This week, the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) unveiled its new “Repair, Reform, and Thrive” plan for the 119th Congress and the incoming Trump administration to address what it said are “the nation’s broken banking regulations and kickstart economic growth in local communities.”
The ICBA said the new Congress and administration have a “historic opportunity” to make significant improvements to financial services policy, Repair, Reform, and Thrive: ICBA’s Plan for Powering Local Economies outlines the comprehensive reforms that address key policy challenges facing community banks and the communities they serve. ICBA laid out the key legislative elements of the plan in an open letter to the 119th Congress.
“ICBA and the nation’s community bankers recognize the magnitude of the opportunity we face in 2025 to make needed changes to excessively burdensome banking regulations that will amplify the positive economic impact of community banks across America,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said. “Our ‘Repair, Reform, and Thrive’ plan will ensure economic growth and prosperity reaches everyone, including the local communities, consumers, and small businesses that community banks serve in good times and bad. We look forward to working closely with the new Trump administration and 119th Congress to implement these critical reforms.”
With banking regulators issuing more than 5,000 pages of new regulations in recent years, the ICBA said its “Repair, Reform, and Thrive” plan offers a regulatory and legislative agenda to fix broken regulations harming communities, unleash the power of locally based banking, and fuel the future of community banking.
The plan covers issues such as addressing unnecessary and excessively burdensome regulations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other agencies; leveling the tax and regulatory playing field with credit unions, industrial loan companies, and the Farm Credit System; implementing tax policies that will support market growth and competition; eliminating obstacles to new bank formation; and more.