Guaranty Bank CEO Shaun Burke recently was selected to the American Bankers Association’s Community Bankers Council, a national board of executives representing community banks. Burke is one of roughly 100 executives on the council, and one of three from Missouri. The board provides advice to the ABA on governmental issues and banking trends for banks with assets less than $10 billion.
Representing Trillions “Max Cook, the executive director of the Missouri Bankers Association, I think he’s probably the one who put my name forward. … I continue to be involved in our state association; I’m the vice chairman of the legislative affairs committee. … The chairman of the ABA each year appoints people to the board. It’s a one-year appointment, but it usually rolls over every three years. If you are committed and work hard in the council, they want to keep people engaged. … The ABA is really the voice of our nation’s $15 trillion banking industry. The banking industry employs more than 2 million people. It safeguards $11 trillion in deposits, and we have over $8 trillion in loans. … November was my first meeting, and that provided a lot of insight into the issues a lot of banks are facing.”
Convening Council “We have a fall meeting and a spring meeting where we actually convene together. The ABA also has a couple of national conventions (and) three conference calls throughout the year. … A big part of what they want you to do as a member of the CBC is to really engage in the legislative and regulatory process. They want us, as members, to make sure we develop relationships with our congressmen and senators because they are so influential with banking legislation.”
Community Reach “At the end of the year, there were 6,589 banks in the U.S. That is down considerably over the last few years. Just over 5,900 of those – or over 90 percent – are defined as community banks (with) under $10 billion [in assets]. But of those 5,900, 90 percent of those are under $1 billion or less in assets. If you look at the banks in Springfield, just about every one would be characterized as a community bank. … (Guaranty has) about $650 million in assets. Of those 5,900, the average bank size is about $325 million.”
View from the Hill “The No. 1 thing I’ve experienced in going to Washington, D.C., with our state association and now with the ABA, there is a tremendous disconnect with the role of community banks in their communities and in the economy. A lot of times, Washington, D.C., sees the banking community as Wall Street only. The global banks and the largest banks in the country – that 10 percent number – are critically important to our economy. … But, the problem is we have these horrible pendulum swings when we are in a recession. That’s what’s going on now … with Dodd-Frank. (Legislators) think they are addressing the problem. But the problem is that once the rules get written, we are getting stuck with a lot of the corrective measures. … That’s where we can go back in with the ABA through our roles and tell our congressmen, ‘Here’s the prospective legislation you are thinking about or here’s the regulation that you’re drafting pursuant to that legislation and here’s how it will affect the banks, and more importantly, here’s how that will affect consumers and small-business owners in our communities.’ … It’s not an adversarial role at all. The legislators want the ABA to come in.”
Apple Pay and Cyber Security “We have a conference call coming up at the end of January. With just the talking points that are going to be addressed – and this shows how wide-ranging they are – we are going to talk about cyber security (and) Apple Pay. There are a lot of payment processors out there that are popping up and are competitive for banks, but the reality is, that’s what consumers want. They don’t necessarily want to go into banks. They want to use their cellphones, and we’ve got to make sure we are properly regulating that and properly addressing the competitive issues that they bring. … We are looking at (credit unions) and what their missions are. … And then there are things like marijuana in banking. That’s not relevant to Springfield, but that is an issue in those ever-increasing states where (the commercial marijuana industry is legal).”
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
