Guide creates blueprint for serving small business customers
Washington, D.C. (Sept. 9, 2020) — ICBA Bancard, the payments services subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA), today announced the launch of its interactive tool to help its community bank clients create a custom digital payments strategy in support of their small business customers. The second ICBA Bancard Digital Payments Strategy Guidesm—Small Business Edition was designed in partnership with Aite Group.
“Digital payments are essential services for today’s small business customers, many of whom are relying on timely payments and cash flow to weather the COVID-19 pandemic,” said ICBA Bancard Chairman Gregory Deckard, who also serves as president, CEO and chairman of State Bank Northwest in Spokane Valley, Wash. “By developing a dynamic digital payments strategy—that responds to market pressures and shifting payment pressures—community banks can continue to be a funding lifeline to small businesses through the current crisis and beyond.”
Community banks make 60 percent of small business loans and continue to be leaders in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lending. In addition, approximately 85 percent of U.S. banks believe increasing their success with small businesses is critical to their overall performance.
Determining the right strategy, product mix, and supporting technology provides a unique opportunity to meet the needs of small businesses. The ICBA Bancard Digital Payments Strategy Guide—Small Business Edition offers a responsive Q&A assessment questionnaire so community banks can refine their digital payments infrastructure by:
- Evaluating their market opportunity to determine potential product reach for digital payments.
- Assessing existing offerings and identifying gaps based on both current and planned digital payments offerings.
- Examining product development approaches and assessing customer awareness and outreach tactics.
- Creating a realistic roadmap using a model to identify where they fall on the digital payment’s development spectrum, with recommended steps to continue building their digital payment's infrastructure.
“With rapid change in the digital payments space and the accelerated shift in payments since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s more critical than ever for community banks to have a blueprint for innovation that aligns with their strategic goals and strengthens their all-important customer relationship,” ICBA Bancard President and CEO Tina Giorgio said. “Community banks’ outsized role in PPP lending proves that this symbiotic relationship between small business and community banks works.
Our new tool aims to make the digital aspect of that relationship even more helpful and efficient—giving community banks yet another competitive advantage in the financial services marketplace.
ICBA Bancard clients enjoy exclusive access to the new small business focused ICBA Bancard Digital Payments Strategy Guide for a limited time before it is released to all ICBA members Nov. 9. To learn more about ICBA Bancard, visit www.icbabancard.com.
About ICBA Bancard
ICBA Bancard® is the wholly owned payment services subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America. ICBA Bancard’s community bank issuers generated $31.6 billion in sales volume in 2019 and are ranked collectively as the 24th largest credit card portfolio in the United States. ICBA Bancard enables thousands of community banks to provide competitive credit card, debit card, ATM and merchant processing solutions. The company also provides exclusive services to issuers including its Fraud Loss Protection Plan, marketing support, and product education. For more information, visit www.icbabancard.org.
About ICBA
The Independent Community Bankers of America® creates and promotes an environment where community banks flourish. With more than 50,000 locations nationwide, community banks constitute 99 percent of all banks, employ nearly 750,000 Americans and are the only physical banking presence in one in three U.S. counties. Holding more than $5 trillion in assets, nearly $4 trillion in deposits, and more than $3.4 trillion in loans to consumers, small businesses and the agricultural community, community banks channel local deposits into the Main Streets and neighborhoods they serve, spurring job creation, fostering innovation and fueling their customers’ dreams in communities throughout America. For more information, visit ICBA’s website at www.icba.org.
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