April 14, 2021
IBANYS Weekly E-Newsletter
  • Visit our website at www.ibanys.net to review our daily updates on COVID-19.

The President's Message
By John Witkowski, President & CEO

Two KEY Meetings Over Next Two Weeks – Have you Register? There’ still time…
 
  • IBANYS is holding our "All Banks on Deck" virtual meeting for bank employees in LESS THAN ONE WEEK on April 19- 20. . .GREAT SPONSORS, AWESOME AGENDA WITH FANTASTIC SPEAKERS -- REGISTER TODAY!
 
 
  • Less Than Two Weeks Left Until ICBA'S Capital Summit –Including IBANYS’ Virtual congressional visits – SIGN UP TODAY!
 
FOR MORE DETAILS, SEE INFORMATION BELOW.
 
1)    IBANYS' MID YEAR MEETING - "ALL BANKS ON DECK" - IS NEXT WEEK: APRIL 19-20 VIA ZOOM (sessions are 8:45 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.) Here is the brochure with agenda details and registration informationWe will be hearing from a number of expert speakers who will share their insights on timely and important topics. Remember: While it's a single registration fee for the bank, participation is open to as many officers/directors/employees who can benefit. . .and, participants can earn up to 11 continuing professional education (CPE) credits! We talk more about this meeting in today's newsletterWe would also like to take this time to thank the sponsors of this event. We have provided the list of sponsors and a link to their pages in today’s newsletter. Please visit their sites to see the services they offer to community banks.
 
2)    The 2021 virtual ICBA Capital Summit  livestreams April 27 with remarks from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). For details on the Summit, visit the 2021 ICBA Capital Summit information portal. . . .IBANYS is coordinating virtual Capitol Hill "visits" with members of Congress and top staff on federal community banking priorities. New York has seven new Representatives, six members on the House Financial Services Committee, and several others on such other key committees as Small Business and Agriculture. We need you to tell your story, discuss your performance during the pandemic and explain our industry's needs and priorities. Here is a link to ICBA's 2021 Lobby Card https://www.icba.org/newsroom/blogs/events-blogs/2021/04/01/capital-summit-spring-2021-lobby-priorities with the 2021 priorities we will be discussing with the congressional offices. IBANYS has arranged conference call visits with a number of congressional offices Click here for appointments. Let us know which calls you wish to participate in -- email us with your preferences/requests (Johnw@ibanys.net; Stever@ibanys.net

 
. . .We have more on both these important session in today's newsletter.
 
The state budget is complete and the State Legislature’s focus turns to legislation in the committee and legislative process. . .and, there’s a great deal happening in Washington as wellToday’s newsletter provides a look at the latest – and previous – activities in our Albany and Washington sections.


We hope you are all staying safe, and we thank you for all you do every day for your customers, your communities and our industry . . .and, of course, for IBANYS!
IBANYS Welcomes our newest Member Bank - Carver Federal Savings Bank
Carver was founded in 1948 to serve African-American communities whose residents, businesses, and institutions had limited access to mainstream financial services. Today, Carver is one of the largest African-American operated bank in the United States. Since its inception, the Bank has continuously been headquartered in Harlem, and most of our eight branches and 24/7 ATM Centers are located in low- to moderate- income neighborhoods.

IBANYS 2021 Virtual Education Meetings
Mark Your Calendars & Save These dates
A message from IBANYS Chairman of the Board – Michael Wimer, President & CEO, Cattaraugus County Bank

“ALL HANDS ON DECK”!! 

That’s indeed how many of us have been operating – especially over the past year+
Which makes it indeed an appropriate title for our April (virtual) gathering of New York’s independent community banks & bankers!

John and the team have done a great job of putting together another line-up that is so full of value – the speakers are top-notch, the topics and content are relevant and focused … and the “company” of all our friends from across the state will be “don’t-miss!”

While we are all eager to be able to gather in person again (hopefully even later this year – fingers crossed!), in the never-wiser words of Geoffrey Chaucer, “Time and tide wait for no man” – and neither does IBANYS! So while we work towards literally being in person again, don’t let this ship sail without you – come sail with us, all rowing in the same direction … and don’t risk being thrown overboard!!

(We’ll work on a few more clichés before April 19 – just make sure you’re there!)

See you all then,

- mike

COMPLETE BROCHURE AND MEETING DETAILS ARE ATTACHED!!
  • Monday & Tuesday, April 19-20, 2021 - "All Banks On Deck" - Community Banks Mid-Year Conference - 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. each day

We hope you join us for this amazing event. Here are some of the topics our speakers will discuss....more speakers and topics are being added.

