When a shiny new object comes along like “buy now, pay later,” or BNPL, merchants will gladly pay significantly higher transaction fees than they do for credit cards. But this recent surge in BNPL adoption by merchants deflates their arguments that interchange—the fees for accepting card payments—harms them.

Engaging community bankers to think about innovation in new ways continues to be my driving force, but I’m not doing it alone. This year I’m bringing along ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator alumni.

It’s almost renewal time for Standard Plan, Custom Plan, and Bank Compliance Bundle subscribers. Renewal invoices for the next subscription year will be delivered via email the week of July 19 to the individual at the bank who purchased the online training subscription.

When it comes to payments, the generational divide has been shrinking. While Gen Z and Millennials still lead the way in digital payments adoption, Baby Boomers and Seniors (over 76) are increasing their digital payments prowess.

While Juneteenth is the youngest U.S. federal holiday after it became formally recognized in a law enacted last year, it has decades of significance—with June 19, 1865, recognized as the end of slavery in the United States.

The collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin has significantly affected the crypto sector and broader financial markets. But perhaps even more important for community banks, the market instability is fueling the policymaker push for a regulatory structure to address crypto’s risks.

While the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin has captured the most attention and headlines, it was not the only stablecoin to fail during the market downturn. Here’s a look at the impact of the Terra decline on the stablecoin sector and what’s next for the crypto markets.

ICBA has closely watched the growth of stablecoins over the past year and repeatedly raised concerns about the risks these systems may pose to consumers and the wider financial system. Earlier this month, those concerns manifested with the collapse of TerraUSD, once the third-largest stablecoin.

Maintaining strong risk-mitigation technologies has never been more important for the banking industry, but “big box” merchant lobbyists are attempting to disrupt advances in card fraud mitigation efforts.

“The people factor is about your culture,” notes Kathy Strasser, IncredibleBank’s Executive Vice President and COO. “You can have people with a digital mindset, but when you have a digital culture, that’s when you know you’ve got something special.”