WASHINGTON UPDATE A Winning Game Plan for 2017 The agenda in Washington will be very crowded, and we’ll need to work together to make sure our policy priorities get—and stay—on Congress’ radar. It helps that our priorities are geared toward helping our customers, clients and communities thrive, a goal that clearly aligns with lawmaker concerns. In fact, when ABA’s Government Relations Council leadership and Board of Directors met in December, the bankers discussed the value of advocating not just much-needed changes like mortgage lending regulatory relief and simpler capital rules, but also policy solutions that are less parochial in nature and help the economy grow. These include ways to help those with heavy student debt, urban housing solutions and a stronger Small Business Administration. The council and board members agreed that it made sense to embrace such big-picture issues given the role bankers play as community leaders and economic stewards. It’s even more important that the policy positions we advocate are positive and forward-looking, and tell the story of what banks are for, not what we are against. We are for economic growth. We are for job creation. We are for prosperity for our communities. Such optimism drives our industry,
and it’s what should drive our advocacy, too. It’s far more compelling than an anti-this, anti-that platform. So how can we best take advantage of the more favorable legislative and regulatory climate to ensure our “Blueprint for Growth,” as we are referring to our policy priorities, is advanced? The single most important way is for you and bankers like you to actively engage at the grassroots level. That means working closely with your state bankers association to ensure your state’s lawmakers—whether they are newly elected freshmen or seasoned politicos—are hearing from you and your colleagues early and often. It also means showing up in force at this year’s ABA Government Relations Summit, March 20-22 in Washington. This event is the largest industry meeting in our nation’s capital, with around 1,000 bankers with a range of titles and responsibilities attending each year. Given all that is at stake this year, I hope we will double that number. This simply must be our largest and best attended Summit ever. To that end, if you’ve attended the Summit before, please come again and bring a colleague. And if you’ve never attended the Summit before, make this your year
ROB NICHOLS
President & CEO American Bankers Association
to start. (Find out more at aba.com/Summit.) The 2016 election was a game-changer in many ways, but there’s one thing that remains the same: it will take the help of bankers from the C-suite to the tellers on the front lines to move the ball down the field and score meaningful legislative victories.
© 2017 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
ABA EMERGING LEADERS SECTION COUNCIL Stone Bank, Little Rock
BLAKE FLETCHER | PRESIDENT
JOHN ANDERSON | VICE PRESIDENT Malvern National Bank, Little Rock
GEORGE PURVIS | SEC./TREAS. Cornerstone Bank, Eureka Springs
EDUARDO ABRIL | GROUP 4 First State Bank of DeQueen, DeQueen
BURT HICKS | GROUP 5 Simmons Bank, Pine Bluff
HUNTER NORTON | GROUP 3 First Security Bank, Fayetteville
NATALIE BARTHOLOMEW | GROUP 3 First National Bank of NWA, Rogers
BLAKE JOHNSON | GROUP 1 Evolve Bank, Jonesboro
BEN RIDINGS | GROUP 2 Bank of the Ozarks, Little Rock
JOHN BOLLINGER | GROUP 3 Simmons Bank, Fayetteville
MATT LAFORCE | GROUP 2 First Security Bank, Searcy
RACHEL SCHWARTZ | GROUP 4 Farmers Bank & Trust, Texarkana
BRANDON GENTRY | GROUP 1 Cross County Bank, Wynne
JAMES LYLE | GROUP 5 McGehee Bank, McGehee
SANDY STARNES | GROUP 2 The Citizens Bank, Batesville
ROBERT HARGIS | GROUP 5 The Citizens Bank, Monticello
RYAN MOORE | GROUP 1 Centennial Bank, Jonesboro
HUNTER WINDLE | GROUP 4 The Malvern National Bank, Malvern
WHAT IS THE EMERGING LEADERS SECTION? The Emerging Leaders Section (ELS) was organized by the Arkansas Bankers Association Board of Directors to provide information concerning educational opportunities available for its members. The ELS was established to provide leadership training for young bankers, to enhance banking careers, offer its members the opportunity to learn, network, and be productive members of the banking profession. 8
The Arkansas Banker | January 2017 2017
