What a great honor it was for me to be installed as Chairman of the Arkansas Bankers Association last month.

I
appreciate the offers of support that many of you have given me, and I will certainly count on each of you this coming
year.

Deleted: The

My thanks to David Bartlett for his leadership and vision as chairman. David led an effort to update all of our policies, bylaws, and procedures. His experience from a public company perspective was a valuable resource. It is also worth
mentioning that David served during a very busy time at Simmons Bank.
We had a very good convention that covered many timely and important topics. The week began with the Past
Presidents dinner, which was hosted by Reynie Rutledge. Our installation banquet was very nice and featured a live
auction that benefitted our PAC. As always, we appreciate our State Bank Commissioner, Candice Franks, for providing
our program on Friday. My thanks to Bill and our ABA team for their hard work.

Comment [KMS1]: Author: Reads better

without the And. The deletion does not
change the sentences meaning.

Congratulations to Commissioner Candace Franks, who has been named Chairman of the Conference of State Bank
Supervisors. This is a much deserved honor for her, and I encourage each of you to contact her with a message of
congratulations.

Deleted: And as

We face many challenges ahead as an association and as an industry. As the new rules and regulations roll out of Dodd
Frank, we have to be attentive and remain active. Our voices need to be heard in Washington. As bills such as H.R. 2673
and H.R. 4521 are introduced, we need to make sure our delegation is informed of our support.

Comment [KMS2]: Author: for her is

unnecesary for sentence clarity. Would you
prefer to delete

H.R. 2673 would deem any loan made by a lender and held in that lenders portfolio as compliant with Qualified
Mortgage (QM) requirements under the Dodd/Frank Act.

Comment [KMS3]: Author: Does H.R.2673

have a title you would like to add? Consistent
with H.R. 4521.

Deleted:
Deleted: as she

H.R. 4521, the Community Institution Mortgage Relief Act of 2014, would exempt from the escrow requirements
imposed under The Dodd/Frank Act loans held by small creditors with less than $10 billion in assets.
As consolidation picks up in Arkansas, it poses particular challenges to the ABA. We will need to assess its effect upon
membership, leadership, and revenue.

Comment [KMS4]: Author: Would you

prefer to specify, changing its to
consolidation's?

We have also seen a decline in the attendance of our group meetings. Some have complained that the distances have
become too great to travel for a lunch meeting. There has been a suggestion to either change our Group boundaries or
even create an additional group.

Comment [KMS5]: Author: For parallelism

these need to be all plural or all singular.
Which would you prefer?

As is always the case, we need to continue developing our next generation of leaders. The Emerging Leader Section is a
great way to develop our future leadership. The Emerging Leader Sections annual Leadership Conference allows
attendees to grow as bankers, network with others, and bring value back to their own institution.

Deleted: ir
Deleted: them
Deleted: a

These issues and challenges will be addressed this week at our annual planning retreat.
th

Deleted: s

th

I invite you to register for our upcoming Bank Management Seminar (BMS), August 7 through 9 at the Hilton Branson
Convention Center. -BMS is always a great event to bring our families and a relaxing setting to learn and network. I
would like to encourage each of you to consider choosing an emerging leader in your own organization to attend BMS,
and begin developing your own future leader.
Thank you for this opportunity to serve our Arkansas Bankers Association. I will ask that you take an active role in letting
our voices be heard in Washington by contacting our delegation by phone, by letter, or in person as we visit in
September.

Deleted: as we meet
Deleted:

th

Formatted: Superscript
Deleted: This
Deleted: