If community bankers weren’t busy enough continuing their heroic economic response to the pandemic, a recent proposal to impose new IRS reporting mandates on customer bank accounts has become a major advocacy priority.

In a new column, ICBA Securities' Jim Reber discusses the ever-popular slope of the yield curve and the implications for community banks.

COVID-19 has created financial strain for millions of Americans. In the wake of this need, credit cards have the potential to become an important form of cash management.

The ICBA Bank Director Program has an amazing new exclusive benefit! Community Banker University has teamed with national employment law firm Jackson Lewis P.C. to bring members of the Bank Director Program a complimentary employment law hotline!

Between 2012 and 2019, banks eliminated approximately 2,700 branches a year. In 2020, as the global health pandemic set in, banks shuttered more than 3,500 branches. And if the pace of branch closures—more than 1,700 so far in this calendar year through May—continues to hold, 2021 could see more closures than 2020.

While policy and technology questions continue to be debated around the digital dollar, the vital role that community banks need to play in this next evolution of money is indisputable.

For $3.1 billion-asset Blue Ridge Bank, innovation is priority number one. Yet in a recent interview, the Luray, Va.-based community bank quickly pointed out that innovation is not as much about the technology investment as it is about the cultural one.

For the banking and finance sector, the pandemic ushered in a wave of disruption that forced clients and businesses of all sizes to rely on digital offerings and industry professionals more than ever.

As discussed in ICBA’s first Crypto Chronicles blog post, cryptocurrency emerged from Satoshi Nakamoto’s desire to create a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash.”

Testimonials have long been a crux of an effective communications effort in helping to articulate and demonstrate a community bank’s value proposition to customers and its community. Here are a few tips to help community bankers make the most out of this important and effective tool for sharing their positive story.