Thursday, December 12, 2024

Community Banks Advisory Council restructured

Earlier this year, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection fired the 19 members of the Community Banker Advisory Board created during the Richard Cordray era as required by Dodd-Frank. The Bureau then tried to re-create a smaller group in an effort to bring in more diverse views and exclude national advocacy organizations.

The restructured CBAB is much smaller – seven members compared to 19 members when it was originally created. The Board’s new members are as follows:

1. Erik Beguinis Founder, CEO, and president of Austin Capital Bank, a community bank and fintech innovator. He founded the bank to serve the needs of low- and moderate-income communities and develop unique products that help consumers retain and grow household wealth. Prior to founding Austin Capital Bank, he helped develop a commercial payments platform that was acquired by Bank of America and held positions with Procter and Gamble and KPMG. Beguinis is a member of the Community Depository Institution Advisory Committee for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

2. Bryan Bruns, currently serves as president and CEO of Lake Central Bank in Annandale, Minnesota. Lake Central is a 125- year-old, $150-million bank, with three offices located in central Minnesota, which offers a full range of banking, insurance and investment products. In addition to his 30-plus years of community banking experience, Bruns is active in both the banking industry as well as his community. He is a member and past chair of the Minnesota Bankers Association and continues to serve on its Government Relations Committee. In addition, he currently serves on the Administrative Committee of the American Bankers Association’s Community Bankers Council and is a member of the Financial Services Advisory Committee for U.S. Congressman Emmer.

3. Maureen Bush serves as vice president, compliance and CRA officer at The Bank of Tampa, a $1.7 billion community bank. In this role, she is responsible for the bank’s regulatory compliance program. She has over 25 years of experience in bank regulatory compliance, consumer reporting compliance for a nationwide specialty consumer reporting agency and risk management.

4. Michael Henry Head has worked for First Federal Savings Bank since July 1980. He started as a management trainee and has held the positions of branch manager, loan officer, lending department manager, COO and was named president in October 2000. He was named president and CEO on July 1, 2004. He served as chairman of the Indiana Bankers Association in 2016 and as a board member since 2008.

5. Aubery L. Hulings is the vice president, operations manager of The Farmers National Bank of Emlenton. She is a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association, treasurer of the Knox Civic Club and board member of Keystone SMILES.

6. Heidi Sextonis is executive vice president, COO responsible for oversight of information technology and security, compliance, enterprise risk management, and project management for Sound Community Bank (Washington State) in 2007.

7. Jeanni Stahl currently serves as MetaBank’s senior vice president, chief risk officer where she has responsibilities for overseeing a large network of innovative payment and lending products offered through nationwide delivery channels. She worked as a senior bank examiner at the FDIC for eight years, joining MetaBank in 2009.

Two Oklahoma bankers – Amada Alvidrez, president, Equity Bank, Guymon; and Alicia Wade, COO, Valliance Bank, Oklahoma City – applied to serve on the restructured CBAB but were not among the seven appointees.