Pub. 14 2019-2020 Issue 4

NEBRASKA BANKERS ASSOCIATION 7 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Legislative Progress Made, Engagement Remains Necessary Richard J. Baier, President & CEO, Nebraska Bankers Association NBA Members: If you are like me, you may have completely stopped watch- ing broadcast news due to continual political bickering and partisanship, which infiltrates our airwaves! I recently heard former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan talk about the current political environment in our country as having three political parties, Democrats, Republicans and the Entertainment Party. This reality seems to play out on a routine and frequent basis. Despite how this dysfunction is portrayed in themedia, Congress has made some significant progress on legislation important to Nebraska’s banking industry. Similarly, the bank regulatory agencies are also working diligently to make common-sense improvements to the current regulatory system. While cannabis is not legal in Nebraska, it is now legal in 33 states for either recreational or medicinal purposes. Obviously, the NBA does not have a position for or against, the legalization of cannabis. However, if you happen to do business in any of these states, you recognize that marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Therefore, money traced back to marijuana operations are considered illegal andexposebanks to significant risk. Consider the challenges of banking a strip mall, an electrical firm, or a security company that derives a portion of its business from cannabis- related businesses. The NBA routinely hears about specific chal- lenges frommember institutions that do business in Colorado. In October, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2019 (H.R. 1595), which eliminates a great deal of ambiguity related to bank- ing cannabis-related businesses in states where cannabis has been approved by the states’ voters. Special thanks to Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon, who is personally opposed to the le- galization of cannabis, but voted in support of H.R. 1595 out of interest in helping Nebraska banks doing business in cannabis states. Senator Mike Crapo (Idaho), who chairs the Senate Bank- ing Committee, has suggested that his committee will consider the Senate’s version of the SAFE Act (S. 1200) before the end of the year. I would encourage you to contact Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse about your support for S. 1200. The House also recently gave bipartisan approval to the Cor- porate Transparency Act of 2019 (H.R. 2513), which makes sub- stantive improvements to the Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering statutes. As proposed, H.R. 2513 requires FinCEN to create a secure national database of beneficial ownership infor- mation, closes loopholes in the Bank Secrecy Act and improves anti-money laundering programs. Senator Sasse, who sits on the SenateBankingCommittee, suggestedduringa recentNBAbanker roundtable that he expects the Committee to consider the Senate’s version of this legislation, which is more broadly known as the ILLICIT Cash Act (S. 2563). However, Senator Sasse also believes the final Senate bill will be amended substantially to reflect input from a variety of stakeholders, including banks, retailers, law enforcement, etc. Historically, federal banking legislation was developed and approved with bipartisan input and support. This changed drastically with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. However, the optimist in me hopes the bipartisanship we have experienced recently will become the new norm for banking legislation going forward. On the regulatory front, the staffat theOCC, FDIC, andFederal Reserve areworking proactively to tackle common-sense reforms related to the CommunityReinvestment Act, property appraisals, customer notifications, data privacy, GSE reformand a variety of PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE — continued on page 8