IBANYS Weekly E-Newsletter |
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The President's Message
By John Witkowski, President & CEO
At ICBA's annual convention ICBA LIVE, outgoing ICBA Chairman (and New York's and IBANYS own)’ Bob Fisher held a discussion with ICBA President & CEO Romero Rainey (Pictured above; Watch it on ICBA’s YouTube channel) . . .Bob noted that community bankers showed they are “all in, all heart” through their leadership during the pandemic, and added we must continue to engage policymakers on behalf of local communities. Bob (President & CEO, Tioga State Bank, former IBANYS Chairman and current IBANYS Director) encouraged community bankers to continue sharing their stories with policymakers, including by attending the 2022 ICBA Capital Summit in Washington: “We shouldn’t be timid about advocating about what we believe in.” Bob was honored for his leadership and tenure as ICBA Chairman at a reception strongly supported by his New York community banking and IBANYS colleagues. Congratulations, Bob, and thank you for all you continue to do on behalf of community banking!
ICBA President and CEO Romero Rainey told community bankers they are the heartbeat of the nation’s economy, led their local communities through the pandemic, achieved important advocacy successes, and have important unresolved priorities. See today's Washington section for further information.
Today's newsletter provides program descriptions and registration details on a number of upcoming IBANYS meetings. You can also access the information on our website (www.ibanys.net) and through the link below. We hope you, your bank's officers, directors and employees, will participate in these important and timely sessions. For full details: https://ibanys.net/meetings-schedule/. . . Here’s an outline of our schedule:
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"Spring into Action" Virtual Conference – Virtual - April 4-5 – Your bank “PAYS ONE PRICE” FOR ALL BANK EMPLOYEES TO PARTICIPATE.
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Directors Conference – Virtual – April 11.
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Capital Summit/IBANYS “Hill Meetings – May 1 – 4, in Washington, D.C. & Virtual. 2022 ICBA Capital Summit. Details on IBANYS' hill meetings with New York congressional delegation to follow.
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IBANYS ANNUAL CONVENTION – In-Person - JUNE 13-15, 2022, TURNING STONE RESORT AND CASINO. Sponsorship and Trade Show information are available.
On a sad note, IBANYS extends our sincere sympathy to Assembly Banks Chair Patricia Fahy (D-Albany) and her family following the passing of her son, Brendan Fahy Bequette, after a lengthy illness.
. . .As always, we thank you for your continued participation and support.
. . .John
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Mark your Calendars and Save the Dates - IBANYS 2022 Meeting Schedule
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IBANYS Virtual Conference
April 4-5, 2022 - via ZOOM
NYS Community Banks "Spring" into Action
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Please mark your calendars and register today for IBANYS New York State Community Banks “Spring” Into Action virtual meeting. This virtual event (conducted via Zoom) will take place on April 4 & 5, 2022. Each day will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m. and adjourn at 2:45 p.m. This format provides IBANYS an alternative way to continue to provide important and timely educational programs to all New York Community Bankers and their staff.
Click the link below for the detailed agenda and registration information. We have put together an outstanding slate of speakers who will share their knowledge and expertise on an array of topics that are timely and important to the banking community. You may earn up to 12 continuing professional education (CPE) credits. See the brochure for details.
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2022 Virtual Bank Directors Conference - Live Webinar
April 11, 2022
8:30 a.m. - 1:45 p.m.
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The role of a community bank director is one that is always changing and has never been more critical to the success of your bank. The 2021 IBANYS Virtual Directors Conference is an informative and engaging event designed to help you gain the tools essential to guide your bank’s growth and profitability and sustain its vision for the future.
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IBANYS ANNUAL CONVENTION
June 13-15, 2022
Turning Stone Resort & Casino
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Advanced Booth and Sponsorship Registration -
A block of rooms have been reserved at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino. Reservations can be made by contacting the Turning Stone Resort at (800) 771-7711. Refer to group: IBANYS Convention. Room cut-off: May 19, 2022. (We cannot guarantee room availability and pricing after this date.) Tower King/Double Rooms rate= $164. Tower Junior Suites rates $244 (single/double occupancy).
