Join community bankers from all over the West at beautiful Skamania Lodge for the 2019 Western States Community Banking Conference. More Info. What's Inside Save Your Seat Bite-Sized Board Training Free HR Hotline Axe Throwing Compliance Adviser Question of the Week

ICBA Urges Congress To Investigate Credit Union Abuses NCUA Failed To Prevent Reckless Lending ICBA, June 5, 2019   The Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) today called on Congress to investigate the National Credit Union Administration's failure to prevent credit union lending abuses. In  letters  to the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees, ICBA cited the NCUA's role in the taxi medallion scandal exposed by  The New York Times , in which irresponsible lending dominated by half a dozen credit unions led to financial ruin for thousands of families as well as a spate of tragic taxi driver suicides. "At the root of this fiasco is a failure of the NCUA to regulate and supervise," ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey wrote. "Lending concentration, abusive loan terms, and medallion prices inflated well above their fundamental value were obvious to industry observers, but the NCUA was deaf to the many warnings it received from the outside as well as from within the agency. In The New York Times series, one observer said the NCUA is more of trade group than a regulator, further demonstrating that the agency clearly was and remains captured by the credit union industry." (article continues below)

ThinkHR - HR Hotline, Training, & Resources free to NWFA Trust Members

Banks who participate in the Northwest Financial Associations Trust have FREE access to a new HR resource. ThinkHR is a cloud-based platform of integrated HR resources and training supported by live HR experts. - Compliance - An award-winning resource center for all of your workforce and compliance issues -Training - solutions that develop employees and ensure compliance with key administrative tools - HR Expert - A team of HR experts standing by to answer your questions or provide advice To enroll in ThinkHR contact Donna Losch at Brown & Brown Insurance 253-346-5544

Relief for Community Banks in the Competition for Deposits An important reform of the rules governing reciprocal deposits will make it easier for community banks to compete for the business of large depositors. By: Reg Truman, Regional Director at Promontory Interfinancial Network, LLC   The recent bank reform bill made a lot of news, but what may surprise you is the specific provision of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act that community bankers believe will have the biggest impact on their daily business. (Read More) Now Open! 2019 Independent Bank Compensation Survey Fortner Bayens Levkulich & Garrison 2019 marks our 31st year conducting the Independent Bank Compensation Survey. Many of you are long-time participants, and we welcome your participation again this year. Our free survey analyzes the compensation, bonus and benefit plans for essential Bank positions. More Info

Axe Throwing & Seafood Boil Early Bird Special Event at the Western States Community Banking Conference Channel your inner lumberjack with Skamania Lodge Axe Throwing! Throw a steel axe at a wooden target to score points and win bragging rights.  Axe Throwing Video .  Dinner is crab, shrimp, andouille sausage, corn on the cob, and plenty of beverages & libations to make you think sticking a bull's eye is easy.  What could possibly go wrong? More Info & Registration

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Free Webinar Running A Successful Retirement Plan: Evaluations & Monitoring

presented by Clifton Larson Allen June 27 1 CPE Regardless of your organization’s size and industry, your retirement plan needs continuous oversight to ensure it operates effectively and has the appropriate safeguards in place to prevent issues that often result in costly corrections. Join us for our complimentary webinar covering case studies and best practices for the operation of a successful retirement plan. We’ll explore common operational oversights, including investment monitoring and evaluation, and provide best practices for implementation. More information & Register

NEW Bite-Sized Board Training

Board Essentials   Need to liven up board training? This selection of bite-sized board topics is just the ticket! Each of the six modules is 20-40 minutes – perfect for use during board meetings. The topics are timeless, necessary knowledge for all directors. Order the Board Essentials for your directors today! Learn More Available ONLY via Recorded Webinar + Free Digital Download Recordings available Monday, July 1, 2019 (Look for July 1, 2019, when ordering.)

Speaker Sneak Peek Western States Community Banking Conference

A Sea Change For The Economic Outlook - Craig Dismuke, Vining Sparks How Fintech Partnerships Will Shape The Future Of Banking - Tina Giorgio, ICBA Bancard

Coming Soon

37th Annual Best Practices For Best Employers Labor & Employment Seminar Lane Powell Seminar October 1 2019 in Seattle Save the date to join Lane Powell and special guests on Tuesday, October 1 for this consistently popular, informative Best Practices for Best Employers™ seminar that attendees call "by far one of the best in the country." Ideal for employers, HR professionals, in-house counsel and managers, this seminar will provide the most up-to-date employment practices, changing legislation and industry trends that Washington employers ought to be prepared for in the coming year. More Info

2019 Commercial Lending School October 21-25, 2019 Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa Newport Beach, CA Get the details

