Chairman Doug Manditch S Remarks for Delivery: IBANYS 2017 Annual Convention

Chairman Doug Manditch’s Remarks for Delivery: IBANYS 2017 Annual Convention: September 25-27, Niagara Falls, New York

Thank you very much. . .and before I go on, let me thank IBANYS President John Witkowski, our officers, Board of Directors, membership and staff for placing your trust in me, and for all you have done to make my tenure as Chairman a truly wonderful experience.

As I prepare to hand over the gavel to our incoming Chairman Mike Briggs on November 1, I thought it might be instructive to look back at some of our major accomplishments of this past year. It’s a good time to reflect on what New York community banks, through IBANYS, have achieved and what we continue to work toward – in Albany and Washington, D.C.

It has been a year of encouraging developments, but there are many more challenges ahead. In my first 60 days as Chairman last winter, we were actively engaged in crafting our positions on two major State Department of Financial Services (DFS) regulations: the “zombie” property law, and the new cybersecurity law. Our Government Relations Committee and officers – and many of our member banks -- worked closely with the DFS, ICBA, testified at legislative hearings, submitted detailed position papers – and in the end, had a significant impact on the final regulations that had positive implications for our members. Our efforts made a real difference.

1 We’ve held two lengthy conference calls with the DFS senior leadership and met with Superintendent Maria Vullo – and have developed a solid foundation, where they listen to our concerns and priorities and understand the importance and unique needs of community banking. We also participated in a roundtable meeting Senate Banking Committee Chairman Jesse Hamilton, to continue our dialogue, fully inform him about the role of community banks and discuss our priority issues and concerns.

We had a very successful 2017 state legislative session.  We succeeded in gaining passage of our proposal – developed by our Government Relations Committee and Board – that extends the state DFS regulatory exam cycle for community banks from 12 to 18 months, and increases the qualifying asset threshold.

 We defeated legislation (strongly supported by the Governor and the DFS) that would have allowed tax-exempt credit unions to participate in the State Banking Development Districts program. This would have been a “nose under the tent” threat to eventually allow them to participate in municipal deposits business. We also managed to stop other pro-credit union proposals that would have strengthened them, and made our playing field even more uneven.

 We also played a role in mitigating and even removing several provisions in the Governor’s proposed budget that would have had a negative financial and operational impact on community banks.

2 On the federal scene, we traveled to Washington and met with Senator Schumer, our key members of the House and attended sessions at the White House with the president, vice president, Treasury Secretary and senior officials.

 We sought support for regulatory relief measures for community banks, including:  Automatic Qualified Mortgage for mortgages held in portfolio  Dodd-Frank relief, and replacing it with the CHOICE or CLEAR Act  HMDA relief  Basel III exemptions for community banks  a number of other initiatives from tax reform, to flood insurance to fair treatment of community banks vis-à-vis credit unions.

IBANYS members have played a key role in all of these efforts -- from these outreach meetings, to participating in our action alerts urging our state and federal representatives to support our positions, to helping to develop our program and our position papers. It was a great team effort.

The pace of activity will only quicken in 2018. It’s an election year, with our entire congressional delegation and state legislature on the ballot, as well as the Governor, other statewide officials and Senator Gillibrand. (By the way: Please support our political action efforts by contributing to NYSIBPAC, which supports state officials and candidates who understand and support community banking. It helps us stay in the arena, where I assure you our competitors are well- funded and very engaged!)

3 Under the capable leadership of incoming Chairman Mike Briggs and our team, we will be monitoring all new legislative introductions and regulatory proposals —and be watching for some “old reliable” pieces of legislation to make yet another appearance.

We’ll work with public officials at every level to represent the interests of New York community banks, and promote measures to boost economic growth and productivity.

With much at stake, IBANYS will protect -- and enhance -- our members’ future prosperity. We will continue to demonstrate our importance to the economy and to social fabric of our our local communities and state. You have my word I plan to work with Mike and our entire IBANYS team to keep us moving forward.

Thank you all for the privilege of serving as your Chairman – and more importantly, for your continued support of the Independent Bankers Association of New York State!