WE STRONLY RECOMMEND YOU MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS EARLY. THE ROOMS WILL SELL QUICKLY. Cancellations must be made 48 hours prior to day of arrival.
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NEWS FROM OUR MEMBER BANKS |
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First National Bank of Dryden
Celebrating 120 years
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IBANYS congratulates First National Bank of Dryden on a 120 years of services.
All of our offices are conveniently located in Upstate New York. Over time, our definition of community may change as we have the opportunities to merge and acquire other businesses, but it shall be our purpose and mission to remain an independent entity in contrast to state wide or national branching organizations. You can find the full Mission Statement under the Directors & Officers button.
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Alden State Bank Opens F BITES Coffee Bar |
Local non-profit F BITES partnered with Alden State Bank to open the cafe at the new branch on Transit Road in East Amherst.
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ASSOCIATE & PREFERRED PARTNERS |
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Beating the CECL Deadline – Without Analysis Paralysis
by Shawn O’Brien, President, QwickRate®
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After years of anticipating CECL, January 2023 is within sight. And the compliance deadline won’t be moving.
For many banks, the biggest challenge is simply adopting an unfamiliar process for calculating reserves. Fortunately, regulators have made strides toward minimizing possible disruptions. In fact, they’ve addressed many concerns head on.
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IBANYS Welcomes our newest Associate Member |
NEACH is a non-profit trade association with more than 45 years of experience helping members originate and receive ACH transactions. NEACH provides products, services, education, and marketing to its member institutions and other New England entities to increase the acceptance, use, and quality of electronic transactions.
Contact: Elyssa Morgan
Sr. Director of Membership
Phone: (781) 491-7117
Email: emorgan@neach.org
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Join community bankers from across the country to advocate for our industry—in person. You have the power to share your personal story and put a name to our industry's key legislative priorities.
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Rising tide
Bonds to own for a rate hike environment
By Jim Reber
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Community bankers are nothing if not predictable, and I mean that as a compliment. They are bright, enterprising, have a nose for the risk/reward dynamic and a sense of duty and loyalty to their customers and staff. They’re also deathly afraid of rising interest rates.
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The Bond Academy is designed to provide depository institutions with the basic knowledge needed to help plan and create effective investment portfolios.
A high performance investment portfolio can provide a noticeable increase to your institution's bottom line. The learning objectives of Bond Academy are aimed at providing you with the tools to understand how debt instruments work and their overall role in complementing the entire balance sheet.
We designed this custom curriculum to equip a new portfolio manager with basic portfolio management issues. Specifically, fundamentals of bond pricing, valuation, and selection will be covered extensively. You’ll learn the basics of the portfolio investment process.
Who should attend?
CPAs and those new to their roles as investment officers, cashiers, controllers, and internal control professionals will benefit the most from Bond Academy. New directors serving on the investment or asset-liability committee will also find this course beneficial.
You Will Learn:
- Bond basics, including bond pricing, duration, and price volatility
- Bond types, including agencies, municipals, mortgage securities, and floating rate instruments
- The composition of a high performing portfolio
- How to understand the rate market: yield curves, spreads, monetary policy
- How economic data affects the bond market
- The impact of interest rate risk on portfolio management
- Portfolio strategies of laddering, barbells, riding the yield curve
- Day-to-day portfolio management techniques
- Evaluating investment portfolio performance
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CPE credit:
Potential for up to 12 hours CPE credit based on a 50-minute hour.
Prerequisites:
Those working as CEOs, CFOs, investment managers, directors, and anyone responsible for balance sheet or investment portfolio management that have the working knowledge necessary to benefit from the content of this webinar.
