Help on the Horizon?

I know, I know... the everyday citizen doesn’t feel sorry for us Community Bankers.  They've heard from the government about how the banks “Just don’t loan any money out” and at the same time actively enforce a 20,000 page regulation called Dodd-Frank, which was rolled out in 2010.  It stifled growth and handcuffed banks from doing what they do best, which is taking care of our customers.  It made it next to impossible to assist borrowers who needed some help. Oh yes, they said it didn’t, but I can assure you it did. 

Well, the government got what it has always wanted (in my 35 year banking experience and knowledge), which is fewer banks. There were 7,357 federally chartered banks in 2011 and now there are 5,980. That trend doesn’t appear to be changing. Fewer young people are looking a banking as a rewarding career, because they see and hear what’s happening. 

The new administration has been saying all the right things. They claim to understand what Dodd-Frank has done to us and small town America. They say they are going to roll back the strangling parts of the bill that don’t make sense... at least not to a $325 million community bank in SE Wisconsin.  They say they will place more trust in people who have demonstrated doing it right for many years. 

So my plea to them today is to just do it.  Allow us to go back focusing on our customers.  Let me spend my day helping people.  Bring common sense back into the equation and we will all be better for it.