Pub. 15 2020-2021 Issue 1

WWW.NEBANKERS.ORG 10 WASHINGTON UPDATE Rob Nichols, President and CEO, American Bankers Association Coronavirus Strikes. America’s Banks Step Up. T HE WORLD IS GRATEFUL FOR ALL WHO HAVE SERVED ON THE front lines battling the COVID-19 crisis — the doctors and nurses who have put their lives at risk to care for the sick and dying as well as those who have kept our grocery stores and pharma- cies stocked. These essential service providers are the pandemic’s heroes, putting the needs of others ahead of their own. There is another category of worker that also fits this bill. It’s the women and men who work for America’s banks. You, too, are first responders — not to the health crisis but to the economic crisis spawned by it. And if I could drive by your offices (home or otherwise) honking and holding up signs in appreciation, I would. Whether working from your main office or the kitchen table, in the first several weeks of the pandemic you extended critical lifelines to countless households and small businesses suffering from the loss of income resulting from stay-at-home orders. From the loan of- ficer who learned that the trick to getting into E-Tran (the Small Business Administration’s portal for submitting Paycheck Protection Pro- gram applications) was to try at 2 a.m., to the staff who put in extra time to help customers needing forbearance or other accommodations and the employee disinfecting the ATM each day, you proved that serving your communities is not just your job, it’s your calling. Your personal efforts, combined with banks’ institutional responses—waiving fees, offering low-rate personal loan programs, de- ferring payments and even effectively fronting customers their economic impact payments— demonstrate that banking is first and foremost about helping others. America’s banks weren’t just deemed essen- tial businesses by governors in state after state; they became essential partners in delivering