Payments Modernization Act of 2019

Issues related to payment processing, debit reforms, financial innovation and technology, including the Payment Choice Act of 2019 (H.R. 2650), the Payments Modernization Act of 2019 (H.R. 3951 / S. 2243), the COUNTER Act (H.R. 2514), the ILLICIT CASH Act (S. 2563), and the Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act (H.R. 4813), lending, gift cards, money transmission licensing, payment authentication, data security, and financial inclusion.

Client expense: $4,380,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Agriculture, Dept of (USDA), Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Commerce, Dept of (DOC), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Defense, Dept of (DOD), Education, Dept of, Executive Office of the President (EOP), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Federal Reserve System, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), General Services Administration (GSA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS), Homeland Security, Dept of (DHS), Justice, Dept of (DOJ), Labor, Dept of (DOL), Natl Economic Council (NEC), Natl Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), Natl Security Council (NSC), Natl Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), Office of Management & Budget (OMB), Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), Patent & Trademark Office (PTO), Postal Regulatory Commission, SENATE, Small Business Administration (SBA), State, Dept of (DOS), Transportation, Dept of (DOT), Treasury, Dept of, U.S. Copyright Office, U.S. Customs & Border Protection, U.S. Postal Service (USPS), U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), Veterans Affairs, Dept of (VA), White House Office

H.R.2650, Payment Choice Act of 2019 (All sections of full text) Monitored H.R.3951, Payments Modernization Act of 2019 Monitored S.2243, Payments Modernization Act of 2019

Client expense: Not reported · Firm income: $70,000

Government targets: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE, Treasury, Dept of

Payments Card Standards, Security and Fraud Open Banking and Realtime Gross Settlement Standards Durbin Amendment / Debit Reform HR 4047 Open Banking Study Act of 2019 HR 3951 / S 2243 Payments Modernization Act of 2019 FedNow Real Time Gross Settlement proposal H.R. 3928, Fed Reserve Accountability & Justification Act H.R. 3951/ S. 2243, Payments Modernization Act of 2019

Client expense: $90,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Agriculture, Dept of (USDA), Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Executive Office of the President (EOP), Federal Reserve System, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Justice, Dept of (DOJ), Labor, Dept of (DOL), SENATE, Treasury, Dept of

Issues related to payment processing, debit reforms, financial innovation and technology, including the Payment Choice Act of 2019 (H.R. 2650), the Payments Modernization Act of 2019 (H.R. 3951 / S. 2243), the COUNTER Act (H.R. 2514), the ILLICIT CASH Act (S. 2563), and the Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act (H.R. 4813), lending, gift cards, money transmission licensing, payment authentication, data security, and financial inclusion.

Client expense: $4,330,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Monitored H.R.2650, Payment Choice Act of 2019 Monitored H.R.3951, Payments Modernization Act of 2019 Monitored S.2243, Payments Modernization Act of 2019

Client expense: Not reported · Firm income: $70,000

Government targets: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE, Treasury, Dept of

Issues related to payment processing, debit reforms, financial innovation and technology, including the Payments Modernization Act of 2019 (H.R. 3951 / S. 2243), the COUNTER Act (H.R. 2514), the ILLICIT CASH Act (S. 2563), and the Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act (H.R. 4813), lending, gift cards, money transmission licensing, payment authentication, data security, and financial inclusion.

Client expense: $4,210,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Payments Card Standards, Security and Fraud Open Banking and Realtime Gross Settlement Standards Durbin Amendment / Debit Reform HR 4047 Open Banking Study Act of 2019 HR 3951 / S 2243 Payments Modernization Act of 2019 FedNow Real Time Gross Settlement proposal H.R. 3928, Fed Reserve Accountability & Justification Act H.R. 3951/ S. 2243, Payments Modernization Act of 2019

Client expense: $100,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Agriculture, Dept of (USDA), Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Executive Office of the President (EOP), Federal Reserve System, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE

Monitored H.R.2650, Payment Choice Act of 2019 Monitored H.R.3951, Payments Modernization Act of 2019 Monitored S.2243, Payments Modernization Act of 2019

