PACB leveraged your collective voices to educate state lawmakers, legislative leaders, and regulators about critical issues affecting our customers, communities, and our industry.
By Kevin L. Shivers, President and CEO, PACB
Dear PACB Member:
It has been our pleasure to serve you during 2022.
Our team strives every day to make a positive impact for our institutions and the banking professionals who serve our industry. We are gratified that you continue to see value aligning your bank’s brand with ours.
This year, PACB celebrated a member gain of both bank members and associates. This is a really big deal! For trade associations in all industries, member gains are like breaking the homerun record or scoring 100-points in basketball. Despite consolidation occurring in both the bank and the financial services sectors, we are gratified that institutions believe PACB is valuable and relevant to their operations.
Last March, the volunteer leaders of PACB and its Foundation and for-profit subsidiary, PACB Services, met in State College to develop a new unified strategic framework to take the association through 2025. Our mission is forward driving and encourages us to look outward beyond PACB’s existing membership.
“To empower community banks to make a positive impact within the communities they serve.”
Our new mission recognizes that your voice is trusted by the community. That trust was earned through your actions. And results. Helping you to make a positive impact for your customers, neighbors, and businesses, both shareholder-based and mutual – is our mission.
We will do this by:
- Offering products and services to keep you profitable and competitive.
- We will supply professional training based on industry best practices.
- And we will fight to create a simpler and fairer regulatory system.
Let’s recap where we are in 2022. Nationwide, seven in ten community banks report positive public perception and increased community engagement.
That’s good news.
Here in Pennsylvania, the PACB worked to amplify the voice of community bankers and their customers in the halls of Congress and the state Legislature in Harrisburg. PACB leveraged your collective voices to educate state lawmakers, legislative leaders, and regulators about critical issues affecting our customers, communities, and our industry.
I am proud to report that PACB’s state-level SAFE Banking Act (Act 56 of 2022) gained national attention from policymakers with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as a free-market solution to allow the banking of cannabis and related businesses at the state level.
PACB also advised policymakers on a new law (Act 53 of 2022) to help make the state tax code consistent with federal law to relieve our small-business customers.
These efforts by PACB build upon other public policies designed to help Pennsylvanians recover from the pandemic. These include input into the use of federal funds in combating the negative impacts of the pandemic on the economy (Act 1 of 2021). Included in the new law was a provision to help Pennsylvanians remain in their homes. As well, PACB offered input into a new state law (Act 37 of 2021) which provides new opportunities for community banks to gain CRA credits.
From elder financial abuse, CRA, and fair-lending standards – to – cannabis banking, statewide broad-band-deployment, and regulatory overreach, your PACB – and your involvement in the association – helped to open doors and enable us to explain these very complex issues.
Our industry is positioned for success in 2023.
Over three million Pennsylvanians voted to elect Josh Shapiro as governor. Our PACB team is already working with the new governor’s transition team.
In November, Roger Zacharia, president and CEO of Ambler Savings Bank, was appointed by Governor-Elect Josh Shapiro to his Transition Advisory Committee for Consumer Protection. Roger is immediate past-chair of the PACB.
Roger’s involvement with the transition team creates an exciting opportunity for community banks to provide input to the new governor and his administration as they create programs and policies designed to build vibrant communities and create economic opportunities for all Pennsylvanians.
Roger Zacharia cares passionately about his community and the consumers and small businesses throughout the region who are served by Ambler Savings Bank. Community banks like Ambler Savings Bank are essential to their communities, funding 70% of small business loans and supporting local charitable causes.
Voters also elected more than 40 newcomers to the state Legislature. PACB already has relationships with many of these newly-elected lawmakers. We are hard at work, building rapport and cooperative working relationships.
PACB in 2023 also has planned an array of exciting and fun new networking opportunities and learning experiences. We have bolstered our portfolio of high-quality professional development programming to support career-minded banking professionals and top decision-makers. And we continue to add to our inventory of world-class services and products to help community banks remain profitable and competitive.
PACB recently endorsed the Barret School of Banking based in Memphis, TN. The school offers a three-year program for banking professionals and advanced graduate-level education, at a substantially reduced tuition rate because of an endowment by the school’s namesake. The school delivers over 130 hours of in-person, online, and at-home coursework over a three-year period for career-oriented professionals in commercial banking or a related financial services industry business.
Being a member of the PACB means that you are a valued member of the community banking industry, and you are part of an effective association that is focused exclusively on programs, public policies, and initiatives that help banking professionals to make a positive impact in their communities, and for the customers they serve.
Your involvement in PACB makes the community banking industry better! A strong community banking industry benefits your institution and the customers you serve.
Thank you for your membership and dedication to the community banking industry.
We hope you enjoy a safe and healthy holiday season. Here’s to a prosperous new year!