Additional Information:
- Field of Study: Specialized Knowledge, Economics
- Advanced Preparation: None
- Program Level: Intermediate
- Delivery Method: Group Live
Questions:
For additional questions regarding this seminar, concerns and/or cancellation policies, please contact Kert Johnson (info@viningsparks.com) at 800-829-0321.
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With Senate Banks Chairman Sanders focusing more on his legislation to create a state/public bank -- rather than on establishing local municipal public banks -- IBANYS continues to oppose to the legislation and has drafted a Memo in Opposition. . . . Also Read IBANYS Background & Talking Points Opposing this legislation and proposed possible alternative approaches to help meet the needs of unbanked and underbanked populations.
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GOVERNOR HOCHUL ANNOUNCES ACTIONS TO STRENGTHEN DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES ENFORCEMENT OF SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA read press release here
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State legislators and housing advocates called for “good cause” eviction protections as they released a report from the Pratt Center for Community Development. It stated black renters were three times more likely to be evicted than their white counterparts, the Times Union reports.
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Gov. Hochul wants to set aside $200 million in the upcoming state budget to pay for infrastructure upgrades at upstate business parks to attract computer chip makers and other high-tech manufacturers, the Times Union reports. Meanwhile, NYS Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan)explains what Democratic legislators want in the ongoing state budget process.
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New York state entered 2022, the third calendar year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a new indoor mask mandate, the new omnicron variant, new case-count records and a new governor. After two years of COVID-19, the state is still fighting the virus while searching for normalcy. Read More
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Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-L.I.) won the backing of the state Republican Party at its nominating convention yesterday but the race is far from over as other candidates made spirited appeals to party members. The primary is in June. Here are four takeaways from the state GOP convention. Read More
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The FDIC’s FDIC's Quarterly Banking Profile shows that community banks reported net income growth of 29.3% in 2021, following a 7.1% year-over-year gain in the fourth quarter. Check out our Washington section for all the details. In the fourth quarter, community banks reported:
- Annual net income growth of $511.6 million.
- An 8.5% net income decline from the third quarter due to higher noninterest expense.
- 7% growth in net interest income overcame a 10.4% decline in noninterest income to lift net operating revenue 2.3% from a year ago.
- Lower interest expense generated most of the growth in net interest income, while lower gains on loan sales drove the decline in noninterest income.
- The quarterly net interest margin fell 11 basis points from a year ago to 3.22%.
- Noninterest expenses were up 3.4% from a year ago on higher data processing and marketing expenses.
- Provision expenses declined 74% from a year ago but were up 13.9% from the previous quarter.
Capital: Community bank equity capital grew 0.9% during the quarter, while the leverage capital ratio declined 10 basis points to 10.16%. . .Overall Industry: The overall banking industry reported a 7.4% net income increase from a year ago on further economic growth and improved credit conditions. . .Deposit Insurance Fund: The DIF balance rose $1.2 billion from the second quarter to $123.1 billion, and the reserve ratio remained at 1.27%.
Mergers and Closings: During the quarter, 72 institutions merged and none failed.
The FDIC’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion encouraged all FDIC-supervised financial institutions, particularly those with 100 or more employees, to submit voluntary self-assessments of their diversity policies and practices. The window for submissions for the 2021 reporting period is open until June 30. The FDIC gathers and analyzes this information in accordance with Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act.
The OCC issued the following revised booklets of the Comptroller’s Licensing Manual: Articles of Association, Charter, and Bylaw Amendments; Fiduciary Powers; Subordinated Debt, and Subsidiaries and Equity Investments. The revised booklets reflect regulatory changes and updated guidance, and replace booklets of the same title issued between June 2017 and January 2019.
At ICBA's annual convention, President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey told community bankers they are the heartbeat of the nation’s economy and have led local communities through the pandemic. She noted important advocacy successes and remaining priorities -- see today's Washington section for further information. , including successfully opposing the IRS bank reporting proposal, anti-community banking tax provisions, and professor Saule Omarova’s nomination as comptroller of the currency. New York community bankers can stay active on the many remaining priorities through ICBA’s Be Heard grassroots action center and attending the 2022 ICBA Capital Summit in Washington. Follow the proceedings via ICBA 2022 Mobile App, on #ICBALIVE on Twitter, and on ICBA’s You Tube channel.
