Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey issued the following statement after a new acquisition of a tax-paying community bank in Arizona by a tax-exempt credit union.

The numbers don’t lie: fraud losses are on the rise, with 61% of financial organizations reporting direct losses of over $500,000 in a 12-month period. In addition, 52% of mid-market organizations have pointed to an increase in attempted fraud events.

ICBA Payments is committed to ensuring that community banks keep pace with innovation in the payments space. When FedNow launched, ICBA Payments partnered with market leader, Pidgin, to ensure that banks had a community bank-minded option for instant payments.