July 29, 2020

The Honorable Governor Commonwealth of 508 Main Capitol Building Harrisburg, PA 17120

Re: PA Hazard Pay Grant Program

Dear Governor Wolf:

On behalf of Pennsylvania’s community banks and credit unions, we write to express our extreme disappointment that our front-line employees have been excluded from eligibility in the PA Hazard Pay Grant Program.

Under the program guidelines, “employees must be ‘front-line’ employees facing the hazards of COVID-19 and have continued working through the Governor’s March 19, 2020 Business Closure Order (Order) as a life sustaining business or a business that received a business waiver.” Front-line employees of community banks and credit unions should be included in the program guidelines as they were deemed necessary by the employer to report to work during the COVID-19 pandemic for life-sustaining eligible industries. Employees that are teleworking from home are not eligible for hazard pay under the program.

Our members’ tellers, branch managers, and other front-line employees were customer/member-facing during the entire existence of the Order. Those services included transactions like deposits and payments, car and mortgage loans and investment advice that could not otherwise be transacted remotely or the customer/member felt uncomfortable handling online or by phone. Certainly, that went into the Administration’s thinking when financial institutions were determined to be life sustaining in the Order. However, to now deny our members and their employees hazard pay makes them feel like the risks they took to serve their customers and communities are not being recognized fairly. This is not to say those categories of workers identified are not worthy of hazard pay. Healthcare, public transportation, food retail, janitorial, social assistance employees are worthy of hazard pay. But for the exact same reason, so are financial services employees. We respectfully request that you reconsider the guidelines and include the front-line employees of our financial institutions whose essential work, uninterrupted since the Administration’s mandatory shutdown order in March 2020, has offered customers and members access to and security over their accounts.

Thank you for consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Patrick C. Conway Kevin Shivers President/CEO President/CEO CrossState Credit Union Association Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers

The Honorable Tom Wolf -2- July 29, 2020

cc: The Honorable Richard Vague, Acting Secretary, Department of Banking and Securities, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania The Honorable Dennis Davin, Secretary, Department of Community and Economic Development, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania The Honorable Joe Scarnati, President Pro Tempore The Honorable , Senate Majority Floor Leader The Honorable , Speaker of the House The Honorable , House Majority Floor Leader The Honorable , Majority Chair, Senate Banking and Insurance Committee The Honorable , Minority Chair, Senate Banking and Insurance Committee The Honorable Sheryl Delozier, Majority Chair, House Commerce Committee The Honorable John Galloway, Minority Chair, House Commerce Committee