  • ICBA Update
  • Compete to Win — Digital Strategies for Community Banking
  • Syncing Portfolio Analytics, Stress Testing, and Loan Review: The Exponential Power of the Three Combined
  • State of the Housing Market and the FHLBNY’s new Mortgage Asset Program (MAP)
  • Faster Payments
  • Continued Evolution of a Bank’s Investment Portfolio
  • Digital Marketing Strategies You Can Take to the Bank
  • Building High Performance Teams in an Agile Virtual World
  • Bank Cybersecurity: Looking Back to Look Forward
  • Cares Act Section 4013 Update
Event Platform: ZOOM Live Webinar (registration is required)
  • How to register: Each bank and supporting company of IBANYS will pay ONE REGISTRATION FEE. All employees of that bank/company may attend any and all sessions.
  • Each person must be registered (first & last name and email are required for each registrant).
  • A unique registration link will be sent to each registrant.
  • You may attend the entire event or select sessions.
  • You log in five minutes prior to the start of your session.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
ICBA Chairman
President/CEO, Tioga State Bank,
Spencer, NY
Robert M. Fisher is chairman of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), the only national advocacy organization that exclusively represents community banks. 

Fisher is president and CEO of Tioga State Bank in Spencer, N.Y.
 
A fifth-generation community banker, Fisher serves in many leadership roles at ICBA.  
He is chairman of the ICBA Executive Committee and the board of directors. He is a member of ICBA’s Federal Delegate Board and its Policy Development and Nominating committees, and he serves as the Executive Committee liaison to the Legislative Issues Committee and the Minority Bank Advisory Council.
He is also an ex-officio member of ICBA Securities, Consolidated Holdings and Services Network board of directors. He is past chairman of the ICBPAC Committee and was the state delegate for New York on the Federal Delegate Board. 

Fisher testified in 2017 and again in 2018 before the House Financial Services Committee on regulatory relief for community banks. Additionally, Fisher served on the New York State Banking Board from 2007 to 2011. He is a current member and past chairman of the Independent Bankers Association of New York State.  

In addition to his banking affiliations, Fisher serves as chairman of the Lourdes Ascension Hospital board in Binghamton, N.Y., and sits on the board of the Pursuit, formerly known as the New York Business Development Corp. 

Fisher has a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from the University of Notre Dame. 

He lives in Owego, N.Y., with his wife and three children.
ICBA Secretary
President/CEO, Union Bank Inc., Middlebourne, WV
Tim R. Aiken is secretary of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), the only national advocacy organization that exclusively represents community banks. 

Aiken is president and CEO of Union Bank Inc., in Middlebourne, W.Va. and serves in many leadership roles at ICBA. He is a member of the ICBA Executive Committee, board of directors and Federal Delegate Board. He also serves on ICBA’s Policy Development Committee and is Executive Committee liaison to the Cyber and Data Security Committee. 

He has previously served as chairman of ICBA’s Safety and Soundness Committee and as a member of the Regulatory Review Committee. 
 
Aiken is also active at the local level. He has been a member of the Community Bankers of West Virginia for more than 20 years and has served as chairman on three separate occasions. He has also served as a member of the West Virginia Board of Banking and Financial Institutions. Currently, Aiken serves as treasurer of the Council of Senior Tyler Countians Inc. and sits on the board of Donart Electronics Inc. 
 
Aiken has a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Business Administration from Wheeling Jesuit University.
Jamie Card, Partner
The Bonadio Group
As a partner, Jamie serves as the leader for Bonadio’s Financial Institutions Team and the Syracuse Office Commercial Team. With more than 20 years of financial services experience, Jamie’s areas of expertise include: GAAS and PCAOB financial statement audits, audits of internal control over financial reporting, commercial loan reviews, implementation of new accounting standards, mergers and acquisitions, as well as other areas. She primarily serves public and non-public financial institutions.

Jamie enjoys spending time with her husband and two step-sons, whether it be boating on the St. Lawrence River or snowmobiling in Old Forge. As an avid member of her community, Jamie currently serves as Board Treasurer for the Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. She previously served as Board Member, COAP Committee Chairperson and Banking Committee Member for the NYSSPCA, and as Membership Secretary of The Vanderbilt Snowmobile Club.
Marc Valerio, Partner
The Bonadio Group
Marc is a partner in Bonadio’s Commercial Audit Division and a member of the Financial Institutions Team. With 15 years of public accounting experience, Marc has worked closely with community banks for much of his career and is responsible for the annual coordination of our internal financial institution team training.

