The California Bankers Association, led by the association’s volunteer Chairman Jeff Ball and President and CEO Rodney Brown, and supported by EVP and Chief Operating Officer Maurine Padden and PAC/GR Administrator Mary Boruff, gathered last week with the Florida Bankers Association, September 10-12, in Washington, D.C. for the 11th annual joint visit.

The trip started out on Tuesday with a welcoming dinner and briefing on key federal legislative issues delivered by ABA President and CEO Frank Keating. On Wednesday, attendees met with a number of congressional leaders including Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA), vice chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). These meetings were important opportunities to hear updates from these key elected officials, and also to discuss issues of concern to the California banking community including the credit unions’ federal tax exempt status and their efforts to expand their business lending authority, GSE reform, bank capital standards and regulatory relief for community banks. That evening bankers attended a dinner hosted by the Federal Home Loan Banks of San Francisco and Atlanta.

On Thursday, the FDIC and the OCC hosted two separate briefings for the bankers. FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg welcomed the bankers for a breakfast briefing and spoke about a number of key initiatives and priorities for the agency including a summary of the agency’s recently completed Community Banking Study, which noted that community banks hold 14 percent of assets and provide 46 percent of loans to small business. At the OCC, the bankers were greeted by Comptroller Tom Curry, who discussed a number of issues with attendees including the increasing regulatory burden on banks, capital standards and the continued importance of open communication between banks and their regulators, points that Chairman Gruenberg also touched on.

CBA would to thank all of the California joint visit attendees whose participation made it a worthwhile and successful event: Dwight Alexander with the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Jeff Ball with Friendly Hills Bank, Kevin Blackburn with the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Brian Brooks with OneWest Bank, Mary Curran with Union Bank, Tom Dobyns with Mission Community Bank, Bob Flautt with Folsom Lake Bank, Mike Kimball with J.P. Morgan Chase, Lynda Nahra with Pacific Western Bank, Scott Racusin, consultant with Wedbush Bank, Bill Schrader with Exchange Bank, Allan Severson with California Bank & Trust, Peter Villegas with J.P. Morgan Chase and Paul Woolway with Charles Schwab Bank.