Client expense: Not reported · Firm income: $70,000

Payments Card Standards, Security and Fraud Open Banking and Realtime Gross Settlement Standards Durbin Amendment / Debit Reform HR 4047 Open Banking Study Act of 2019 HR 3951 / S 2243 Payments Modernization Act of 2019 HR 3928 Federal Reserve Accountability and Justification Act

Client expense: $110,000 · Firm income: Not reported

Government targets: Agriculture, Dept of (USDA), Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Executive Office of the President (EOP), Federal Reserve System, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Labor, Dept of (DOL), SENATE, Social Security Administration (SSA)

H.R. 388 Financial Reporting Threshold Modernization H.R. 442 Financial Protection for Our Military Families Act H.R. 578 The Cooperate with Law Enforcement and Watch Act H.R. 741 Tailor Act of 2019 H.R. 799 Federal Worker Credit Protection Act of 2019 H.R. 1038 Treasury Dept. to take greater role in Anti-Money Laundering/CFT policy and examinations H.R. 1039 Streamline Currency Transaction Reports and Suspicious Activity Reports H.R. 1491 FINTECH Act of 2019 H.R. 1595 SAFE Banking Act H.R. 2513 Reforms collection of beneficial ownership information for corporations and LLCs H.R. 2514 Coordinating Oversight, Upgrading and Innovating Technology, and Examiner Reform Act: Makes amendments to Bank Secrecy Act H.R. 3167 National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization Act H.R. 3182 Requires agency study of Current Expected Credit Loss standard and delays effective date of standard-CECL Consumer Impact and Study Act of 2019 H.R. 3198 Comprehensive Regulatory Review Act: Make changes to EGRPRA Review H.R. 3614 Restricting Use of Credit Checks for Employment Decisions Act H.R. 3618 Free Credit Scores for Consumers Act of 2019 H.R. 3928 The Federal Reserve Accountability and Justification Act H.R. 3939 To require the Fed to carry out a quantitative study of any proposed real-time payment system H.R. 3951 Payments Modernization Act of 2019 S. 540 Self-Employed Mortgage Access Act S. 592 Cybersecurity Disclosure Act of 2019 S. 656 SAFE Lending Act of 2019 S. 1028 States Act S. 1200 SAFE Banking Act S. 1564 Requires agency study of Current Expected Credit Loss standard and delays effective date of standard S. 1790 Sec. 2821: Equal treatment between community banks and credit unions when assessing rent and related charges. S.2243 Payments Modernization Act of 2019 S.2563 Illicit Cash Act Audit and Reporting Requirements Under 12 CFR Part 363 for Community Banks Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Rules/Legislation, including Beneficial Ownership Issue Brokered Deposits/ National Interest Rate Caps Call Report Streamlining Cannabis Banking CFPB Small Business Loan Data Collection Community Bank Access to Capital Community Bank Acquisitions by Credit Unions Community Bank Leverage Ratio Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund Appropriations Community Reinvestment Act Modernization Corporate Ownership Transparency Credit Union Business Lending Powers Credit Union Emergency Mergers Credit Union Field of Membership Rules Credit Union Growth/Powers/Abusive Behavior Credit Union Supplemental Capital Cryptocurrency Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) Customer Due Diligence Rule Cybersecurity Data Security, Breaches and Privacy Direct Deposit Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act Implementation Examination Appeals Facebook's Libra Proposal Faster Payments/Federal Reserve Real Time Gross Settlement System Flood Insurance Reauthorization Fed Now Service Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Regulations Housing Finance Reform Industrial Loan Corporation Loophole Reforms/ Square (ILC) and Rakuten Deposit Insurance Applications Innovation Initiative (FinTech) Minority Depository Institutions Issues Nomination of Michelle Bowman for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors - For Full Term OCC Special Purpose Fintech Charter Postal Banking Private Flood Insurance Qualified Mortgages - Ability to Repay Rules Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) Service/Fed Now Service Regulatory Burden Relief for Community Banks Regulatory and Tax Relief for Community Banks Remittance Transfers SBA 7(a) Loan Program Funding

