ICBA Securities

Bond Academy

We provide community bankers with quality investment products, services and education at competitive prices.

Stay tuned for more on the upcoming Bond Academy!


The Bond Academy is designed to provide community bankers with the basic knowledge needed to help plan and create effective investment portfolios. A high performance investment portfolio can provide a noticeable increase to your bank’s bottom line.

Education Square

We are excited to introduce our virtual Bond Academy, an 8-part series designed to provide bank portfolio managers with the basic knowledge needed to help plan and create effective investment portfolios. 

A high performance investment portfolio can provide a meaningful increase to your institution’s bottom line and serve as a valuable risk management tool. These sessions will provide you with the tools to understand how debt instruments work and their overall role in complementing the entire balance sheet.  

Bond Fundamentals

Monday, April 19, 10:00 a.m. ET


Bond Fundamentals starts with the basics. During this webinar, you will learn what a bond is, its components, and how to compare investment alternatives considering their characteristics, structure, and risk/return metrics.

You will learn:

  • Yield Measures and the Price/Yield relationship
  • The Time Value of Money, how to calculate the Present and Future Value of a cashflow, and how to price a bond for a given yield
  • The Risk/Return tradeoff, layering risk to build return with bonds and the portfolio

Register for Day 1 Morning Session - Bond Fundamentals

Residential MBS & ARMs

Monday, April 19, 1:30 p.m. ET


Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) generally serve as a core holding in depository portfolios.  During this webinar, we will illustrate how these securities can offer benefits such as government guarantees, liquidity, and cashflow to fund balance sheet needs.

You will learn:

  • The structure, risks, and cash flow characteristics of pass-through securities like residential MBS
  • The mechanics of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) and how these securities best fit a portfolio
  • Pricing and trading of MBS along with analysis used to evaluate their risk and return

Register for Day 1 Afternoon Session - MBS & ARMs

CMO Fundamentals

Tuesday, April 20, 10:00 a.m. ET


Along with MBS investments, CMOs provide many investors the return and cashflow characteristics they prefer. Being a structured mortgage investment, CMOs require a deeper base of knowledge and robust pre-purchase analysis. During this session, we will cover the basics of CMOs and prepare you with a better understanding of how CMOs work and elements you should consider when investing in them.

You will learn:

  • Why CMOs exist, how they are created, and how they work
  • Most popular structures and how they can be applied to your institution's portfolio
  • Key things to remember when purchasing and analyzing CMOs

Register for Day 2 Morning Session- CMOs

Agency CMBS & Fixed SBAs

Tuesday, April 20, 1:30 p.m. ET


The Agency CMBS market grew significantly in recent years and many depositories utilized the sector for investments with more bullet-like structures, but at typically greater yields than agency bullets. Fixed SBAs, the bulk of which include prepay penalties, also offer more positively convex risk profiles compared to residential MBS or callable agencies. In this session, you will learn how these investments offer attractive risk/return profiles that can help depositories offset reinvestment risk found elsewhere in the portfolio and overall balance sheet.

  • An overview of some of the more popular agency CMBS securities including Fannie DUS, Freddie K’s, and Ginnie Mae Project Loans
  • An overview of fixed SBA products including DCPCs and SBICs
  • Risks associated with the corresponding security types
  • General benefits of how these securities can offer higher yields while helping portfolio managers manage the overall interest rate risk profiles of their institutions

Register for Day 2 Afternoon Session - CBMS & SBAs

Municipal Bonds for Banks

Wednesday, April 21, 10:00 a.m. ET


Municipal bonds offer attractive tax-equivalent yields, limited optionality, and their longer durations generally benefit the bond portfolio. During this presentation, you will learn why municipal bonds are a key component of high yielding depository portfolios, as well as the following:

You will learn:

  • An overview of the municipal market to include the various structures of municipal bonds
  • How to compare bank qualified municipals to other investments
  • Regulatory requirements/municipal bond credit fundamentals

Register for Day 3 Morning Session - Municipals

Economic Fundamentals

Wednesday, April 21, 1:30 p.m. ET


The health of the economy and its position in the business cycle are among the most important factors determining the level and direction of interest rates. Changes in interest rates are arguably the most important factor affecting the performance of a fixed income portfolio. Therefore, understanding and tracking economic indicators should be a key component of portfolio management.

You will learn:

  • The composition of the U.S. economy and how it is measured
  • The structure of the Federal Reserve and its role in managing economic cycles
  • How economic activity, including inflation, and Federal Reserve actions impact interest rates

Register for Day 3 Afternoon Session - Economic Fundamentals

Portfolio Strategies

Thursday, April 22, 10:00 a.m. ET


Many portfolio managers have been inundated with excess liquidity, which contributed to historically low net interest margins despite record low funding costs. Defending current earnings is a primary focus, but prudent risk management and consistent high performance is the long-term goal. During this session, we will discuss strategies to deploy excess liquidity within the risk management constraints of a community bank.

You will learn:

  • The bond portfolio’s purpose in a community bank balance sheet
  • Investment alternatives available in the current market and characteristics of high performing investment portfolios
  • How the investment portfolio and other products can help you manage liquidity and interest rate risk, while also providing consistent earnings

Register for Day 4 Morning Session - Portfolio Strategies

Vining Sparks’ Analytical Tools

Thursday, April 22, 1:30 p.m. ET


Using advanced analytics is an essential requirement for individuals tasked with managing a balance sheet and/or securities portfolio. Sophisticated analytics and what-if modeling allow managers to make informed decisions and to develop strategies to optimize performance and manage risk. During this session, we will introduce several of Vining Sparks’ analytical tools.

You will learn:

  • How to access and use Client Access, our online portal, to analyze your institution’s securities portfolio /li>
  • A review of the Performance Profile, our comprehensive investment performance analysis reporting package
  • The benefits of using our Performance Architect to develop balance sheet and investment portfolio strategies

Register for Day 4 Afternoon Session - Analytical Tools