairman Travis Hill cited the potential for runs if a large bank added to the anonymous list was correctly identified as the reason for removing the disclosure. Though a run has never occurred as a result of "problem bank list" speculation, banks caught in the crosshairs of conjecture can find themselves facing consequences such as share price pressure and reputational risk, so removing the data point will help to alleviate those pressures.

"There are folks out there that are trying to figure out what bank is it so they can do something with it," Cadence Bank Chairman and CEO James Rollins III said in an interview. "The benefit to the [deposit insurance fund] of having some lack of transparency on what bank may be having a problem is a benefit to the industry as a whole."

However, there are still plenty of other ways to analyze the health of individual banks, industry experts said, so removing the data point, which is a key indicator for the overall health of the banking industry, will only do so much.

"The data is most useful as a gauge of industry health, risk and trends — not individual banks," said Chip MacDonald, managing director of MacDonald Partners LLC. It is "helpful to both regulators and the public."

Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Groups urge Congress to reauthorize cybersecurity law

ICBA and other groups urged Congress to reauthorize the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA 2015) before it expires on Sept. 30, warning that failure to act could eliminate a valuable tool used to protect U.S. critical infrastructure sectors.

The bipartisan CISA legislation—enacted after an Office of Personnel Management breach in 2015—provides private-sector entities with information and liability protections for sharing cyber threats. It also includes an antitrust exemption that provides similar protections for sharing between private companies.

In a letter to congressional leaders, ICBA and the other groups said:

• This voluntary information-sharing framework has been instrumental in strengthening the country’s collective defense against cybersecurity threats.
• The expiration of these protections would leave the U.S. vulnerable to nation-state attacks and cybercriminals.

Source: ICBA