Pub. 14 2019-2020 Issue 4

WWW.NEBANKERS.ORG 10 WASHINGTON UPDATE Building Success inWashington Rob Nichols, President & CEO, American Bankers Association B ETWEEN THE END OF SEPTEMBER and the end of October — at the same time, the House was beginning its impeachment inquiry — a remarkable thing happened. Representatives turned their attention to two different, pressing banking issues — cannabis banking and modernization of our anti-money laundering compliance framework —and advanced bipartisan legislation to address them. Around the same time, federal regula- tors took action on several other priorities, from implementing sections of S. 2155, which made tailoring of regulation the law of the land, and finalizing the new community bank leverage ratio, to raising the appraisal threshold for residential real estate transactions and proposing changes to the FDIC’s national rate cap regulations. For all the acrimony and dysfunction that seems to be defining our capital these days, Washington sure is producing some smart, common-sensebankingpolicy.How have we managed to see so much progress on banking issues in such a divisive at- mosphere? And what does this mean for banking as the 2020 elections approach? I believe our industry’s success in Washington starts with your hard work at home. While the ABA and your state association are working to help you succeed in the future, you are the ones demonstrating the critical role banks play in the economy by making sure your customers and communities have what they need to thrive. And a national survey that ABA commissioned and released in October found that you are performing this role very well: • Nine in 10 Americans are very satisfied or satisfied with their primary bank • 96%rate their bank’s customer service as excellent, very good or good • 93% rate their access to bank- ing services as excellent or good Results like these, including a recent Gallup Poll that found the highest public opinion of banking inmore than a decade, matter because they give policymakers more reason to support you. We’re also succeeding in Washington by making it clear that banking policy is bipartisan. Nomatter who holds the gavel in Congress or controls the White House, they need to understand banks and bank- ers today. So we’ve been working closely with leaders and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers to