FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What is America’s Community Bankers?
2. Who belongs to ACB?
3. What services do community banks offer their customers?
4. What does ACB offer its members?
5. What are your policy priorities and how are they determined?
6. How can I learn more about ACB?

1. What is America’s Community Bankers?

America’s Community Bankers is an independent national trade association that represents the nation’s community banks of all charter types and sizes. ACB members pursue progressive, entrepreneurial and service-oriented strategies in providing financial services to benefit their customers and communities.

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2. Who belongs to ACB?

ACB member institutions include the broad diversity of community banking. Our members identify themselves by a variety of names. We are savings banks, savings and loan associations, cooperative banks and commercial banks. Members are both state and federally chartered and stock-owned and mutuals.

Our members include the newest de novo and institutions that are more than a century old. They are large and small. They are brick and mortar and in cyberspace. Most have assets of less than $1 billion. ACB members are FDIC insured and, depending on their charter, are regulated by either the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC or the Federal Reserve Board, or their respective state bank regulators.

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3. What services do community banks offer their customers?

Housing and consumer finance are the primary mission for many community banks, but that is expanding to include commercial lending and other products and services to serve small businesses as well as individuals and families. And many of our institutions are reaching customers with financial planning and investment services — including trusts, mutual funds, annuities and a variety of other products.

Community banks, and those who run them, support their communities through personal and financial involvement in local and charitable activities and by participating in community action plans. Bank officers and employees at all levels regularly serve as leaders and volunteers in organizations that make their communities healthy and vibrant. ACB members sponsor in-school savings programs for children, counseling for future homebuyers and workshops on dealing with the financial needs of retirees.

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4. What does ACB offer its members?

ACB earns its way on the balance sheet of our members through our proactive advocacy on public policy issues, uniquely effective education programs and conferences, highly informative publications, and answers to compliance and business questions from ACB’s skilled and experienced staff experts. Our programs often take advantage of distance learning and telephone conferences to save members travel costs and travel time.

In 2000, ACB welcomed the first class to a new and fully accredited graduate degree program — an Executive MBA in Community Banking. The degree, the first of its kind offered in cooperation with a bank trade association and designed by and for community bankers, is granted by Fairfield University in Connecticut in cooperation with ACB’s National School of Banking.

An ACB subsidiary — ACB Business Partners — provides valuable products and services to ACB member institutions through its endorsed alliance partners. Members can chose from a broad range of member-tested, cost-efficient business solutions ranging from professional investment products, credit card services and website development to technology innovations and insurance programs. These programs are tailor-made to meet the needs of community banks and help them serve their customers and communities.

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5. What are your policy priorities and how are they determined?

ACB is a member-driven organization. Our members are actively involved in determining our public policy priorities. For a summary of ACB’s priorities, please click here.

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6. How can I learn more about ACB?

Just click on the Contact Us button on the Navigation Bar at the top of our website, or call 202-857-3100 and ask for the Membership Department. We look forward to hearing from you.

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