Operations and Deposits Training

Leadership development and succession planning place a high priority on any company’s ability to develop talent within their organization. We continue to hear stories from managers about the gap between Baby Boomers and Millennials. Recorded  March 30, 2023.

ICBA Members: $219
Non-Members: $319

The most intricate and challenging lending you can do is commercial and industrial. Learn about the various industries you will work with, the types of loans that you will use, how to analyze financial statements for key credit risk indicators, how to properly structure a loan, plus solidifying the relationship after the closing. 

The key is not to be an order taker, but rather add value to your borrower’s business and build a relationship which is mutually beneficial. Recorded July 19.

We know that people are writing less checks. However, did you know that checks continue to be the most common way financial crimes are committed? Join us for this 60-minute webinar to hear about the most recent trends in check fraud and what steps you can take to help prevent your institution from falling victim to financial crimes. Recorded June 22, 2022.

This white paper demonstrates that community banks are experts at monitoring the risk of their lending and investment portfolios and do not need more regulation to manage their potential climate risks.

ICBA will oppose any climate risk regulation that adversely impacts community banks and their ability to support their communities and customers.

Recorded April 13, 2021.

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) commends the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP) for initiating a wholistic review of its operations, and inviting dialogue and the pursuit of innovation through the publication of 12 requests for information (RFI).

ICBA responded to each RFI with the hope that the bureau uses the comments to reorient itself and focus on what it was intended to accomplish: facilitating greater consumer choice and efficient markets, while still vigorously enforcing consumer financial law in a way that guarantees due process. This paper is a summary of ICBA’s response to each RFI.

Community banks have served as America’s engines of local economic growth since our nation’s founding, and the United States remains the only country in the world served by a broadly based, vibrant community banking sector. As our economy and financial system continue to evolve, community banking must be preserved and strengthened. The empowerment of community banks is a sure route to rekindling America’s economic vitality.

Today we have an opportunity to comprehensively rethink, restructure, and modernize the regulation of the American financial services industry to ensure that it promotes economic growth, prosperity, and job creation. Regulatory relief for community banks is a critical part of this effort. The purpose of this paper is to describe what is unique about American community banks, survey the regulatory environment in which they operate, identify regulatory barriers, and recommend solutions that will allow them to serve as engines of economic growth and prosperity for generations to come

A community bank’s core processor should be a strategic partner that supports the bank’s long-term business objectives.

The ICBA Core Processor Resource Guide will help community banks with some of the more important aspects of managing this relationship to maximize the return on their technology investments.

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, sound corporate governance practices are now more important than ever. Bank regulators and shareholders expect boards of directors of financial institutions to continue actively overseeing and monitoring the business.

ICBA Members: $219
Non-Members: $319

The 2022 Crowe Bank Compensation and Benefits Survey provides salary and bonus benchmarks for 271 job positions as well as information regarding employee benefits, incentives, director compensation, and current trends in key human capital management practices.

Credit unions have fallen short in fulfilling the terms of their original mandate, which once warranted a lucrative tax subsidy. This sentiment is felt by many individuals and organizations across the financial services industry but has failed to reach Washington policymakers in the form of equitable policy resolutions that persuade credit unions to return to their governing principles.

Credit unions were not intended to act as an alternative to banks but to complement their activities through offering safe and subsidized financial services to a specific clientele of financially underserved individuals.

Instead, credit unions have deviated from this mandate by competing for the same customers as regular for-profit banks at the expense of these vulnerable communities while engaging in high-risk operating practices that have etched away at their once distinctive niche in the world of financial services.

If credit unions cannot abide by their original mandate deserving of a tax subsidy, then taxpayers are financing an unequal playing field that leaves behind the financially underserved, cheats federal and state tax authorities, and unfairly disadvantages legitimate for-profit institutions like community banks.

Approximately 6 percent of Americans are unbanked,1 having no relationship with a bank, and an additional 16 percent are underbanked having used some form of alternative financial service. In this white paper we'll discuss how community banks can close the gap between consumers and the services they need.