CBAI Federal Policy Priorities - 2019 The Community Bankers Association of Illinois (CBAI) supports fair competition for financial services, tiered regulation, the separation of banking and commerce, the dual banking system/charter choice, and financial innovation; and opposes discrimination favoring certain financial service providers, banking industry consolidation and systemic risk. The Independent Community Bankers of Americas legislative and regulatory agenda contained in their Community Focus 2020: The Community Bank Agenda for Expanding Economic Opportunity proposes a more efficient system of regulation, unbiased laws governing the financial sector, a safer and more secure business environment, and more efficient agricultural policies to extend the nations economic growth to every corner of the country. The swift implementation of the remaining regulatory relief provisions for community banks - consistent with Congressional intent - contained the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155) which became law in May of 2018. The passage of additional meaningful regulatory relief for community banks including modernizing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/Currency Transaction Report (CTR) threshold/Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) threshold. Also, data for the new beneficial ownership reporting requirements should be collected and verified by the appropriate federal/state government agencies when a legal entity is formed or when subsequent changes occur. Credit unions and Farm Credit System (FCS) lenders have long-since strayed from their founding purposes, blatantly abusing their competitive advantages. This blatant and continuing discrimination against community banks must end. Either the credit union and FCS competitive advantages must be reined-in or there must be tax credits or deductions for community banks lending to small businesses, farmers and ranchers, homebuyers, and low- and middle-income individuals. These changes in the tax code would help sustain and strengthen community bank lending and would begin to offset the competitive advantage enjoyed by tax-exempt credit unions and FCS lenders. The United States payments system (System), which is the very foundation of our financial services and economy, must be modernized to meet the demands of consumers and to keep pace with the rest of the world. System improvements must not be dominated by the largest banks and financial firms or private-sector non-banks. Community banks, small businesses and consumers must rely on the Federal Reserve to provide access to a safe and secure payments system which requires the Federal Reserve to continue to play a preeminent role in the Systems improvement. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) needs to be updated to incorporate new financial products and services delivered in modern ways. Community banks have traditionally excelled in the performance of their CRA compliance and examinations. The modernization of the CRA must enhance the ability of community banks to serve their communities and must not impose any additional regulatory burden. All financial service providers must be subject to the CRA to provide a complete picture of financial institutions performance in serving their communities - including credit unions, Farm Credit System lenders and Fintechs (including the OCCs Special Purpose National Banks). The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Deposit Rate Caps (Rate Caps) impact community banks ability to grow and thrive. The flaws in how the Rate Caps are calculated include: not reflecting competitive funding or investment opportunities; the largest banks extensive branch networks and their too-big-to-fail subsidies have an outsized influence on the Rate Caps; promotional and negotiated rates are excluded which present an incomplete picture of the deposit-rate landscape; and credit unions are omitted which wrongly ignores thousands of financial institutions that are similar to community banks. Also, during safety and soundness examinations for well capitalized banks, FDIC examiners are using the flawed Rate Caps as a benchmark in the analysis of bank liquidity, which inevitably results in faulty conclusions that can impact liquidity in a banks CAMELS rating. Without taking a position on the legalization of cannabis, it is a matter of public safety to have a safe harbor from federal sanctions for financial institutions that choose to serve legally-compliant cannabis-related business in states where cannabis is legal. Newly chartered (de novo) community banks are vitally important to maintaining a strong, growing, evolving and vibrant banking profession in the face of industry consolidation. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has indicated a change in direction to finally get back on the right course. These encouraging signs must be closely monitored to assure that many new banks are chartered each year to help maintain the vitality of the community banking profession. Hand in hand with renewed de novo bank formation is the importance of maintaining the dual banking system, which has served our nation well for over 150 years, where chartering and supervision is divided between the federal government and the states. Community banks should be able to choose the banking charter that best fits their unique business model. A banking system with multi-agency (state and federal) regulators and charter choice provides the necessary checks and balances on the immense power of the regulators, as well as improved rulemaking - as the benefit of each agencies expertise and experience is brought to bear on complex and controversial issues. The reform of the housing GSEs remains critically important to the future of the housing market and the U.S. economy. American homeowners have benefited from the critical