Business View Magazine | July 2022

117 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 7 INDEPENDENT BANKERS ASSOC I AT ION OF NEW YORK STATE key topics of the day. I bring in subject matter experts on any of the important issues that are affecting community banks. From the regulatory side, we’re also the connection between their representatives at the federal level and the state level for issues that concern community banks. I look at it as being the point person for some of that but community banks are also very much in-tune with who’s representing them in their districts. We work together on how I can best help them and the industry in New York State – at the federal and state levels.” BVM: How many are on the IBANYS team and in your membership? of interstate banking, meaning the larger banks could go across state lines. The community bankers felt that it wasn’t fair to them that a bank from, say, North Carolina or Chicago or wherever, should be able to come into their territory and set up shop. So a few ladies and gentlemen banded together to build this organization in New York State to be a voice for community banks that needed to be heard. “Community banks are special. Especially when you think about what they do to be supportive and doing whatever they can to take care of the people in their community. IBANYS tries to provide top-level education to our members for