WASHINGTON - The guard changed today at the American Bankers Association for the first time in 20 years, but members are unlikely to notice the difference - and that is exactly the way the new chief wants it.
Edward L. Yingling, the group's head lobbyist since 1985, has officially taken over from Donald G. Ogilvie as president and chief executive officer, after a gradual transition very different from the convulsions at some other trade groups in recent years.
"It doesn't give you much of a story, but I don't know that there will be major changes, particularly in the near term," Mr. Yingling said. "It is very important to a trade association to have continuity."
Mr. Yingling, 55, who was first exposed to banking policy when he visited his father's Senate Banking Committee office as a youngster, began working with Mr. Ogilvie in 2002 to ensure a smooth handoff.
Mr. Ogilvie did not try to grab headlines at his departure. The ABA honored him last week with a dinner attended by all but three of the ABA's officers from the past 20 years and a luncheon Wednesday with nearly all of its 300 employees. After lunch he took off for his retirement home on Martha's Vineyard.
"There was a belief that we ought to try to have as much continuity as possible," Mr. Yingling said last week. "That's why they decided three years ago to create the office of the presidency and use that to get me involved in some things that weren't government relations" such as joining the board of an ABA-sponsored professional liability insurance program for community bankers and running a project to enhance the leadership skills of ABA staff.
Mr. Yingling does not even have to move offices. In 2002 he moved into a large corner office in a suite that also houses the office of the ABA chairman.
He said his "super focus" in his new post will be to firmly establish the ABA as an information broker for its members. The group operates an extensive array of e-mail lists, teleconferences, and information packages to get practical information and material - such as model privacy notices - directly to bank employees.
"We're in a great position to be helpful, because we have a very large and deep staff and have a lot of information here," he said. "We're putting resources into areas where the bankers need more information … and then getting that information to banks in forms that are very usable, and in a timely fashion."
"It's not a new goal," he said, "but it's much more of a focus."
Mr. Yingling said he will "spend more time with bankers listening and talking."
"I want to spend even more time on providing services and information to bankers," he said. "Those are two areas that are very much high priorities for me."
He said he wants to make sure that the ABA mirrors the changing needs of its members. "We have to have a culture that can be flexible and change. The same thing is going on in banks, and we very much reflect that," he said.
"When I leave the ABA," Mr. Yingling said, "I would like us certainly to have addressed the important policy issues for the industry, but also to be in a position where we provided a lot of services and products that save the bankers time and money and help them do their jobs better."
The primary policy fights on the immediate horizon for the ABA are defensive: to change large credit unions' tax-exempt status and reduce banks' regulatory burden. Other issues include taxes, privacy, and data security.
Friends and foes alike describe Mr. Yingling as reserved, respected, smart, shy, and even dour. Those who know him best point out the dry sense of humor, sincerity, and straightforward manner that they say makes him easy to deal with.
"You call Ed, he calls you back and it's a very straightforward conversation," said Diane Casey-Landry, the president and CEO of America's Community Bankers. "He just gives you the answer. There hasn't been a lot of politicking."
"He's a gentleman. He's knowledgeable. He runs a good ship," said Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee. "The ABA is an effective and respected organization. That's an indication of Ed's leadership."
"I don't think I'll be changing my style," Mr. Yingling said. "I deal with a lot of bankers; I've been doing it for years. I enjoy it. I'm not a gregarious person, but I don't see any need to change the way I approach that aspect of it."
The self-described policy wonk said he likes politics but "won't be able to spend as much time on it" as in the past.
"I'll miss it," he said, "but I've done it."
"On the big issues, I still will not be able to avoid sticking my nose in … because of my own interest and because I want to be involved where I add value," he said. "Still, I need to make sure I don't get in the way. As a reformed lawyer, you can get into details where you're better off to let other people do their work and stay out of it."
But the former head of a rival trade association doubts Mr. Yingling will stand clear of the policy fray.
