Oklahoma Bankers Association We make bankers better!
The first week of this month, we wrapped up our fall Bankers’ Night Out events.
We traveled to six different locations across the state and were able to visit with more than 700 bankers. Thanks goes to Miles Pringle with The Bankers Bank, who joined us to talk about everything bitcoin and digital currency.
Along with Miles, we covered a myriad of topics, from cannabis banking to the 2022 mid-term elections to the ridiculous IRS proposal.
There are two statewide races that are of great interest to the banking community, the elections of attorney general and state treasurer. We were honored to have two bankers who are running for those positions join us at our Oklahoma City event. Gentner Drummond is running for attorney general and Todd Russ is running for state treasurer.
Looking back at all the events, the thing that stood out the most was watching the great interaction between the bankers and strategic members. A special thank you goes to all of our sponsors, without whom these events wouldn’t be possible. We’re already looking forward to the spring 2022 Bankers’ Night Outs.
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Last month, Livestock Marketing Association leaders reached out to us asking if we would be open to meeting with some of their members to possibly find a solution to an issue they’ve been dealing with for years.
OBA Chairman Kyle Hughbanks and I met with them initially to hear about their problem. The issues of most concern to them are because of the Effective Financing Statement system.
We’ve since had two more meetings that included individuals from several entities: bankers, farm credit, state senate, state house and the Oklahoma county clerk’s office. There was a lot of discussion about the possibility of taking certain parts of the EFS system and incorporating those parts into the current UCC system that’s run by the Oklahoma County Clerk’s office. County Clerk David Hooten said they have some funds available to help with the costs of any necessary upgrades to their system.
We also had a brief talk with Secretary of State Brian Bingman to see what his thoughts were should we move parts of the EFS system away from his office and into the clerk’s office. He was open to seeing what the legislation would look like as he wants to do what’s best for the state and all parties involved.
We will work with all parties to draft legislation, but it will be a long process as there are many folks involved. We also want to make sure we do this correctly and not rush something through the legislature that makes this problem worse or creates new problems.
We’ll have a lot more information for you in the next couple of weeks on this issue.
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The Oklahoma legislature will convene for a special session on Nov. 15 to finalize the legislative redistricting maps.
There were minor changes made to the state legislative maps. Unlike a lot of states, we didn’t lose or gain any seats at the state level and weren’t forced to have two incumbents battle it out in a newly aligned district.
On this page, you will find the current Congressional map (top map) and the proposed 2022 Congressional map. We were able to keep all five Congressional districts. According to the 2020 census, Oklahoma has a population of 3,959,353. The ideal district population is 791,871 people. The most prominent change in the proposed map is Congressional District 3 now extends into Southwest Oklahoma County. Congressional District 5 now extends west into Canadian County and north into Logan County.
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The Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching and will be upon us before we know it.
If I don’t see you between now and then, I want to say happy Thanksgiving and we’ll hopefully see you soon.