Independent Banker - May 2019 - 13

ICBA backs bill to
enhance rural access
to credit
News
Contactless payments
have been around for
more than 20 years.
ICBA has expressed its support
for recently introduced
History Lesson
Tap and go-go-go
Here's a brief history of contactless payments.
Contactless payments have been around longer than you may have
thought, and they continue to turn up in some surprising places.
1995: The Seoul Bus Transport Association debuts the first-ever
contactless payment card, now known as U-Pass.
1996: The first EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) standard is
published, establishing guidelines for future smart card payments.
1997: Mobil, which has since merged with Exxon, launches
Speedpass, a key fob preloaded with cash, which can be used to pay
for fuel at the company's U.S. gas stations.
2000: FreedomPay, one of the first mobile payment platforms,
launches. McDonald's, Bank of America and Visa are its first clients.
2011: Google launches Google Wallet. The first mobile phones with
MasterCard PayPass and Visa payWave certification appear.
2014: Apple Pay introduces its mobile wallet product.
2015: The U.S. adopts EMV payment technology, spurring vendors to
switch to terminals enabled with near-field communication, or NFC.
2018: Global research and advisory firm Gartner estimates that half
of consumers in major markets-including North America, Japan and
western Europe-use a combination of smartphones and wearable
technologies to make transactions. -Julie Kendrick
legislation that would allow community
banks to better serve farmers and rural
homeowners during a time of weak
commodities prices.
Rep. Steve Watkins (R-Kan.) authored
the Enhancing Credit
Opportunities in Rural
America (ECORA) Act,
which would allow
community banks to
lower loan rates and more
efficiently serve borrowers
by exempting interest on
certain loans. Rep.
Roger Marshall (R-Kan.)
Roger Marshall
co-sponsored the bill.
" Small-town lenders are
crucial to the viability of
rural America, " Watkins
said. " Community banks
and their ag customers
have unfortunately had to adjust
to years of weak commodity prices
while family farm debts have become
increasingly highly leveraged.
" This timely legislation would give greater
certainty to small-town folks by enhancing
and expanding rural access to credit. "
Under ECORA, interest earned on
loans secured by agricultural real estate
and those secured by rural single-family
homes in small towns that serve as the
borrower's principal residence would not
be taxable. The bill would give lenders an
incentive to remain in the rural farming and
housing markets.
Rebeca Romero Rainey, ICBA president
Steve Watkins
and CEO, said: " Community banks, which
make 80 percent of all agricultural loans
across the banking industry, should play
on the same level playing field as other
providers of credit in rural America that
already enjoy these same advantages. "
independentbanker.org Q 13
http://www.independentbanker.org
Independent Banker - May 2019

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