Reaping Dividends

ICBA and community bankers scored an important victory in Washington with the passage of a law exempting most of the industry from a backdoor tax hike on Federal Reserve members. Following unwavering ICBA and community bank advocacy, a new transportation funding law exempts community banks with $10 billion and under in assets from cuts to Fed stock dividends. Also significant is that the law includes a number of ICBA's Plan for Prosperity regulatory relief measures for community banks. The community bank exemption followed passionate industry advocacy to completely scrap a Senate-passed Fed dividend cut to help pay for federal highways. Further demonstrating the industry's clout in Congress, lawmakers also attached several beneficial regulatory-relief provisions from ICBA's Plan for Prosperity agenda to the final transportation law. While ICBA was opposed to any change in the Fed dividend policy, Congress clearly listened to the nation's community banks and made substantial improvements to the final law.