New Associate Members

ReputationUs specializes entirely in reputation and crisis management.  Our team  is driven to enhance, protect and defend the reputations of businesses and nonprofits. Originated from the nationally recognized public relations firm LT Public Relations, ReputationUs addresses the acute needs an organization faces to bolster and safeguard its reputation in today’s polarizing environment. We specifically help assess and analyze reputations—internally and externally—and make sound recommendations on how to improve and protect images across multiple audiences and risk categories. If your reputation is impacted, we deploy our crisis planning and management task force to mitigate against additional disruption. Casey Boggs [email protected] 503-946-8344

As Innovators and Specialists in Blanket Portfolio Protection and Administrative Relief, Golden Eagle Insurance partners with community banks for long-term success. We are large enough to face every challenge with a lender; small enough to give the time and attention they provide to their own borrowers.  Golden Eagle Insurance was one of the first agencies in the nation to bring our customers Blanket Mortgage Insurance, Blanket Equipment Insurance, and GAP Waiver. We have also developed new enhancements for VSI (Blanket Consumer) policies including new coverages, limits, and policy wording. Our innovative approach to blanket protections gives our customers more robust policies than are available anywhere else. Not all programs are created equal; a Golden Eagle blanket policy will truly provide better protection and superior claims service. Our team is here to help community banks navigate and decode the many subtle differences and complexities in every “blanket protection” policy. Brian Ruhe [email protected] 800-461-9224 x3424

At Audit One LLC our core business is outsourced (or co-sourced) internal audit for financial institutions – all the way from de novo institutions up to those with multi-billions in assets. We offer a full range of internal audit (IA) and credit review services. However, we are not a CPA firm and do not perform financial statement audits. Because our facility, insurance and other overhead expenses are so much lower than for large CPA firms, we are able to pass along cost savings in the form of lower fees. Our dedication to client satisfaction has earned us the confidence of well over 200 clients throughout the western US and, increasingly, further east. . Mark Southwick [email protected] 808-342-6375

Partner with Bell Bank Correspondent Banking and we will help you enhance your customer relationships. As your bank grows, we’ll help you meet your needs. We offer your bank flexible underwriting, terms and pricing on loans – plus the fast decision-making you need. As your customers grow, so do their credit demands. By participating part of the relationship, you provide your customers with loan products that grow with their needs. You can enhance your loan yield by retaining a servicing fee and free up bank liquidity by selling a portion of the loan. Tracy Peterson [email protected] 480-339-8533

Is a frozen credit report a reason for adverse action? Answer: Yes. The purpose of providing the adverse action notice is to inform the applicant of the reason that either a decision was made or could not be made. In the event a credit report is frozen by the applicant, the application process likely could not be completed by the bank – and the frozen credit report is the reason why. If the credit report is frozen, a bank could certainly ask the applicant to provide access to the credit report before deciding. That seems the most reasonable thing to do. However, a bank needs to notify the applicant of action taken within 30 days of receiving the application.  Compliance Adviser and the CBW Legal Ease Question of the week are a free benefit for all CBW Bank Members. Contact CBW at 360-754-5138 to enroll © Compliance Advisers, Austin, Texas, 2017. All rights reserved. This document is intended to convey general information only and not to provide legal advice or opinions. This document (and the posting and viewing of the information on the Compliance Adviser website) should not be construed as legal advice, may not be current and is subject to change without notice. ICBA Urges Congress To Investigate (continued) ICBA's letter specifically urges the committees to convene hearings at their earliest convenience to explore the role of the NCUA in this scandal. A congressional investigation is urgently needed to induce the NCUA to keep an arm’s length from the tax-exempt industry it is charged with regulating, strengthen its oversight, and prevent future abuses, ICBA wrote. ICBA noted that the taxi medallion scandal led to $750 million in losses to the taxpayer-backed National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has  called on the NCUA  to conduct an immediate review of its supervisory practices regarding credit unions that engage in taxi medallion lending, while the  NCUA’s inspector general  has said the agency should improve how it monitors credit union loan concentrations in the wake of the scandal. Meanwhile, large credit unions are increasingly under congressional pressure to report financial information required of other tax-exempt institutions.  ICBA and community banks have long raised concerns about the NCUA’s regulatory capture and the competitive advantage it confers on an industry whose tax exemption is worth an annual cost to taxpayers of nearly $2 billion and rising. With many large credit unions increasing their taxpayer-subsidized footprint by buying up smaller, taxpaying community banks, ICBA will continue calling on policymakers to re-examine the credit union industry’s tax and regulatory subsidies and the NCUA’s efforts to drastically increase the powers of tax-exempt credit unions beyond their statutory limits. "Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for." - Will Rogers

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