Earl D. McVicker studied engineering in at Kansas State University, but thoughts of a career in that field quickly faded after he graduated and got a job as a bookkeeper and loan officer trainee at a small Kansas bank.
Mr. McVicker, now chairman and chief executive officer of the $358 million-asset Central Financial Corp. in Hutchinson, Kan., said he liked the role bankers played in creating entrepreneurs and knew he wanted to be a banker "from the first day I became one" 35 years ago.
Over the years, he has been a committed banking advocate. He has chaired the Kansas Bankers Association and American Bankers Association's Community Bankers Council, and this week he became the ABA's chairman.
Mr. McVicker took the helm Tuesday at the trade group's convention in Phoenix, replacing Zions Bancorp. chairman and CEO Harris H. Simmons. Though his company is much smaller than the $45 billion-asset Zions, which has banks in eight states, he said he believes he can be effective representing banks of all sizes. He pointed out that he has invested in banks or been on bank boards in 12 states, and his holding company has banks in Arizona, Colorado, and Kansas.
"My perspective may be different than the CEO of … [Bank of America] or Wells Fargo," he said, but "I have a little broader perspective than if my world was central Kansas."
Mr. McVicker said his agenda for his one-year chairmanship is not that much different from that of his predecessors. He will continue to try to improve the regulatory climate for community banks and to prevent nonbank competitors from getting more of the powers commercial banks have.
He said he and his ABA colleagues would keep lobbying against legislation that would expand credit unions' commercial lending authority or fields of membership or get in the way of their converting to banks.
"We think credit unions should have a choice of charter and a choice of structure," he said.
Mr. McVicker also bristles at the Farm Credit System's attempts to diversify. Congress created the system in 1916 to ensure that farmers had a reliable source of credit. Its lenders are exempt from paying taxes on the income they make from long-term farm real estate loans. Though Farm Credit lenders pay state and local taxes, bankers say the real estate tax exemption gives them an unfair advantage when pricing loans to farmers.
Mr. McVicker said the Farm Credit System is pressing for the ability to make more commercial loans and those not directly related to agriculture - changes the ABA fiercely opposes.
The new chairman said he wants to make sure banks and Congress do not lose sight of regulatory relief. The reg-relief bill passed in September fell far short of what community banks wanted, he said.
"The concern is that Congress will feel they have given the industry this broad bill and we should be satisfied," he said.
He has ideas for future changes. For example, he would like to see a bill that would let banks accept large cash deposits from longtime customers without having to file the currency transaction reports the government uses to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
Getting as many bankers involved as possible is key to moving the ABA's agenda forward, Mr. McVicker said. He said that in speeches to bankers, he challenges them to find one issue they are passionate about and to be active.
"That will be the core to every presentation I make," he said.
Tim Ohlde, the president of the $26.5 million-asset Elk State Bank in Clyde, Kan., said that he has known Mr. McVicker for years and thought he was good voice for the industry as the Kansas Bankers Association's chairman.
"I have found him to be a very intense listener, a man who handles things thrown at the industry in a calm way," Mr. Ohlde said.
