LPRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Lorrie Trogden | President & CEO | Arkansas Bankers Association

et me start with a resounding THANK YOU for an amazing 2024! All of you have shown tremendous strength, support and resilience during a very trying year. (or four..) Agency overreach with burdensome and customer harming regulation was at an all-time high, but you persevered and showed up in every way to do what’s right for the country’s financial system, your customers, and your communities. Give yourself a hand, because your actions helped us to continue marching forward.

Looking ahead to 2025, we will continue moving the needle in Washington and at home. A massive congratulations to Congressman French Hill for his outstanding victory in winning the gavel for the House Financial Services Committee. The “honorable Chairman from Arkansas” certainly has a nice ring to it! Arkansas continues to punch above its weight with three committee chairmen in Congress. There are also several new members of the House Financial Services Committee: Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL), Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), Rep.-Elect Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), Rep.-Elect Tim Moore (R-NC), and Rep.-Elect Troy Downing (R-MT).

2025 will also bring new regulatory agency heads for the OCC, FDIC and CFPB. This is welcome news and cannot happen quickly enough. While these new people will influence recent rules we know are terrible, they cannot unilaterally roll them back. We should temper our expectations, as there are processes in place that agencies and Congress must follow to unwind rules like 1071 (We are advocating for a full congressional repeal of 1071). It can happen; it will just take time to make it happen. The multiple court cases also do not go away, but agencies can decide to go in a different direction with appeals and responses. You will see an update in this issue about all of the pending court cases, but there is a new lawsuit that was filed in the last couple of days in Mississippi over the CFPB’s brand new overdraft fee rule.

The state legislative session starts the second week of January, and it will be busy! The Association will be putting together a package of legislation that enhances criminal penalties for: Repeat offenders for skimming crimes; ATM impairment or interruption; non-verbal bank robbery; bank employee assault; and making mail theft a state crime so it can be prosecuted at the local level. We also have bills on trigger leads, repealing SSN on credit denial letters, and medical surrogacy related to financial documents. These will be on our website once they are finalized and filed. We also fully expect to defend a state-level bill on interchange fees (There is a lawsuit in IL over its new interchange law). Retailers did not pass savings on to consumers when the Durbin amendment limited debit card interchange, and we have no reason to believe that retailers won’t pocket that money again if the state passes an interchange law. We also strongly believe that preemption applies here as interchange is regulated at the federal level. The worst part of a law like this is the harm to the consumer. As you all know, those interchange fees pay for network anti-fraud and security costs as well as making customers whole when fraud does happen. Retailers are not the ones keeping payment networks secure or reimbursing customers in these instances. They are also guaranteed immediate payment while the credit card issuers take on the risk of non-payment. If a bill is filed, we will put out a call to action for all of you to contact your local legislators to help them understand why this is BAD legislation. It is vitally important that you speak with them on banking issues when Legislative Action Alerts are sent.

Again, I want to thank you for a wonderful year. I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting with you at ABA events, making bank visits, and meeting with your Board for 13th board meetings. YOU are the lifeblood of this association, and I look forward to what 2025 has in store! Happy Holidays to you and your family, and I’ll see you in the new year!

Lorrie Trogden, President & CEO

Aba Officers

Brad Chambless, Chairman Farmers and Merchants Bank, Stuttgart

Chris Gosnell, Chairman-Elect Farmers Bank & Trust Company, Magnolia

Jason Tennant, Vice Chairman CS Bank, Eureka Springs

Scott Saffold, Treasurer Union Bank & Trust Co., Monticello

Jim Taylor, Past Chairman First Security Bancorp, Rogers

Lorrie Trogden, President & CEO Arkansas Bankers Association, Little Rock

Board Of Directors

Johnny Adams, Conway

Ian Bryan, Russellville

Ben Buergler, Bentonville

Asa Cottrell, Little Rock

Joe Dunn, Little Rock

Robin Hackett, Greenbrier

Heather Jones, Little Rock

Jeff Lynch, Little Rock

Katherine Mitchell, White Hall

John Olaimey, Little Rock

Calvin Puryear, Dumas

Randy Rawls, Warren

Lori Ross, Arkadelphia

Loren Shackelford, Fayetteville

Rob S. Tiffee, Little Rock

Ron Witherspoon, Little Rock