Marc has developed comprehensive experience in the overall coordination and supervision of financial statement audits, along with consulting related to financial management and analysis, merger and acquisition due diligence and accounting, ballot counting engagements, adoption of new accounting standards, and various other ad-hoc engagements. Marc is one of the firms leading experts on PPP and has been involved in the development and instruction of training of Bonadio employees, clients and prospects via our ongoing CARES Act webinar series.

Marc received his B.S. degree in 2005 from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University with concentrations in accounting & finance. Marc is a licensed CPA in New York State and Texas and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Texas Society of CPAs. Marc served as the Campaign Treasurer for U.S. Congressman Tom Reed from 2013 through 2019, and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Faith Child Care and Nursery School, in Rochester, NY.
Chris Bedel, CISM
Founder, President, & CEO
Bedel Security
Chris is an information security professional and entrepreneur, who oddly enjoys things like risk assessments, incident response walkthroughs, and security awareness training. He was the Information Security Officer for 8 years at a community bank, where he was integral in achieving 82% growth in assets while more than doubling net income during that time.
 
Looking for new challenges, Chris started Bedel Security in March 2015, where they help banks and credit unions with their information security programs by providing services to fill and/or support the CISO and ISO functions. 
He has a Business degree from Purdue University with a minor in MIS and holds the CISM certification.

When not working on his business, Chris stays busy chasing after 4 kids and other animals with his wife on their 50-acre farm in Indiana.
Manish Nathwani
Senior Vice President of Product Development
SHAZAM
Manish Nathwani has extensive experience in the electronic payments industry, primarily building enterprise-strength, high-performance online authorization systems. He works with POS, ATM, acquirer and issuer processing to deliver EFT products and solutions.
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS & PREFERRED PARTNERS
The BHG Earnings Call
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
ZOOM Webinar - 1:00 - 1:30 PM EST
Please join us for our 30 minute company Update on Wednesday, April 21st, 2021!
 
Our CEO and CFO will discuss the company’s excellent March performance!
 
Questions are encouraged.

News from ICBA
2021 ICBA Capital Summit - Virtual
April 27, 2021
Join ICBA and fellow community bankers as we advocate for change in these areas through our Plan for Prosperity legislative platform. By coming together and espousing the community bank message, we will make change happen for our business, our customers and our communities.
 
While the last year was unexpected and unprecedented to say the least, community banks continued to show up and support their communities as they have before. This year is the start of a new Congress, and new and incumbent members of Congress need to hear about the importance of our industry directly from community bankers like you.
Community banks invest in and support their communities in good times and bad. Community banks build more resilient communities, and the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated this positive economic impact firsthand as community banks once again rose to the challenge—saving tens of thousands of local small businesses and jobs across the nation.
 
Join us for the 2021 ICBA Capital Summit, the preeminent annual event to advocate for our industry and your community.
 
To keep up with the speakers, session info and agenda, visit the 2021 ICBA Capital Summit information portal.

ICBA Securities - Bond Academy
 April 19-22, 2021 Virtual Event
We are excited to introduce our virtual Bond Academy, an 8-part series designed to provide bank portfolio managers with the basic knowledge needed to help plan and create effective investment portfolios. 
A high performance investment portfolio can provide a meaningful increase to your institution’s bottom line and serve as a valuable risk management tool. These hour-long sessions will provide you with the tools to understand how debt instruments work and their overall role in complementing the entire balance sheet.

WEBINARS
IBANYS Webinars

Are you participating in IBANYS webinars? Now is the time! IBANYS webinars provide timely, important information on subjects of interest to New York community bankers including human resources, business development, investment, compliance and security and much more. They are valuable not only for their content, but for their convenience and low-cost. Take part from the comfort and privacy of your office, without leaving the bank. 
Subscription Tokens
The More You Buy, The More You Save
 
How does it work:
Tokens can be used to purchase live or recorded webinars anytime, with no expiration! Tokens for both live and recorded webinars are available for an additional fee. (What’s the difference? Click here for the full description.)
 
Once you have your Subscription Token code, you can immediately register for webinars by using the code at checkout! (Subscription tokens not applicable for full series registrations, or other specials.)
Albany Update
With the $212 billion state budget – the largest in state history -- now complete, the Legislature will turn its attention to legislation introduced and/or on committee agendas. The state budget is done, but the 2021 legislative session is hardly over. The remaining weeks until it adjourns in June may be even more contentious. The Governor is facing multiple investigations and a threat of impeachment, and his relations with the Democratic legislative supermajorities in both chambers remain tense. Major issues favored by progressives – i.e., single-payer health care, parole reform and taxing fossil fuel polluters to fund the state response to climate change -- will require bridging differences with their moderate wings. Read more here.
Legislative Activity
 
