By Tim Dempsey
 
Past President Tom Zengler opened the meeting with Greg Hill giving the Pledge, Brad Gutzler led us in prayer and no Song!

 

BRAGS:
-Dennis Kratohwil said a funnel cloud struck about a quarter mile west of his Florida home. The golf course is untouched.
-Brad Gutzler just returned from 5 days in Las Vegas. He played the TPC course there and decided he is not ready for the PGA Tour.

 

FOUNDATION MINUTE:
-Do large grants ever take place in North America? Yes! Rotary global grants can have large projects, scholarships, vocational teams all here in the US or in Canada, or in any Rotary country/region.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
-Raffle and Event tickets for the Winter Fundraiser are now on sale online. There is a link on our website to order. Tom Miller will email the link.
-Silent auction is slow. Only a few items so far.
-There are 2 sponsors so far.
-If we present a letter on our Fundraiser at Trader Joe’s they will provide auction items.
-The Rotary World Cup will take place 2/14 – 2/20 at several X-Golf locations locally.

 

FUN & FROLICS:
Ron Lapins entertained us with a quiz matching celebrity’s stage names with their real names.  

PROGRAM:
Today’s program was our own Howard Jaffe giving us an update on a presentation he made 5 years ago on the banking industry. Howard has served in various roles with the American Bankers Association. The industry supports a robust economy. The banking laws have changed in 5 years. Congress regulates products and mergers and acquisitions.
The Democrats took over Congress in January. The ABA deals with the house Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee. Maxine Watters is Chair of the House Committee. Her interest is banking the underserved and diversity. She has pushed fair housing regulations which are particularly difficult for smaller banks who have limited resources. Congress used to hold by partisan roundtable meetings. The last one was in 2020.

The Senate Banking Committee includes Elizabeth Warren. She hates banks and would like to break up the big banks. She helped write Dodd Frank which added regulations on banks. She is in favor of reporting all transactions to the IRS of more than $600. She wants to increase the number of data points for commercial loans to 48, making it more costly and time consuming to underwrite loans.

 

The SBA is the worst run federal agency. They oversee the PPP loan program. They gave the underwriting of loans to the banks without issuing clear guidelines. There have been 11.5 million loans done with 15% being fraudulent.

 

Lastly, Congress is concerned with data privacy. Cannabis banking is a problem. It is legal in some states but not federally so proceeds cannot be put through the banking system. The Safe Act would allow transactions, but it still not passed. 10 years ago, there were 28,000 banks now there are 5,000. Canada has 12. Savings and loans used to be tax exempt, now they are not. Credit unions are still tax exempt. Congress is deciding on how to deal with crypto currencies.

 

RAFFLE:
Daily: $72 won by Dave Potts.

 

Progressive: $1702 with 4 cards. Won by Tom Stanczyk. New raffle next week!

 

NEXT WEEK:
Greeter and Prayer: Polly Grover

 

Fun & Frolics & Bingo: Seb Karasu

 

Program: George Meffley – Honor Flight Chicago

 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” Abraham Lincoln