"Love for the legislative battle is a key component of Ed Yingling, and it's going to stand him in very good stead as president and CEO of the ABA," said Kenneth Guenther, the recently retired president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America. "He is one of the masters in Washington over banking legislation and regulation. He knows the politics and players inside and out."
"Lobbying is in Ed's blood," said Mr. Guenther, who has known him for decades. When Mr. Guenther began his career in banking policy 30 years ago as an aide to the Federal Reserve Board, Mr. Yingling's father, John, was his mentor. John Yingling, a banking lawyer-lobbyist who began his Washington career as Senate Banking staff director, died last year.
"I think his father would be very, very proud of Ed," Mr. Guenther said.
Noting that people's athletic styles often mirror their professional ones, Mr. Guenther recalled watching the young Mr. Yingling ski.
"Ed brings a very aggressive style to skiing," Mr. Guenther said, "and I thought he brought a very aggressive style to lobbying."
(Mr. Yingling is still an avid skier and has passed on his zeal for the sport to his 11-year-old daughter, Haley.)
As leaders of rival trade groups the two men have battled bitterly over the years, especially - and perhaps most personally - over removing barriers to interstate branching and the single ownership of banking, insurance, and securities firms. Mr. Yingling was the victor in those fights.
"His fingerprints are all over" the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 and the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994, Mr. Guenther said. "When you're up against the ABA and Ed Yingling, you're up against a formidable force," he said. "When he mobilized the ABA on these issues, the ICBA slowed them down, but in the final analysis we did not prevail."
As Mr. Ogilvie's trusted lieutenant and his first hire 20 years ago, Mr. Yingling ran the ABA's policy shop, operating behind the scenes on lobbying strategies.
Mr. Ogilvie was the public face of the ABA outside of the Beltway, handling the business, management, and glad-handing required of a trade-association chief. Mr. Ogilvie brought the ABA through the savings and loan crisis and other difficulties of the 1980s and left Mr. Yingling with a strong organization. Mr. Yingling says he is equipped to take on the management duties, including maintaining and expanding the ABA's membership.
"I come from the legal and policy side," he said. "A lot of that is strategic thinking. If you have some skill in that area - which hopefully I do - that is a major part of running a big trade association."
A "huge aspect" of the new job, he said, "is listening to bankers and developing consensus on things; that was always a major part of my job" in government relations.
Mr. Yingling said he is fortunate to have a "deep and very knowledgeable staff with a lot of continuity" to help with many of the management duties. No personnel changes are expected.
Many observers said Mr. Yingling scored a coup in January when he hired Wayne Abernathy, a Treasury Department official and a former Republican staff director for the Senate Banking Committee.
The hire added a bona fide financial services expert with strong Republican credentials to the ABA's management team. It also showed that Mr. Yingling could spot and seize opportunities.
Mr. Yingling's former job as head of government relations has been split between his longtime deputy, Floyd Stoner, and Mr. Abernathy. Both are executive directors, with Mr. Abernathy handling regulatory and policy work and Mr. Stoner running the lobbying and political operation.
As the head of the ABA, Mr. Yingling says, he will be doing even more traveling to meet bankers across the country.
"I'm going to be calling on the bankers myself," he said. "I've already started doing more of that, and clearly that is going to be more of a focus for me: direct contact with members and talking about how we can help them."
He said the ABA's membership ranks are growing, but he stuck to the group's long-standing refusal to say how many members it has.
"Our membership ran at a fairly stable rate for a number of years," Mr. Yingling said. "In the last four years it has started growing fairly steadily" after mergers of member banks are netted out, he said.
He said that he does not have "a specific plan" for merging with or taking over another trade association, but that he "would not be at all surprised if over the next five years you did see some consolidation."
"I think there will be economic and other pressures for consolidation," he said "From a business-model point of view, there's a clear case to be made that there should be some consolidation. But trade associations have political issues businesses don't have, so it's not clear if or when it will happen."