One significant bill introduced earlier in the legislative session by Senate Banks Committee Chairman James Sanders (D-Queens) is S.1762-A https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2021/S1762A: “AN ACT to amend the banking law, the state finance law and the general municipal law, in relation to establishing the ‘New York public banking act’." (“State lawmakers in New York want to lay down the regulatory framework for municipalities to create local public banks in order to extend and expand access to communities of color in the post-COVID-19 economy. Read More”) On Tuesday, IBANYS, a number of New York community banks and other financial institutions held a conference call with Chairman Sanders and his staff on this legislation. The Chairman said its intent is to expand banking services to unbanked or underbanked communities—particularly regarding homeownership and small business funding. IBANYS and the other participants strongly opposed this legislation, due to concerns it would create another layer of unfair competition for independent banks throughout the state. We also raised a number of other related concerns, including insurance issues, as well as the need for more information on where within the state these problems exist. Participants agreed there is a need to improve the described services to those areas, but suggested alternative ways those goals might be achieved by using already existing “tools” (i.e., through MDIs, CDFIs, the NYS Business Development District/BDD Program and others.) At the conclusion of the meeting, Chairman Sanders noted the bill is still in the Banks Committee, that there would be “no rush to judgement” and that he looks forward to working with IBANYS and the other participants to gather and share additional information and consider alternative solutions as the process unfolds.
 
 
Earlier Activity:
Bill introductions for March 8th through March 26th, as well as bill activity and committee agendas, are provided: 
 
  • A06617A prohibits bank set off and execution of judgments against emergency relief funds and is on the Assembly Codes agenda. 

  • S.2061/A.6281 would amend the State Banking Law (section 9-L) to prohibit a bank from imposing a fee on a non-customer of the bank when cashing a check drawn on an account of the bank. IBANYS is preparing a Memo in Opposition.
 
  • Legislation permitting credit unions to participate in the Linked Deposit Program was reported by the NYS Assembly Economic Development Committee to the Assembly Ways & Means Committee with no negative votes. IBANYS is monitoring this issue closely and will be prepared to offer our opposition, as we have successfully done in previous years.
 
 
 
Regulatory Update
 
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli noted: "The State Legislature and the Governor agreed on a new state budget as the state is struggling to recover from the economic devastation caused by COVID-19. More than a year into the pandemic, the number of cases remains high in New York but the accelerated pace of vaccinations and job growth in many sectors indicate an improving economic outlook. We are not out of the woods, and we must remain cautious as there is still uncertainty about the epidemic and the trajectory and equity of the recovery." State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli Statement on New State Budget
 
 
IBANYS will monitor all state legislative and regulatory developments, and will keep you fully informed.
Washington Update
April 27 is the 2021 ICBA Virtual Capital Summit. We urge you to participate -- and, to join in IBANYS' grassroots push in virtual "congressional visits" with members of our New York Congressional Delegation. See list. In the face of the pandemic, New York community banks once again demonstrated our positive economic impact, saving thousands of local small businesses and jobs throughout our state. Our New York Representatives need to hear about the importance of our New York community banking industry -- FROM YOU. We have seven new Representatives from New York. . . six who serve on the House Financial Services Committee. . .three on the House Small Business Committee (including Chair Nydia Velazquez). . .and three on the Agriculture Committee. IBANYS is currently scheduling meetings. Click here to learn more & register. . .then, let us know which congressional office "visits" you would like to join.


  • The U.S. Senate today by a vote of 53-45 confirmed President Biden's nomination of Gary Gensler as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through June 5. His confirmation gives the SEC a Democratic majority as it prepares for an “aggressive” policy agenda related to climate disclosures and new financial technologies.

  • The total number of loans now in forbearance fell for the sixth straight week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. "The accelerating economic recovery in March helped more homeowners recover and become current on their mortgages, in addition to helping other homeowners with more stable financial situations exit forbearance, according to MBA.

  • Credit union hearing push intensifies. ICBA is encouraging community bankers to call on Congress to hold hearings on credit union acquisitions of taxpaying community banks. Taking Action: ICBA’s Be Heard grassroots action center makes it easy for community bankers to contact their members of Congress. New Acquisition: ICBA last week renewed its call for policymakers to investigate credit union acquisitions of community banks following the purchase of a $1.6 billion community bank in Jonesboro, Ga., by a Florida credit union with more than $10 billion in assets. ICBA Advocacy: ICBA continued its call for Congress to hold hearings on this trend and to request a GAO study on the evolution of the credit union industry and National Credit Union Administration supervision. Next: Community bankers can continue the campaign against the credit union tax exemption at this month’s ICBA Capital Summit, which is set to livestream April 27 with remarks from top policymakers and virtual meetings with congressional offices. CONTACT CONGRESS