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Main Street Matters Blog

Find out what's happening in communities across America, from grassroots advocacy efforts, to fintech innovations and everyday successes of Main Street banks.

Main Street Matters

Three Financial Technology Trends Community Banks Should Consider for 2023

Oct 25, 2022
When I attended FinovateFall in September, I was struck by its palpable energy. Not only was it the most well attended Finovate to date with roughly 1,800 attendees and 64 participating companies, it was a widely collaborative conference, converting what had once felt like a competitive environment into one of enablement.

How Community Banks Can Leverage Strong Multifactor Authentication to Fend off Hackers

Oct 21, 2022
In the first half of 2022, there were 817 data breaches in the U.S., and combined with data leaks and data exposure, they impacted more than 53 million individuals. These are alarming numbers, but they could have been much worse without the use of some form of multifactor authentication.

How Federal Regulators Can Avoid Penalizing Community Banks for Economic Measures Taken During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Oct 19, 2022
The consequences of uncoordinated regulatory standards at the federal level are creating an artificial problem at the local level, potentially endangering many community banks’ ability to lend to local customers.

Three Take-Aways for Community Banks from the VenCent Summit

Sep 13, 2022
The Venture Center, ICBA’s leadership bankers, and our ThinkTECH Accelerator cohorts demonstrated the importance of community bank-fintech collaborations at last month’s VenCent Summit. It was an opportunity to showcase the evolution of our Accelerator alumni and reiterate the value of our ThinkTECH initiatives.

Zelle Fraud: How Community Banks Can Respond to This Cautionary Tale

Sep 8, 2022
In 2020, nearly 18 million Americans were defrauded via digital wallets and person-to-person (P2P) services, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. With numbers like that, P2P solutions like Zelle have come under fire, and issues are escalating.

How community banks can use cultural-driven engagement and continuous learning to combat the Great Resignation

Aug 31, 2022
Talent recruitment and professional development has always been a critical issue for community banks, but today’s job market is different. The impact of the “Great Resignation” has placed the workforce in the driver’s seat. Even so, as nimble, local decision makers, community banks have a big opportunity to stand out from the crowd of potential employers.

Why ICBA opposes flawed Marshall-Durbin Amendment expansion legislation

Aug 25, 2022
Despite ICBA’s persistent communications on the negative impact of Durbin Amendment interventions on payment card systems, this latest iteration of Durbin only compounds the prior harm and furthers the misguided policies of the past that will inevitably lead to significant disruption in credit markets and consumer spending, if passed.

Is professional development the key to recruiting and retention in today's tight labor market?

Aug 23, 2022
The current worker shortage is creating real economic impacts across all industries. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are 3.4 million fewer Americans working today compared to February of 2020.

Striking the Right Balance: Innovation in Ag Banking

Aug 12, 2022
As the leading providers of agricultural loans, community banks make up 80 percent of all financing to agriculture, and opportunities exist to extend that support.

How Agility Bank and Rockland Trust are Leveraging Digital Services to Cultivate Personal Relationships

Aug 10, 2022
Relationship banking has entered a new, digital era as confirmed by recent research from Cornerstone Advisors that concluded, “There is a human element to mobile banking.” In fact, this Cornerstone study revealed that 60 percent of Gen Z and almost two-thirds of Millennials expect to connect with customer support directly from their mobile banking app.