Stay up to date with banking industry news and the ever-changing regulatory environment. On this page you can learn the facts about banking, what the current issues are facing banks today and how you can get involved.

Please check back frequently. We will update this page with new content as regulations and information changes.

Our CEO, Kell Kelly, recently addressed our customers in our June eNewsletter regarding the current state of the banking industry. Please click the play button below to learn more.

Oklahoma's own, "Kell" Kelly, SpiritBank CEO appeared before Congress to convey the importance of community banks and the damaging effects of regulation on them.
Read his comments
Kelly also testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the topic of enhanced consumer protection after the financial crisis. Watch the hearing Read his testimony

Of the many financial reforms in Dodd-Frank, a requirement that lenders retain a share of the risk in mortgages they sell to investors seemed like a no-brainer. If lenders were on the hook, too, the thinking went, they would tighten standards and avoid the kind of defaults that contributed to the collapse of the housing market and the financial crisis.

But now that a rule to implement this provision has been written, critics say the requirement will make it so hard to get a mortgage that it will further depress the housing market and undercut a struggling economy. Read the full article from The Fiscal Times

Community banks are the backbone of our economy. However, over-regulation is causing many unintended consequences in our industry. We invite you to look over this PowerPoint Presentation to learn more about how over-regulation is affecting banks across the country. Click here to view our presentation

At the annual State of the Union address, Republicans typically sit on one side of the aisle; Democrats on the other. This January, however, a few members from each party boldly went where none had gone before, choosing to sit side by side to hear the President’s speech. Noting this break from tradition, President Obama told the often polarized Congress, “What comes of this moment will be determined not by whether we can sit together tonight, but whether we can work together tomorrow.”

The same could be said of bankers and their regulators. Read More

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon asked Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke whether regulators have gone too far by reining in the U.S. banking system and are slowing economic growth.

Dimon asked whether the central banker has measured the cumulative effects of new capital requirements, mortgage standards and other rules imposed on the system in the wake of the U.S. financial crisis. Dimon, 55, spoke yesterday in a question-and-answer session after Bernanke addressed a conference of bankers in Atlanta.

Dimon asked Bernanke if he “has a fear like I do” that overzealous regulation “will be the reason it took so long that our banks, our credit, our businesses and most importantly job creation to start going again. Is this holding us back at this point?” Read the Full Story

No country can succeed economically without a healthy, sound, reliable and accessible banking system. With over 91,000 bank offices and branches, and over 400,000 ATMs, bank customers have convenient access to local financial services. With mobile and Internet banking, customers can reach their banks every minute of every day. Banks' physical presence in small towns and large cities across the country gives them a personal stake in the economic growth and vitality of nearly every community. Read More

A provision within the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform law passed by Congress and signed by the president last year is going to mean big changes for debit card payments – and ultimately for consumers.

This provision is called the Durbin amendment and is named after its sponsor, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). The amendment requires the Federal Reserve to set the prices for interchange fees. That’s what banks charge merchants or other businesses when customers use debit cards for payments.

The Durbin amendment puts the government in the role of setting prices for debit card use. The implications of the Durbin amendment are clear. It’s going to hurt banks large and small. And it’s going to hurt our customers and our communities.

Read More
Read the Most Recent News on the Senate Vote