Community Banker Alert

Along with ICBA and the Sound Banking Coalition, PACB continues to make stopping Wal-Mart, Home Depot and the ILC explosion into banking a major priority.

I am sending you copies of the comment letter we filed today with the FDIC and a memo I sent to the entire Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation on this matter. Community bankers who wish to lobby their members of Congress should feel free to do so utilizing the points I made in the memorandum to the delegation as the basis of your message to your Congressional representative which should be: 1) Co-sponsor H.R. 5746; 2) Ask your member to send a letter to the FDIC seeking extension of the current moratorium set to expire on January 31, 2007.

We sincerely believe that if Wal-Mart, Home Depot and the other pending ILC applications before the FDIC are granted, community banking will be seriously threatened and competition severely limited. Moreover, the current structure of economic policy of separation of banking and commerce will be finished in the United States.

Please contact Dave Transue or myself if you need any additional information on this issue.