In keynote remarks during the American Bankers Association’s Wealth Management and Trust Conference in New Orleans today, ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols highlighted the association’s efforts to push back against a “tsunami” of regulations facing the banking industry as well as its ongoing advocacy for a number of key initiatives.
Citing proposed capital increases, ongoing attacks on bank fee income streams (including the Durbin-Marshall bill to cap credit card interchange, the Fed’s Reg II proposal and ongoing “junk fee” rhetoric coming out of the CFPB), and final rules to update the Community Reinvestment Act and implement Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, Nichols warned that “there are real-world impacts of constricting the banking system that will affect jobs, growth and our nation’s economic prosperity.”
He emphasized that while “litigation is our last resort,” the association will not fail to use it when warranted, as it did in the case of the CRA final rule and 1071. Nichols also said that as the CFPB looks to finalize a long-awaited proposal regarding credit card late fees, it “is something that we may challenge.”
Nichols also highlighted ABA’s efforts to advocate for a level playing field between banks and other firms offering bank-like products and services, and for legislation that would resolve the conflict between federal and state law regarding banks’ ability to serve cannabis-related businesses. He also discussed ABA’s efforts to fight fraud through a new bank-to-bank information-sharing initiative, and to educate the public through the association’s popular #BanksNeverAskThat anti-phishing campaign.