role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have played in helping finance homeownership for many decades. The GSEs have provided a steady, reliable source of funding for home mortgage lending through all economic cycles and in all markets. Community banks depend on the GSEs for direct access to the secondary market without having to sell their loans through larger financial institutions that compete with them. The GSEs allow community banks to retain the servicing of the loans they sell, which helps to keep delinquencies and foreclosures low. And, unlike other private investors or aggregators, the GSEs have a mandate to serve all markets at all times which is critical to maintaining liquidity when the markets are experiencing financial stress. Most community banks are members and shareholders of their regional Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB). The FHLBs provide short-term liquidity, long-term funding, mortgage-related products, and other financial services in order to help their members provide affordable credit to the local communities they serve. The regional structure, special functions and unique purpose of the FHLBs must be recognized and maintained by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). As the Administration and Congress consider reforming the housing finance system, care must be taken not to harm the FHLBs. They must remain healthy, stable and reliable sources of funding for their members . However, given their unique relationship with thousands of community lenders, it may be appropriate for the FHLBs to support their members secondary market activities as aggregators or guarantors for residential mortgage loans, provided their current ability to serve their members is not impeded or threatened. Additionally, the FHFA should not impose an ongoing housing mission asset test on FHLB membership, which would undermine the reliability of FHLB funding. A vibrant agricultural and rural economy is vital to Americas prosperity. The multi-year Farm Bill provided a strong safety net for farmers and ranchers including adequate price-protection programs and enhanced USDA-guaranteed farm and business loan programs. These programs must be protected from further cuts or adverse changes that would discourage farmer and rancher participation or undermine private-sector delivery. Community banks are strong guardians of the security and confidentiality of their customers information and are on the frontline of defending against cyber security threats. Core data security principals in legislation and regulations must include the complete cost of data breaches being borne by that party that caused the breach; all participants in the payment system should be subject to verifiable Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act-like data security standards; a national data security breach and notification standard should replace the current patchwork of state laws; and any new data security standard proposals should ensure that community banks are not burdened with having to reassess existing critical systems, and implement and comply with new regulations, only to achieve the same superior results they currently attain. Regulations promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFPB must provide community banks with the flexibility to meet the needs of its customers and they must not be burdened with additional and unnecessary regulatory requirements that would prevent them from serving their customers and communities. A one-size-fits-all approach to CFPB regulations harms the successful community bank business model. The CFPB should not be unduly influencing marketplace behavior by targeting financial institutions, products, services, and practices which it deems to be undesirable or inappropriate regardless of what consumers want. In reforming the CFPB, the single Director governance should be replaced by a five-member board or commission; a broader definition of firms that grant credit should be subject to the CFPB rules, they should be robustly supervised and examined; and the focus of any enhanced regulation of financial products should be on the mega banks and financial firms, the unregulated shadow financial industry and emerging Fintech companies. The CFPB, in the Dodd-Frank Act (Section 1022(b)(3)(A), has the statutory authority to exempt any class of providers [community banks] or any products or services from the rules it writes, but to-date the Bureau has been far too reticent to do so. The effective use of this authority will ensure community banks continue to be a healthy alternative to large banks and non-banks for consumers seeking to use responsible financial service providers. The Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) intends to issue special purpose national banking charters to Fintech companies. The OCCs intentions, however, raise many concerns. The very legal authority permitting the OCC to charter Fintechs has been challenged by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) as being fatally flawed. A single regulator acting unilaterally in the chartering, examining, supervising and regulating Fintechs is not in the best interests of the profession, consumers and the economy. Congress must provide the explicit statutory authority to charter Fintechs. If the OCC moves forward, it must guarantee that Fintechs will comply with all banking laws, rules and regulations, and that they be held to the same rigorous safety and soundness standards (e.g., supervision and regulation) that are currently being required of community banks and bank holding companies. Fintechs cannot have the advantages of a national bank charter with limited requirements, regulations and liability. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has approved significant revisions to the way community banks reserve for their loan losses (i.e., the Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) Model). After significant community banker input, FASB agreed to address community banker concerns and revised their Model proposal. The revised CECL is more flexible and scalable for community banks by allowing them to evaluate and adjust loan loss amounts using qualitative factors, historic losses, and their current operating systems such as spreadsheets, narratives and other noncomplex estimation methods. Community bankers and Congress must continue to be vigilant to assure the Model implementation provides a clear, practical and easy-to-use methodologies for calculating expected losses which can be seamlessly incorporated into existing processes for community banks. There is an emerging threat to the security of consumer data from the proliferation of companies seeking to access bank customer account information (i.e., customer data sharing). The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is responsible under the Dodd-Frank Act to promulgate this rule. While community banks support responsible innovation in financial products and services, the integrity of consumer data and privacy is only as strong as the weakest link. Community banks are financially sound and take great care in protecting consumer privacy, but non-bank entities are typically not well capitalized, have no significant assets and are financially unable to make restitution in the event of a loss. They must none-the-less be held responsible for ensuring the safety of the customer information they are accessing and be able to satisfy the liability for any financial harm which they cause community banks and their consumers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus (CFPB) small-dollar lending rule was intended to address its concerns about consumer abuse caused by payday and vehicle title lenders. The proposed rule was too broadly drafted and would have ensnared sensible community bank small-dollar consumer lending. Some exemptions were granted for community banks after a burdensome rulemaking process. Subsequently, the new CFPB Director proposed eliminating the underwriting provision, and the delay in the payment provision was continued by a U.S. District Judge. A carefully monitoring and appropriate action will be required, as the implementation of the rule unfolds, to minimize any negative impact on community banks small-dollar consumer lending. While community banks represent less than 20% of banking industry assets, they make 60% of the small business loans and 80% of agricultural loans. The requirement for reporting small business data collection stems from Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act and is meant to facilitate the enforcement of fair lending laws in small business lending. The data, however, clearly suggests fair lending is not a problem at community banks as they treat their customers honestly and fairly. The regulatory burden of the collection and reporting requirements fall disproportionately hard on community banks that lack scale and compliance resources, and Section 1071 should either be repealed or community banks should be provided with a meaningful exception. Fraud losses are increasing at community banks and Reg CC needs to keep pace with the technology that banks and their customers are using, both now and particularly as the payments system transitions to real-time. All banks, credit unions, and others who utilize the payments system should be operating on the same level playing field when it comes to return reasons for fraud and acknowledging and communicating about fraud. The recent financial crisis, taxpayer bail-outs and subsequent recession was caused by the misconduct of the nations largest banks and financial firms (Too-Big-To-Fail Banks and Financial Firms). The Dodd-Frank Act was intended to reign-in their destructive behavior. Unfortunately, this was an inadequate legislative and regulatory response which has allowed these financial behemoths to grow in size, complexity and influence; they will continue to abuse their consumers; and they remain a significant threat to our financial system and economy. These megabanks have proven, at great cost to American taxpayers, that they cannot be effectively managed, supervised or disciplined. They are clearly too-big-to-change, too-big-to-fail and must be downsized. (House, Senate, FDIC, CFPB, Federal Reserve) Legislation - Enhances Credit Opportunities in Rural America (ECORA) (H.R. 1872 and S.1641) (All Sections), interest earned on agricultural real estate and rural single family home loans would not be taxable (House and Senate) Payments Modernization Act of 2019 (S.2243) (All Sections), regarding the Federal Reserve Systems role in faster (real-time) payments (Senate) Safe and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2019 (SAFE Act) (H.R. 1595) (All Sections), safe harbor for banking cannabis related businesses (House) Letters - Comment Letter to the IRS regarding Internal Revenue Code section 481(d), added to section 13543 of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Pub. L. No. 115-97 dealing with the treatment of section 481(a) adjustments that result when an S corporation terminates its S election and converts to a C corporation during the two year period beginning on the date of enactment of the TCJA, and where the change in status requires the taxpayer to change from the cash method of accounting to the accrual method. (IRS) Action Alerts - Action Alerts (two) regarding tax-exempt credit unions purchasing taxpaying community banks (House and Senate) Miscellaneous - Tax-exempt credit unions purchasing taxpaying community banks (House and Senate, Federal Reserve, CFPB, FDIC,) The Federal Reserve Systems role in faster payments (real-time payments). (House and Senate, FDIC, CFPB, Federal Reserve) Michelle Bowmans nomination to the Federal Reserve Board (Senate)