House Financial Services Committee Republicans called on the Postal Regulatory Commission to subject the U.S. Postal Service’s postal banking pilot program to appropriate statutory procedures for new products. Their joint letter said the USPS neither informed the commission about the pilot nor published anything about it in the Federal Register. The USPS subsequently said the PRC didn’t need to review the banking pilot because it already offered gift cards. The PRC asked the USPS why it didn’t seek the commission’s approval before launching the ICBA-opposed postal banking pilot program last year. In a letter last month, the PRC cited federal law requiring the USPS to get the commission’s approval for any “market test” for an experimental product and noted the USPS itself referred to the pilot as a “time-limited test.” The PRC also asked the USPS how it plans to proceed with the banking pilot given it has attracted only six customers, as the postal service previously reported to the commission. The program offers check cashing, bill paying, ATM access, and expanded money orders and wire transfers at locations in Washington, D.C.; Falls Church, Va.; Baltimore; and the Bronx, N.Y. Customers may cash payroll or business checks to buy single-use gift cards worth up to $500 for a $5.95 fee. ICBA Position: ICBA—which has spoken out against the pilot via NBC News, The Washington Post, and the Washington Examiner—strongly opposes postal banking. A three-part series of ICBA issue briefs delivered to policymakers last year explores the policy’s flaws and offers alternatives for reaching the unbanked.
ICBA called on Congress to require federal credit unions to file Form 990 returns, which most tax-exempt organizations are required to file annually. In a letter to the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, ICBA said the requirement would: Provide insight into the revenues and expenses of federal credit unions and whether their tax exemption is warranted; Provide needed transparency given that federal credit unions are not subject to the Community Reinvestment Act, and bring federal credit unions in line with other tax-exempt entities, including other credit unions. ICBA recently released a new video urging Americans to advocate congressional hearings on how credit unions are taxed and regulated. Shorter versions of the video will be used for a social media marketing campaign, which follows an ICBA print and digital ad campaign on credit unions last fall. Grassroots: Community bankers can continue urging Congress to hold hearings on the credit union tax exemption via a customizable message to lawmakers on ICBA’s Wake Up page and its Wake Up Messaging Playbook.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control barred transactions with Russia’s central bank, National Wealth Fund, and Ministry of Finance. OFAC’s latest move against Russia largely immobilizes any Russian central bank assets held in the United States or by U.S. persons. OFAC also Monday sanctioned a key Russian sovereign wealth fund—the Russian Direct Investment Fund—and CEO Kirill Dmitriev, as directed by President Biden last week. Earlier, the White House and leaders of other nations announced had additional sanctions on Russian banks and individuals following the launch of a military operation in Ukraine. Coordinated with the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Canada, the new efforts: Remove certain Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system; Prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves to undermine sanctions against Russia; Target the sale of citizenship—or “golden passports”—that allow certain Russians to skirt sanctions; Include a transatlantic task force on implementing and expanding financial sanctions, and coordinate against disinformation and other forms of hybrid warfare.
REMINDER: Registration is open for the 2022 ICBA Capital Summit May 1-4 in Washington, D.C. This year’s Capital Summit will bring community bankers from across the country to Washington to interact with leading policymakers and to advocate for our priorities. Learn more. The House will not be in session that week, while the Senate will be. IBANYS is working to coordinate a combination of virtual and in-person “hill” meetings with key New Yorkers on the Financial Services, Small Business, Agriculture, Energy, Homeland Security, Labor, Budget and Ways & Means Committees, as well as with Senators Schumer and Gillibrand. There will be ICBA sessions with the heads of the FDIC, OCC, Federal Reserve and CFPB. Stay tuned for more details.
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