Contributor

Camden R. Fine

President and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America

Camden R. Fine is president and CEO of the Independent Community
Bankers of America (ICBA), the only national trade association that
exclusively represents community banks.

A native Missourian and career community banker, Fine came to ICBA in
May 2003 as president-elect and became president and CEO in March 2004.
Prior to coming to ICBA, Fine chartered and organized Midwest Independent
Bank of Jefferson City, Mo., and served as its president and CEO for nearly
20 years. In addition, Fine owned Mainstreet Bank of Ashland, Mo., a $50
million-asset community bank. Fine also has a strong background in
government as well as banking. In 1978, he joined the Missouri state
government as a budget analyst, and in 1981 former governor and current
U.S. Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond appointed Fine as the director of the State
Division of Taxation and Collection.

Under Fine’s leadership, ICBA has had a series of legislative and regulatory
successes. ICBA was instrumental in winning passage of the Regulatory
Relief Act of 2006, and also in passing deposit insurance improvement
provisions in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2006. Recently, ICBA has been
highly successful in Congress and with federal bank regulatory agencies in
enacting many core ICBA policy positions during the recent financial crisis.
These achievements include broadening the deposit insurance assessment
base for special assessments; reducing the FDIC special assessment by nearly 75 percent; carving out community banks from new fees and examinations in proposed consumer protection legislation; and advocating the end of “too-big-to-fail” policies.

Fine was educated at the Virginia Military Institute and the University of
Missouri-Columbia where he double-majored in history and English. He is a
distinguished graduate and past chairman of the Stonier Graduate School of
Banking. Fine’s thesis, titled “Banker’s Banks: A Correspondent Alternative
for Community Banks,” was published and included in the Harvard Business
School library. He currently serves on several industry related boards and
committees as well as on the President’s committee of the World Savings
Bank Institute in Brussels, Belgium.

Fine has been a passionate advocate for community bank issues for more than 20 years and has been featured and had opinion pieces published in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and The Hill newspapers. Fine has also appeared twice as guest host on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, Fox Business News, Bloomberg, PBS and NPR. In 2008 and 2009, he was recognized by The Hill newspaper as one of the top lobbyists in Washington, D.C. He was also named among the most effective and influential trade association CEOs and advocates in the area by CEO Update in July, 2009.

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