Any increase in regulation will increase our costs, reduce opportunities to expand our business and make it more difficult to compete with credit unions who pay no tax and are mostly free from regulations, and with unregulated non-banks who essentially offer the same products and services as banks. Describe the employment benefit provided by the banking industry to the state in terms of the number of jobs the banking industry creates and where these jobs are regionally located. The banking industry employs approximately 2,550 Alaskans who are concentrated mainly in Anchorage, and to a lesser extent Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula and Juneau - but banks in this state employ people virtually statewide. Describe additional economic benefits the banking industry provides to the state. Loans But the biggest economic benefit to the State is the number of loans made in 1998 by banks in Alaska.
Loans are the grease that keeps the wheels of Alaskan commerce rolling.
For instance, two years ago, one of the largest construction projects in the state was the building of First National s Corporate Headquarters and new Data Center. Although it was an expensive decision for us, we insisted that only Alaskan contractors and subcontractors be employed on these jobs. The low bidder for the glazing project on our corporate headquarters was an outfit from Seattle. Making decisions like this is one way your local banks continually reinvest their capital in our State. The impact of Alaska s banks on the state is best measured by counting each job we helped create, each business we helped succeed, and each Alaskan we helped prosper.