CBAI Federal Policy Priorities - 2019 The Community Bankers Association of Illinois (CBAI) supports fair competition for financial services, tiered regulation, the separation of banking and commerce, the dual banking system/charter choice, and financial innovation; and opposes discrimination favoring certain financial service providers, banking industry consolidation and systemic risk. The Independent Community Bankers of Americas legislative and regulatory agenda contained in their Community Focus 2020: The Community Bank Agenda for Expanding Economic Opportunity proposes a more efficient system of regulation, unbiased laws governing the financial sector, a safer and more secure business environment, and more efficient agricultural policies to extend the nations economic growth to every corner of the country. The swift implementation of the remaining regulatory relief provisions for community banks - consistent with Congressional intent - contained the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155) which became law in May of 2018. The passage of additional meaningful regulatory relief for community banks including modernizing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/Currency Transaction Report (CTR) threshold/Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) threshold. Also, data for the new beneficial ownership reporting requirements should be collected and verified by the appropriate federal/state government agencies when a legal entity is formed or when subsequent changes occur. Credit unions and Farm Credit System (FCS) lenders have long-since strayed from their founding purposes, blatantly abusing their competitive advantages. This blatant and continuing discrimination against community banks must end. Either the credit union and FCS competitive advantages must be reined-in or there must be tax credits or deductions for community banks lending to small businesses, farmers and ranchers, homebuyers, and low- and middle-income individuals. These changes in the tax code would help sustain and strengthen community bank lending and would begin to offset the competitive advantage enjoyed by tax-exempt credit unions and FCS lenders. The United States payments system (System), which is the very foundation of our financial services and economy, must be modernized to meet the demands of consumers and to keep pace with the rest of the world. System improvements must not be dominated by the largest banks and financial firms or private-sector non-banks. Community banks, small businesses and consumers must rely on the Federal Reserve to provide access to a safe and secure payments system which requires the Federal Reserve to continue to play a preeminent role in the Systems improvement. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) needs to be updated to incorporate new financial products and services delivered in modern ways. Community banks have traditionally excelled in the performance of their CRA compliance and examinations. The modernization of the CRA must enhance the ability of community banks to serve their communities and must not impose any additional regulatory burden. All financial service providers must be subject to the CRA to provide a complete picture of financial institutions performance in serving their communities - including credit unions, Farm Credit System lenders and Fintechs (including the OCCs Special Purpose National Banks). The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Deposit Rate Caps (Rate Caps) impact community banks ability to grow and thrive. The flaws in how the Rate Caps are calculated include: not reflecting competitive funding or investment opportunities; the largest banks extensive branch networks and their too-big-to-fail subsidies have an outsized influence on the Rate Caps; promotional and negotiated rates are excluded which present an incomplete picture of the deposit-rate landscape; and credit unions are omitted which wrongly ignores thousands of financial institutions that are similar to community banks. Also, during safety and soundness examinations for well capitalized banks, FDIC examiners are using the flawed Rate Caps as a benchmark in the analysis of bank liquidity, which inevitably results in faulty conclusions that can impact liquidity in a banks CAMELS rating. Without taking a position on the legalization of cannabis, it is a matter of public safety to have a safe harbor from federal sanctions for financial institutions that choose to serve legally-compliant cannabis-related business in states where cannabis is legal. Newly chartered (de novo) community banks are vitally important to maintaining a strong, growing, evolving and vibrant banking profession in the face of industry consolidation. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has indicated a change in direction to finally get back on the right course. These encouraging signs must be closely monitored to assure that many new banks are chartered each year to help maintain the vitality of the community banking profession. Hand in hand with renewed de novo bank formation is the importance of maintaining the dual banking system, which has served our nation well for over 150 years, where chartering and supervision is divided between the federal government and the states. Community banks should be able to choose the banking charter that best fits their unique business model. A banking system with multi-agency (state and federal) regulators and charter choice provides the necessary checks and balances on the immense power of the regulators, as well as improved rulemaking - as the benefit of each agencies expertise and experience is brought to bear on complex and controversial issues. The reform of the housing GSEs remains critically important to the future of the housing market and the U.S. economy. American homeowners have benefited from the critical