ICBA’s award-winning #KeepMyBankingPrivate campaign opposed IRS bank customer data reporting.
In April, ICBA won an Association Trends 2022 TRENDY Award for a social media initiative opposing plans that would require community banks to report additional customer account information to the Internal Revenue Service.
Earning ICBA the silver award in the Best Advocacy Campaign category, the #KeepMyBankingPrivate campaign has helped community banks raise awareness of a proposal in Washington that would mandate banks and other financial institutions to reveal details on deposits and withdrawals of their business and personal accounts.
ICBA launched the campaign last year as part of its IRS Reporting Campaign, which offered resources to help community banks spread the word on how the “indiscriminate, comprehensive bank account reporting to the IRS … would create an unacceptable invasion of privacy for our customers that could harm small businesses.”
The #KeepMyBankingPrivate campaign, which included customizable email messages, social posts and social media-ready graphics, has so far led to more than 700,000 consumer messages to policymakers, 17 million hashtag impressions and 16 billion media views.
ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey reiterated the importance of remaining outspoken on the issue to ensure this widely opposed bank reporting requirement is not reintroduced or advanced in Congress. “ICBA applauds policymakers for excluding the IRS bank reporting proposal from congressional legislation and the administration’s fiscal 2023 budget, which reflects the broad opposition expressed by consumers through ICBA’s #KeepMyBankingPrivate campaign,” she said. “ICBA appreciates the acknowledgment of this important campaign—and we share this recognition with the community bankers who informed their customers of this policy proposal and the consumers who spoke out against it.”
Association Trends’ TRENDY awards honor the best marketing and communications pieces in the association and nonprofit industries. ICBA projects were also nominated in categories including Best Podcast, Best Rebrand, e-Learning and Live Training, and Monthly Trade Association Magazine and Websites. —Paul Sisolak
