The Biden administration wants banks to give the Internal Revenue Service new information on their customers and share data for accounts worth more than $600.

Friends of Traditional Banking joins industry allies in pointing out that "This proposal would create significant operational and reputational challenges for financial institutions, increase tax preparation costs for individuals and small businesses, and create serious financial privacy concerns."

Join us in letting your members of Congress know what you think about this idea through the call to action tools at ICBA or ABA.

President Biden's nominee for comptroller of the currency Dr. Saule Omarova advocates "ending the banking industry as we know it by letting the Federal Reserve take on the deposit accounts of all Americans."

"We have serious concerns about her ideas for fundamentally restructuring the nation’s banking system, which remains the most diverse and competitive in the world," American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols rightly said of the Omarova nomination.

Meanwhile, FOTB endorsed Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) is working to shed light on Omarova's Marxist writings.

The U.S. Postal Service has begun trials of postal banking in four cities, creeping into traditional financial services.

"This is just a bad idea that doesn’t seem to want to go away,” Paul Merski with Independent Community Bankers of America rightly said of the postal banking idea."

THESE THREE NEWS ITEMS ARE EXACTLY WHY YOU NEED TO BE ENGAGED

So what makes FOTB unique among the weapons in our industry arsenal? We focus our endorsements of just two key races each cycle and see hundreds of thousands of dollars laser targeted to help tip the scales. As a result of our surgically effective efforts, we end up with champions in Congress who help us in the fight.

Thank you for helping to grow our membership and war chest as we gear up for next year's Congressional contests. It will be an election year where we must defend banking like never before.

Ken Trautman, CEO and Cofounder of People’s Bank of Commerce, has been named to FOTB's Banker Board representing Oregon. A long time community banker, Ken graduated from Linfield College with dual degrees in Accounting and Business Administration. Ken has been on the boards of many community organizations and is the past Board Chair for the Oregon Bankers Association, and the Community Banks of Oregon.

Nikhil Sridhar, an active member of FOTB and economist in Washington, D.C. will represent the District on FOTB's Banker Board. Nikhil received a BA in political science at Duke University and is currently an MA Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Nikhil's primary research interests include the history of money and banking, financial economics, commodities and currencies, cryptocurrencies, and American equities. He's passionate about working towards substantively reforming banking regulation to promote greater stability, more responsive markets, and, more fundamentally, freedom.