Pub. 10 2015-2016 Issue 1

www.nebankers.org 8 Extraordinary Service for Extraordinary Members. A S T A Y - A T - H O M E M O M I N Massachusetts goes through the pain of a divorce resolved to provide as much stability for her kids as possible. She sets out to re-enter the work force and applies for a loan to purchase the family home so her kids can remain in the same schools. The bank wants to help, but because the woman cannot meet the ability to repay/ qualified mortgage rule requirements, the loan is declined. An experienced doctor in Oklahoma with a substantial income wants tomove his family to a neighborhood with better schools. Though he has been practicing for several years, he just purchased his own practice. Now, without a two-year history of self-employment income, he can’t qualify for long-term mortgage financing. Another homeownership dream dashed by inflexible regulation. There are plenty more stories where those came from. In fact, when the American Bankers Association (ABA) recently asked bankers to share ex- amples of the most troublesome regu- lations, with an emphasis on how the rules affected their customers, bankers did not disappoint. A bank in New Mexico has stopped offering mobile home secured loans because its customers would not ob- serve the home ownership counseling requirement. An Idaho banker reported the frustration of ag customers who are being told they must purchase flood insurance on low-value sheds and barns located on their property. A Colorado banker noted how his bank worked with a recently retired engineer with substan- tial liquidity and a generous, albeit time- limited pension. A good credit risk yet, thanks to overly prescriptive rules, the man had to ask his 75-year-old father to cosign the loan. These are powerful stories. In fact, most stories are powerful. That’s be- cause, despite the tremendous advance- ments in communications technologies, storytelling remains the most effective way to make a point. Members of Congress believe it, too. In fact, three VIPs speaking at ABA’s Government Relations Summit in March—Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), who chairs the House Financial Ser- vices Committee, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Rep. Kevin Washington Update Email Frank Keating at keating@aba.com. © 2015 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. Telling Stories Frank Keating , President & CEO, American Bankers Association McCarthy (R-CA), who holds the second most powerful post in theHouse—all ad- vised bankers seeking regulatory relief to “tell their stories” to their lawmakers. Hensarling and McCarthy also stressed the importance of talking with members of both parties. The legislative solutions we seek require bipartisan support to be enacted. Rather than tell- ing your story to an official who already knows you and appreciates what you do, tell it to the freshman representative or the Democrat who fears one or two practical legislative fixes could lead to the unraveling of the Dodd-Frank Act. Our first instinct when asked to talk about our industry’s regulatory burden might be to talk about how much time andmoney compliance is costing banks. That’s a legitimate grievance that reveals an essential economic truth: Money spent on paperwork is money that can’t be spent in loans that bring growth and prosperity. But dry economic arguments don’t pack nearly as much punch as stories about how a customer couldn’t buy a home or expand her business. Analogies help, too. I have tried to explain banks’ regulatory burden to reporters by tell- ing them if restaurants had to expend as much human and financial resources on compliance as banks do, the food you eat wouldn’t taste very good. Colorful analogies and anecdotes resonatemore than just plain facts. Nar- ratives are more memorable than Pow- erPoint slides. If you’ve heardme speak, you know I believe this. I practice what this column is preaching. If you want to see meaningful regulatory relief—or a level playing field with credit unions and the FarmCredit System, ormore ac- countability for retailers involved in data breaches—share your stories with your lawmakers when you write or meet with them. Communicating effectively and memorably about our policy priorities will help us achieve them. 