Community Banks Elevate Industry in 2024 with Major Opportunities Ahead

ICBA and community bankers focused much of our attention in 2023 on differentiating our industry in the wake of failures at larger institutions, while 2024 was all about elevating our positions on key issues at a time of intense political debate.

After going to the mat last year to procure a community bank exemption from the FDIC’s special assessment, this year we have made essential headway on several policy fronts heading into a new Congress and administration while providing many valuable resources to ICBA members.

Another Year of Successful Advocacy

ICBA has led the way to elevate public scrutiny of credit unions to new heights, and as a result policymakers have begun to more forcefully investigate the credit union sector amid a record-setting year of acquisitions of community banks.

Before this year’s first-ever Justice Department redlining settlement with a credit union and a VyStar Credit Union penalty that exemplifies the risks posed by the industry’s faulty regulatory oversight, the FDIC approved an ICBA-advocated statement of policy on bank mergers that for the first time explicitly says additional scrutiny may be needed for deals involving credit unions.

And with ICBA spotlighting credit unions leveraging their tax exemption to raise funds on Wall Street and to purchase stadium naming rights while having the gall to call themselves community banks, it’s no wonder our polling shows Americans are growing increasingly uneasy with credit union policies.

Of course, working together we have achieved much more than pushing for a level playing field with credit unions. This year we’ve:

• Secured injunctions and delays of regulators’ overreaching 1071 and misguided Community Reinvestment Act rules via litigation.

• Continued elevating concerns with the CFPB’s 1033 rule while procuring an exemption for community banks under $850 million in assets.

• Teed up opposition to Federal Home Loan Bank lending and liquidity restrictions heading into a change in agency leadership in 2025.

• Made a down payment on regulatory relief in the coming Congress and administration with House committee passage of several relief measures.

• Helped the House advance legislation that would restrict the ability of the federal government to introduce a U.S. central bank digital currency.

• Endorsed an FDIC proposed rule to enhance oversight of industrial loan companies.

• Worked with policymakers and the U.S. Postal Service to address the explosive growth of check fraud, including by pushing back against a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal that would make the problem worse.

• Procured virtual meetings that will ensure community bank representation under the current Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act review.

• Advocated reducing community bank deposit insurance assessments with the Deposit Insurance Fund reserve ratio on track to reach the statutory minimum ahead of schedule.

• Staved off merchant efforts to enact legislation to create credit card routing mandates.

• Achieved important changes to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ICBA-opposed climate disclosure rule that will provide relief for smaller reporting companies and emerging growth companies.

• Continued pushing back against CFPB rules on overdraft services, non-sufficient-funds fees, credit card late fees, and the agency’s mischaracterization of key banking services as “junk fees,” which has helped to elevate these rules for review by the new Congress and administration.

Critical Education Resources

Amid this year’s successful advocacy efforts, ICBA also continued its commitment to unlocking the potential of community bankers and delivering critical resources via ICBA Education.

In addition to creating an abundance of new resources on fraud and scams, including HELOC-related check fraud, ICBA Education this year hosted more than 50 live seminars, certification institutes, conferences, and forums along with more than 90 webinars. Further, our Online Training Library and Course Catalog features more than 425 online courses that are available to more than 70,000 community bankers through bank-wide subscriptions.

We also had a successful ICBA LIVE 2024 in Orlando featuring more than 70 sessions and learning labs spanning six tracks, an ICBA ThinkTECH Alumni Showcase of product demos, and more than 200 exhibiting companies during the Expo. The past year was also marked by another successful ICBA LEAD FWD Summit leadership conference and the launch of ICBA’s Professional Development Planner, a new tool that helps to identify skills gaps and development opportunities at more than 80 community bank job functions while boosting employee engagement and retention.

After 98% of ICBA LIVE survey respondents reported they were either extremely or very satisfied with this year’s event, ICBA is gearing up for ICBA LIVE 2025, scheduled for March 11-14 in Nashville. Initial keynote speakers and learning lab sessions are taking shape, so I encourage community bankers who haven’t registered yet to register here and cross it off your holiday to-do list.

We can’t wait to see you in Nashville. Meanwhile, community bankers can prep for LIVE and discuss many other issues via ICBA Community, our online platform that grew to 4,500 community bankers in 2024.

Continued Commitment to Innovation

This year also saw the continued expansion of ICBA Innovation and our ThinkTECH Accelerator program with the opening of the ICBA Center for Innovation in Atlanta, which establishes a permanent home for our world-class innovation initiatives featuring year-round programming.

We held our sixth and seventh ThinkTECH Accelerator programs, which showcased cohorts of community bank-focused fintech providers offering new solutions on small business, data analytics, compliance, artificial intelligence, digital onboarding, and more.

Our sixth Accelerator program included a Regulator Day and Core Day that brought together key stakeholders, and our seventh Accelerator featured a showcase at the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado. And we continued our series of ThinkTECH Solutions Forums while hosting our Preferred Service Provider Engagement Forum over two days in Atlanta to discuss how community banks evaluate and adopt technologies and services.

More than 1,200 bankers participated in ICBA Innovation-related programming this year, while more than 90% of our member banks use at least one ICBA Preferred Service Provider. We look forward to continuing this growth and commitment to innovation in 2025.

Looking Ahead to 2025

ICBA’s successes have had a significant positive impact on community banks and showcased the membership value of ICBA, which added nearly 70 new members this year and has had a 97% membership retention rate over the past two years.

In 2024, we have continued raising the profile of numerous key issues heading into a new post-election year ripe with opportunity. Make no mistake—ICBA recognizes the magnitude of the moment we face heading into 2025.

Under a new Congress and administration, we have the opportunity to chart a new course of positive action on harmful regulations such as 1071, the CFPB’s nonstop assault on community banking, the crackdown on the FHLBanks, a major tax debate, and other key policy areas. In the coming days and weeks, ICBA will introduce its plan for addressing broken regulations and fueling the future of community banking.

Nevertheless, with credit unions, fraudsters, the crypto sector, and others posing ongoing challenges, we cannot take our advocacy outlook for granted. We will have to continue giving everything we’ve got to effect meaningful change.

We look forward to working closely with the new Trump administration and 119th Congress. And given the passion and commitment of community bankers and staff as well as the guiding light of ICBA’s mission, I know there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

Congratulations for all you have accomplished this year. And thank you for your efforts and engagement with ICBA. Let’s continue working to create and promote an environment where community banks flourish while powering the potential of every customer and community we serve.