PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Lorrie Trogden | President & CEO | Arkansas Bankers Association

Let’s talk about pilots. We are all pilots in many ways and for different vehicles. For instance, I hope you feel that the ABA team have been good pilots of the association “airplane,” and have met your needs while helping ease your pain points.

All of you are pilots with the association - your bank, your industry, your communities, and your personal lives. Let’s talk about your role in piloting the association and your industry, and what a great pilot so many of you have been for the Arkansas Bankers Association. The ABA plane flies for you, but could not fly without you.

A hugely important factor in your flying the association is participating in ABA leadership. Nominations are open now for new Board members, Board Vice Chairman, Treasurer, Emerging Leaders Section Council, and Group Vice Chairman. You can nominate yourself or someone else, and you can make multiple nominations. Serving in an ABA leadership position not only allows you to give back to the profession that we care so much about, but also provides you with an outstanding leadership and professional development opportunity. This is an opportunity to function at a higher volunteer level and get involved in setting the future direction of the Association.

ABA leadership and the Board value and strive for inclusive representation of volunteer leaders that reflects our organization, membership, and profession. Our success today and into the future relies on our ability to capitalize on diverse perspectives and points of view resulting from a balance of race, gender, age, experience, industry, skill set, nationality, ethnicity, and other factors deemed relevant. The nomination process fully appreciates, considers, and is informed by the value derived from diverse representation. I encourage you to keep this in mind when making your nominations. You can find the link to nominations in the main banner on our website (arkbankers.org) or in the banner at the top of the weekly eNews email.

You pilot our industry, which in turn helps you pilot your banks and communities. With our Women in Banking Conference coming up in January, we will recognize an outstanding female industry and community pilot with our Power Woman in Banking Award. Nominations are now open, and the link can be found in the main banner on our website or in the banner at the top of the weekly eNews email. (If you are not receiving the email each Tuesday, please let anyone at the office know and we will get you added.)

Another way you pilot our industry is government relations advocacy. 2022 has been a tough regulatory year. We are facing regulatory challenges from every federal regulator, most often coming through regulatory enforcement rather than the appropriate rule making process. The Texas Bankers Association along with the American Bankers Association have filed a lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for not following the congressionally mandated rule making process. I will keep you informed of any movement in that case. Earlier in December, Congressman French Hill sent a letter to agency heads and also questioned them during a Financial Services Committee hearing about changing the exam manual for representment and penalizing banks without ever having gone through the rule making process, giving advance warning, or implementation time. We continue to lobby on this issue.

Our 2023 state legislative session starts the second week of January, and I won’t sugar coat it, it is going to be tough. Many of the ESG related issues at the federal level are rolling downhill and being picked up by the states. When it comes to banking the firearm and fossil fuel industries, banks are being accused of intentionally withholding credit. We all know there are a myriad of reasons that banks may not extend credit, and we are already lobbying bills that are bringing the fight to Arkansas. Our message is simple and straightforward: let banks be banks and do not tell us who we can and cannot bank. As we go through the session, I will continue to keep you updated on what bills are being filed. You may see advocacy alerts and calls to action from us, and I urge you to call your local legislators as hearing from their constituents makes all the difference.

I’ll leave you with one last piloting metaphor. All of this seems daunting, but when everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. (I have shown great restraint in not quoting the “wind beneath your wings” song.)

Always remember, the ABA is here fighting for you and with you!

Lorrie Trogden, President & CEO