ICBA’s FDIC climate principles comment campaign continues

ICBA continues calling on community bankers to submit personalized comment letters to the FDIC on its draft statement of principles for climate-related financial risk management for large financial institutions.

Grassroots Resources: To help community bankers submit unique comments by the June 3 deadline, ICBA offers on its website a summary of the proposal and guide to submitting a comment letter to the FDIC.

Proposal: The FDIC proposal would impose a climate-related financial risk management framework for institutions over $100 billion in assets. However, the FDIC said in releasing the plan that all financial institutions may have material exposures to climate-related financial risks—raising concerns that the principles will trickle down to community banks.

Key Concerns: Using ICBA’s summary of the proposal and guide to submitting a comment letter, community bankers can also point out that they are not threatened by climate-related financial risks, already apply risk management practices to manage climate-related risks, and are experienced at helping local communities prepare for and recover from severe weather events.

Strong favorability fuels successful Capital Summit: blog

New polling conducted by Morning Consult supported community banker meetings with policymakers at the recent 2022 ICBA Capital Summit, according to ICBA’s latest blog post.

New Dashboard: ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey notes that ICBA’s new “Public Opinion of Community Banks” dashboard of polling data in all 50 states found strong public sentiment in favor of local banking.

Key Results: Among the poll’s findings:

• More than three in four U.S. adults say locally based lending decisions are important when determining where to bank.

• 70% of U.S. adults cited the importance of personal banking relationships.

• 61% said it is important that their financial institution does not receive taxpayer subsidies—raising questions about public support for credit unions’ tax and regulatory exemptions.