Main Street Matters Blog

“Pig butchering” scams — in which victims invest increasing sums in supposedly legitimate virtual currency enterprises before being conned out of their money — depend on cryptocurrencies to function. But the connections between crypto and this skyrocketing scam run much deeper than the fake investments that ensnare consumers.

A new form of investment scam has skyrocketed in recent years as criminal syndicates target consumers through online channels. Called “pig butchering,” this new scam is increasingly relevant, including among the consumers and communities that community banks serve.

Banks and their customers continue to be challenged by a rise in fraud and scams across payment types. Most significantly, check fraud has emerged over the past several years as a leading concern.

It’s an exciting time for ICBA Innovation, culminating in the long-awaited opening of ICBA’s Center for Innovation—an initiative more than a year in the making with the promise to help drive community bank innovation.

To ease the regulatory and economic forces pressuring margins and embrace new payments opportunities, community banks should focus on six key trends this year to drive their payments plans and activities

At a time when consequential failures at large, risky banks led to major media outlets erroneously directing blame to Main Street community banks, ICBA was there defending and promoting the community banking business model—differentiating community banks when it was needed most.

This time of year, we often take stock of our accomplishments and look ahead to the possibilities and opportunities awaiting us in the coming year. Certainly, when it comes to blazing ICBA’s innovation path for community bankers, we’ve upped the ante significantly in 2023.

As payments has evolved, so has ICBA Bancard, and with that came the opportunity to rebrand who we are in light of our why. I’m proud to introduce ICBA Payments.

As ICBA and our industry continues to differentiate and evolve, we are excited to announce the next stage of our journey as we rebrand from Community Banker University to ICBA Education.

We have been experiencing an acceleration in innovation since the start of the pandemic. MuleSoft reported that in 2022, 72 percent of customer interactions occurred over digital channels—nearly double that of 2021—proof that we are living the digital-first experience.