Main Street Matters Blog

Last month, ICBA’s legislative team conducted a community bank briefing to help familiarize community banks with the ins and outs of the recently passed GENIUS Act, which introduced a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins.

Get to know the staff members that support your bank and its payments business. We’re here to power your potential. See how our talented staff are well positioned to help.

Battling fraud in today’s environment resembles the itsy bitsy spider climbing up the waterspout: just as you think you’ve reached a point of effective mitigation, a new scam emerges, dousing you in a new attack approach that can wash you out. And then you have to start that risk-mitigation ascent all over again.

My colleague Rhena Leitermann, treasury management operations manager at Citizens Bank of Las Cruces, and I recently sat down to discuss the state of fraud at our bank, in our market, and around the country. While I knew the level of sophistication had risen dramatically, it’s alarming to hear the lengths fraudsters are going through to obtain personal information. We now have seen fraudulent texts followed up with a FaceTime call to get a screenshot of the customer’s face and a snippet of their voice.

ICBA and community bankers have long warned about the dangers of tax-exempt credit unions acquiring tax-paying community banks, a concerning trend that peaked last year and has continued in 2025.

In just a few short weeks, the fixed-income market’s expectations for monetary policy have done a virtual about-face. This is not to say that investors are fickle. Some of this change in sentiment is data driven; some is Trump administration officials’ cajoling; and some is Federal Reserve Board chairman Jay Powell’s comments in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on August 22. Regardless, market indicators have shifted from zero or one rate cuts for the rest of 2025, to as many as four.

Every great leader has a moment when they’re called to step up—to lead with clarity, purpose, and excellence. For the next generation of community bank leaders, that moment is now.

While the financial services industry continues to rapidly evolve, banking policy often struggles to keep up or suffers from ill-considered changes that miss the mark.

Following President Donald Trump’s signing of a new law on stablecoins—the GENIUS Act—on July 18, it is essential that the nation’s community bankers understand what it means for our industry, how ICBA has helped shape stablecoin policy, and the path forward as we face the challenges and opportunities this new law presents.

On the heels of our recent Capital Summit, in which hundreds of community bankers traveled to Washington to meet with policymakers, it is worth pausing to reflect on our successes as well as the many advocacy priorities we continue to advance under our ambitious “Repair, Reform, and Thrive” plan.