Community banks are, and always have been, innovators focused on the prosperity of the customers and local communities they serve. Community banks are not strangers to change. For more than 150 years, community banks have evolved in step with the technological changes occurring within the financial services industry

With customer preferences changing at an expeditious rate and expectations from users for a seamless omni-channel experience on the rise, disruption is occurring within numerous industries including financial services. The latest wave of rapid transformation is bringing financial technology or fintech to the forefront of the financial services conversation.

The farm bill plays an important role in stabilizing our nation’s farmers and ranchers, assisting many rural communities, and meeting the nutritional needs of millions of lower-income Americans. Thousands of community banks and their agricultural and rural customers are also significantly affected by farm bill policies. This white paper outlines important policies and solutions to ensure the new farm bill allows community banks to continue meeting the needs of farmers, ranchers and others in rural America.

In September 2008, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the Treasury Department placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs) into conservatorship. Described at the time to the public as a temporary “time out” to allow both companies to stabilize, the plan of those policymakers who put the GSEs into conservatorship was to release both institutions from this “time out” once they were financially sound again. More than eight years have passed, and a third administration has inherited these conservatorships.

Unfortunately, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have less capital today than when they were placed under control of their regulator and the Treasury. Yet, both companies have returned to profitability and have worked through the majority of their defaulted loans, all while continuing to provide the liquidity to the housing market that’s been critical for its recovery from the worst recession in more than 80 years

Ultimately, tax and regulatory reform will determine the character of American economic life in future generations. A tax and regulatory system that promotes consolidation, implicitly or explicitly, not only in the financial industry but also across the economy, will result in fewer and larger businesses, less consumer choice and commodified product offerings. Local businesses, decision making and values will continue to be displaced by nationally-owned corporations that are remote from individual communities.

Commerce based on one-off transactions will displace relationship-based partnerships. Tax reform, accomplished thoughtfully and in conjunction with regulatory reform, could help to thwart these trends and preserve and strengthen local businesses and communities

ICBA urges Congress to pass an amendment to the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 to permanently close the ILC loophole, just as Congress has closed past banking loopholes that threatened to undermine consolidated supervision and the separation of banking and commerce

ICBA Members: $219
Non-Members: $319

In today’s world, it is imperative that financial institutions, law enforcement, and our government work together to combat and prevent financial crime, money laundering, and terrorist financing. Community bankers are committed to supporting balanced, effective measures that will prevent terrorists from using the financial system to fund their operations and prevent money launderers from hiding the proceeds of criminal activities.

However, anti-money laundering/combatting the financing of terrorism and Bank Secrecy Act compliance programs consume a growing share of community banks’ scarce resources.

Insider abuse regulations, such as Reg. O, always remain a focal point of regulatory agencies and will likely garner even more attention over the next couple years as fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic comes to light.

Gain an overview of the bank regulatory and supervisory highlights from 2022 and some predictions on what might be in store for 2023. Topics that will be covered include CRA reform, digital assets, rising interest rates, turnover at the regulatory agencies, sanctions, and bank partnerships.

Learning Objectives:

• Outline the bank regulatory and supervisory highlights from 2022.

• Predict what’s in store for 2023 on topics such as CRA Reform, and rising interest rates.
  

Your financial institution can unknowingly be making itself an easier target for robbers!  In this session, we review the steps and procedures financial institutions should enact to help protect staff and the public.  Learn how robbers case your institution, the specific steps you can take to reduce your chances of robbery, and actions not to take that may exacerbate the situation. 

This program cover all the necessary steps your staff needs to sustain a safe workplace in your financial institution. Protect your people, prevent vulnerability, and reassure your customers that their money is safe.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the procedures you should enact to help protect staff and the public.

• Understand what not to do in the case of a robbery.

• Learn how robbers are preparing for the robbery.
  

ICBA Members: $219
Non-Members: $319

The Federal Reserve has embarked on the most aggressive efforts to fight inflation since the early 1980s. After more than a decade of expansionary monetary (and fiscal) policy, banks have been whipsawed. In effect, the Federal Reserve has sprung a liquidity trap.

Banks are committed to serving the families and businesses in their communities and proudly supply the financial products and services that provide important economic opportunities for individuals, families, and small business owners. It follows that banks support fair, objective, and transparent enforcement of civil rights and fair lending laws. However, we cannot support the CFPB's recent actions, taken without legislative authority, to extend fair lending laws beyond the bounds carefully set by Congress.