Meet Virginia banker Gary Shook, chair of ABA’s Government Relations Council
By Evan Sparks
Gary Shook has always been a bit of a political animal.
“I’ve had an interest in the political side going back to my UVa days,” referring to the University of Virginia, where he held student body office. Even though he didn’t want to go into politics himself, he knew early in his career as a banker that “what did suit me was making sure you were involved in the system to help influence those policy outcomes.”
His banking career began more than four decades ago, and his career as an advocate on bank policy issues has lasted nearly as long. Shook served on the Virginia Bankers Association’s government relations committee, among other service roles, and in 2013 became chair of the Virginia Bankers Association. That got him more involved with advocacy through ABA and at the national level, where he served as chair of a pro-banking 501(c)(4) and ABA’s voter education efforts, and eventually got involved with BankPac and the ABA Government Relations Council, which he is chairing in 2023-24.
When asked why he stays engaged, Shook tells a story about former President Barack Obama during a visit to Norfolk. Emphasizing that everyone should get out and vote, Obama said, “Cousin Pookie, if you don’t show up to vote, don’t be sitting around the dinner table talking about what all these people are doing to me. You’ve got to get out there and get involved in the process.”
Shook expands on that: “So, for bankers, that admonition is that if you want to be part of the solution and not sit there and say, ‘Oh my God, they’re doing this to us, they’re doing that to us, I can’t stand what’s going on,’ you’ve got to get inside and get engaged.
He adds the “one of the things that all of us need to focus on is trying to speak as one industry. Trying to divide that process just brings nothing to community banks because we’re getting all the trickle-down policy that’s happening up at the bigger banks. We really need to pull together and be part of one industry when it comes to uniting around these bigger policy issues that are happening right now.”
‘Trickle-down’ policy
Shook notes that bankers have their hands full responding to the tsunami of new regulatory activity. Referring to the Community Reinvestment Act final rule, the Basel III endgame, the FDIC’s board governance proposal and other initiatives, it’s a “mad rush to get things on the table in a hurry,” he notes.
The Basel III endgame proposal is of particular focus to Shook. While it’s pitched as applying only to the largest banks, “the way I’ve experienced these things is [with] the trickle-down effect.” He emphasizes that “capital standards in the United States are higher than most other places in the world, but for some reason, our regulators feel we need more.”
The cost of that is clear, as Shook sees it. “The more that has to sit over in the capital bucket, the less it’s available to lend to customers, and customers are, after all, who we’re trying to help achieve their financial dreams. If we’re taking money out of the system to make the bank, in theory, stronger, we’re removing some layer of capability of providing loans to consumers, small businesses, all the things that make our country thrive.”
Another “trickle-down” issue Shook notes is the two-pronged effort—via Regulation II at the Federal Reserve and the Credit Card Competition Act in Congress—to choke off interchange revenue and expand the Durbin Amendment to credit cards. “All of this talked about as, ‘Oh, this affects banks over $10 billion in assets.’ I don’t think that’s been the case,” he says. “Durbin is, plain and simple, a removal from the banks’ ledgers to the big-box stores’ ledgers.”
Redrawing the Blueprint
While the Government Relations Council doesn’t usually do a major update of the Blueprint for Growth midway through a Congress, the GRC “felt that with the issues that took place in March with Silicon Valley Bank and the bank failures, we probably needed to tweak a few things and emphasize some new things,” Shook says. “I think that’s driving a lot of the stuff we’re seeing take place now.”
As a result, the 2024 Blueprint asks policymakers to conduct holistic analysis of the regulatory environment and potential changes. “This really focuses on the cumulative impact of multiple regulations and the real-world consequences of that for consumers and the economy.”
Meanwhile, the Blueprint continues to focus on longstanding ABA priorities like the Access to Credit for the Rural Economy, or ACRE, Act, and the SAFER Banking Act. The Blueprint also reinforces ABA’s “support for mission-driven banks that bring capital to communities, to minority banking institutions, CDFIs.”
ACRE, which would enhance the tax treatment of agricultural and rural real estate loans, is a good example of ABA’s positive agenda, Shook adds. “That’s an example of something very positive that will help drive the rural economy,” he says. “You know, people think it’s a farm act — well, it’s not. It’s driving the rural economy and is really an economic development tool for all those areas that need lending and incentives to help banks and others provide that.”
Community bank leadership
Shook understands investing in a diverse range of communities. A native of the Hampton Roads area, he went to college in Charlottesville and has worked across the Commonwealth. In 2005, Shook was appointed president and CEO of Middleburg Bank, headquartered in the heart of northern Virginia’s Loudoun County.
Then better known for horses and foxhunting, Loudoun was one of the fastest-growing counties and most affluent in the country and is today likely better known for its intensive data center and cybersecurity ecosystem. “We were about a $1.4 billion bank and then we had about a $2.5 billion money management operation,” Shook notes. “There was always something exciting going on in growing that franchise. We were very client-focused in that bank.”
At his side throughout this journey was his wife, Ann-Rodman Shook. The Shooks have four grown children. Shook has been active in many nonprofits over the years, most recently serving in leadership roles with the Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges, Randolph-Macon College and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia’s cathedral shrine.
After selling Middleburg Bank and completing a year-long transition period, Shook returned to the C-suite as president and CEO of Community Bankers’ Bank. CBB is a regional bankers’ bank serving institutions generally in the Fifth District of the Federal Reserve, which stretches along the Atlantic coast from Maryland to the Carolinas.
Part of that is helping community banks plug into today’s technology; CBB was a pilot bank for FedNow and is currently certified for it, easing its clients’ access to the instant payment platform. “We’ve got a group that helps community banks negotiate contracts” with core providers as well, Shook notes.
“We’re owned by community banks and our job is to serve community banks for cash settlement, lending and other efficiency types of products and services,” he remarks. “I went from a community bank CEO working with clients to deliver a personalized experience to working with bank CEOs, CFOs and officers trying to create a personalized experience, helping them prosper and grow as a vital sector of the economy.”
For Gary Shook, banking and advocacy are all part of one mission.