role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have played in helping finance homeownership for many decades. The GSEs have provided a steady, reliable source of funding for home mortgage lending through all economic cycles and in all markets. Community banks depend on the GSEs for direct access to the secondary market without having to sell their loans through larger financial institutions that compete with them. The GSEs allow community banks to retain the servicing of the loans they sell, which helps to keep delinquencies and foreclosures low. And, unlike other private investors or aggregators, the GSEs have a mandate to serve all markets at all times which is critical to maintaining liquidity when the markets are experiencing financial stress. Most community banks are members and shareholders of their regional Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB). The FHLBs provide short-term liquidity, long-term funding, mortgage-related products, and other financial services in order to help their members provide affordable credit to the local communities they serve. The regional structure, special functions and unique purpose of the FHLBs must be recognized and maintained by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). As the Administration and Congress consider reforming the housing finance system, care must be taken not to harm the FHLBs. They must remain healthy, stable and reliable sources of funding for their members . However, given their unique relationship with thousands of community lenders, it may be appropriate for the FHLBs to support their members secondary market activities as aggregators or guarantors for residential mortgage loans, provided their current ability to serve their members is not impeded or threatened. Additionally, the FHFA should not impose an ongoing housing mission asset test on FHLB membership, which would undermine the reliability of FHLB funding. A vibrant agricultural and rural economy is vital to Americas prosperity. The multi-year Farm Bill provided a strong safety net for farmers and ranchers including adequate price-protection programs and enhanced USDA-guaranteed farm and business loan programs. These programs must be protected from further cuts or adverse changes that would discourage farmer and rancher participation or undermine private-sector delivery. Community banks are strong guardians of the security and confidentiality of their customers information and are on the frontline of defending against cyber security threats. Core data security principals in legislation and regulations must include the complete cost of data breaches being borne by that party that caused the breach; all participants in the payment system should be subject to verifiable Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act-like data security standards; a national data security breach and notification standard should replace the current patchwork of state laws; and any new data security standard proposals should ensure that community banks are not burdened with having to reassess existing critical systems, and implement and comply with new regulations, only to achieve the same superior results they currently attain. Regulations promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFPB must provide community banks with the flexibility to meet the needs of its customers and they must not be burdened with additional and unnecessary regulatory requirements that would prevent them from serving their customers and communities. A one-size-fits-all approach to CFPB regulations harms the successful community bank business model. The CFPB should not be unduly influencing marketplace behavior by targeting financial institutions, products, services, and practices which it deems to be undesirable or inappropriate regardless of what consumers want. In reforming the CFPB, the single Director governance should be replaced by a five-member board or commission; a broader definition of firms that grant credit should be subject to the CFPB rules, they should be robustly supervised and examined; and the focus of any enhanced regulation of financial products should be on the mega banks and financial firms, the unregulated shadow financial industry and emerging Fintech companies. The CFPB, in the Dodd-Frank Act (Section 1022(b)(3)(A), has the statutory authority to exempt any class of providers [community banks] or any products or services from the rules it writes, but to-date the Bureau has been far too reticent to do so. The effective use of this authority will ensure community banks continue to be a healthy alternative to large banks and non-banks for consumers seeking to use responsible financial service providers. The Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) intends to issue special purpose national banking charters to Fintech companies. The OCCs intentions, however, raise many concerns. The very legal authority permitting the OCC to charter Fintechs has been challenged by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) as being fatally flawed. A single regulator acting unilaterally in the chartering, examining, supervising and regulating Fintechs is not in the best interests of the profession, consumers and the economy. Congress must provide the explicit statutory authority to charter Fintechs. If the OCC moves forward, it must guarantee that Fintechs will comply with all banking laws, rules and regulations, and that they be held to the same rigorous safety and soundness standards (e.g., supervision and regulation) that are currently being required of community banks and bank holding companies. Fintechs cannot have the advantages of a national bank charter with limited requirements, regulations and liability. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has approved significant revisions to the way community banks reserve for their loan losses (i.e., the Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) Model). After significant community banker input, FASB agreed to address community banker concerns and revised their Model proposal. The revised CECL is more flexible and scalable for community banks by allowing them to evaluate and adjust loan loss amounts using qualitative factors, historic losses, and their current operating systems such as spreadsheets, narratives and other noncomplex estimation methods. Community bankers and Congress must continue to be vigilant to assure the Model implementation provides a clear, practical and easy-to-use methodologies for calculating expected losses which can be seamlessly incorporated into existing processes for community banks. There is an emerging threat to the security of consumer data from the proliferation of companies seeking to access bank customer account information (i.e., customer data sharing). The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is responsible under the Dodd-Frank Act to promulgate this rule. While community banks support responsible innovation in financial products and services, the integrity of consumer data and privacy is only as strong as the weakest link. Community banks are financially sound and take great care in protecting consumer privacy, but non-bank entities are typically not well capitalized, have no significant assets and are financially unable to make restitution in the event of a loss. They must none-the-less be held responsible for ensuring the safety of the customer information they are accessing and be able to satisfy the liability for any financial harm which they cause community banks and their consumers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus (CFPB) small-dollar lending rule was intended to address its concerns about consumer abuse caused by payday and vehicle title lenders. The proposed rule was too broadly drafted and would have ensnared sensible community bank small-dollar consumer lending. Some exemptions were granted for community banks after a burdensome rulemaking process. Subsequently, the new CFPB Director proposed eliminating the underwriting provision, and the delay in the payment provision was continued by a U.S. District Judge. A carefully monitoring and appropriate action will be required, as the implementation of the rule unfolds, to minimize any negative impact on community banks small-dollar consumer lending. While community banks represent less than 20% of banking industry assets, they make 60% of the small business loans and 80% of agricultural loans. The requirement for reporting small business data collection stems from Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act and is meant to facilitate the enforcement of fair lending laws in small business lending. The data, however, clearly suggests fair lending is not a problem at community banks as they treat their customers honestly and fairly. The regulatory burden of the collection and reporting requirements fall disproportionately hard on community banks that lack scale and compliance resources, and Section 1071 should either be repealed or community banks should be provided with a meaningful exception. Fraud losses are increasing at community banks and Reg CC needs to keep pace with the technology that banks and their customers are using, both now and particularly as the payments system transitions to real-time. All banks, credit unions, and others who utilize the payments system should be operating on the same level playing field when it comes to return reasons for fraud and acknowledging and communicating about fraud. The recent financial crisis, taxpayer bail-outs and subsequent recession was caused by the misconduct of the nations largest banks and financial firms (Too-Big-To-Fail Banks and Financial Firms). The Dodd-Frank Act was intended to reign-in their destructive behavior. Unfortunately, this was an inadequate legislative and regulatory response which has allowed these financial behemoths to grow in size, complexity and influence; they will continue to abuse their consumers; and they remain a significant threat to our financial system and economy. These megabanks have proven, at great cost to American taxpayers, that they cannot be effectively managed, supervised or disciplined. They are clearly too-big-to-change, too-big-to-fail and must be downsized. (House, Senate, FDIC, CFPB, Federal Reserve) Legislation - Enhances Credit Opportunities in Rural America (ECORA) (H.R. 1872 and S.1641) (All Sections), interest earned on agricultural real estate and rural single family home loans would not be taxable (House and Senate) Payments Modernization Act of 2019 (S.2243) (All Sections), regarding the Federal Reserve Systems role in faster (real-time) payments (Senate) Safe and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2019 (SAFE Act) (H.R. 1595) (All Sections), safe harbor for banking cannabis related businesses (House) Letters - Comment Letter to the IRS regarding Internal Revenue Code section 481(d), added to section 13543 of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Pub. L. No. 115-97 dealing with the treatment of section 481(a) adjustments that result when an S corporation terminates its S election and converts to a C corporation during the two year period beginning on the date of enactment of the TCJA, and where the change in status requires the taxpayer to change from the cash method of accounting to the accrual method. (IRS) Action Alerts - Action Alerts (two) regarding tax-exempt credit unions purchasing taxpaying community banks (House and Senate) Miscellaneous - Tax-exempt credit unions purchasing taxpaying community banks (House and Senate, Federal Reserve, CFPB, FDIC,) The Federal Reserve Systems role in faster payments (real-time payments). (House and Senate, FDIC, CFPB, Federal Reserve) Michelle Bowmans nomination to the Federal Reserve Board (Senate)