President National Bankers Association
Bruce Gamble gives one of the smaller banking associations a seasoned presence on Capitol Hill. Mr. Gamble, 39, president of the National Bankers Association, has been plying the halls of Congress for over a decade.
He spent six years in congressional staff positions, and was legislative director for former Rep. Parren Mitchell of Maryland before joining the trade group for minority-and women-owned banks in 1987.
For two years he has had full executive authority for the 62-member National bankers Association.
He has an urban-oriented, community banking agenda, looking after his members' interests in such areas as capital requirements, deposit insurance, affordable housing, and the Community. Reinvestment Act.
"Given the fundamental mission of our banks," Mr. Gamble said, "we have always supported the underlying motion that all financial institutions should serve the community in which they are chartered.
"We did not, however, relish the thought of large money-center banks coming into our communities and cream-skimming our best customers, causing irreparable harm to our core deposit base, merely to satisfy their temporary need for a satisfactory CRA rating."
Last year, he said, the National Bankers Association got Congress and regulators to consider giving CRA credit for nonminority banks' capital investments in, loan participations with, and other joint ventures with minority-and women-owned banks.
He said one of his aims is to promote coalitions minority banks and more established institutions to address many of the economic and credit issues affecting poor communities.
"In the 103d Congress, the NBA will likely join forces with other banking trade groups to seek regulatory burden relief, Mr. Gamble added. "The constant flow of new regulations has resulted in significant compliance cost increases for all banks, with the burden felt most intensely by those small institutions, like many, NBA members, that operate on thin profit margins."
Mr. Gamble, a graduate of the University, of Louisville and Georgetown University Law Center, was named association president in January 1991 after four years as chief lobbyist and vice president for external.
