American Bankers Association: How to Win Over a Regulator

A new regulation passes, and it has a dire effect on your member companies. What to do?

Sometimes it comes down to picking up the phone and pulling out the shoe-leather tactics. More details in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Concerns, Well Voiced

What the #VolckerRule  (opens in a new tab) tussle says about talking with regulators–effectively. Wayne Abernathy weighs in http://t.co/zOalwser9T  (opens in a new tab)

— American Banker (@AmerBanker) February 13, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

The recent tussle over the Volcker Rule, still something of a political hot potato in the financial sector, has been interesting to watch from the sidelines, especially after one group, the American Bankers Association (ABA), successfully made its case to roll back a controversial portion of the rule. And this week, ABA dropped a lawsuit  (opens in a new tab) after its members’ concerns were addressed. How’d they do it? According to Wayne A. Abernathy, the association’s executive vice president for financial institutions policy and regulatory affairs,  a lot of it came down to finding the right tone with regulators—offering them good feedback, keeping lines of communication open, and giving them just the right research to make their decision. “It is important to engage regulators with facts and information. They may be interested in how we feel about something or what our opinions are, but hard data can really catch their notice,” he writes in American Banker  (opens in a new tab). “Fortunately, no one knows more about banks and bank customers than bankers do. Bankers’ most effective arguments draw heavily upon that information, organized and presented in compelling ways.” Sound like your approach to handling regulatory agencies? (ht @AmerBanker  (opens in a new tab))

Pondering Net Neutrality

If Net Neutrality is dead, what does it mean for associations? by @rvanhilst  (opens in a new tab) via @socialfish  (opens in a new tab) http://t.co/dp80A0pPUh  (opens in a new tab) #assnchat  (opens in a new tab)

— Vanguard Technology (@vanguardtech) February 13, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

A net-neutrality what-if: Despite a recent court ruling, it’s not clear that net neutrality is going the way of the dodo just yet (the FCC is reportedly talking about a new proposal  (opens in a new tab)), but what happens if it does? Most news stories of late have focused on companies like Netflix  (opens in a new tab), which use a ton of bandwidth online. But Vanguard Technology’s Ray Van Hilst says that there’s more at stake than a few movies. In his latest piece for SocialFish  (opens in a new tab), he offers up a few concerns that may arise if large tech companies throttle access to certain sites—such as damage to teleworking efforts as well as the possibility that video-based distance learning could take a hit. “OK. I’ll admit this is a ‘sky is falling’ scenario,” he writes. “But if we are going to centralize the backbone of the internet in the hands of a few mega-companies, these aren’t that far-fetched ideas (heck, 10+ years ago most of what the NSA has been doing was only the stuff of movies).” (ht @vanguardtech  (opens in a new tab))

What’s on your mind today? Tell us all about it in the comments.

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