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Value of the FedNow Service for Community Banks
Value of the FedNow Service for Community Banks The Federal Reserve’s development of the FedNow Service provides the opportunity for all banks—both large and small—to capitalize on the...
Digital-First: Meeting Customers Where They Are
Digital-First: Meeting Customers Where They Are When it comes to financial services, almost 63 percent of the U.S. population uses digital banking. So, as a community bank, if you are not...
Capitalizing on Change in 2020
One thing is for certain – and that is change. With the advent of new technologies and solutions, education will be the indispensable complement to ensure community banks can take advantage...
Strategies to Help Fight Back Against Card Fraud
Strategies to Help Fight Back Against Card Fraud First-party fraud and synthetic identity fraud is an area of growing concern, exacerbated by difficulties of identifying these attacks, but there...
ThinkTECH Accelerator: Through the Lens of a Mentor
ThinkTECH Accelerator: Through the Lens of a Mentor ICBA Bancard President and CEO Tina Giorgio reflects on her experiences as a mentor in the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator program. By Tina Giorgio As...
7 Tips for Mitigating Synthetic Identity Fraud Risk
7 Tips for Mitigating Synthetic Identity Fraud Risk Catching synthetic identity fraudsters remains difficult, and the fall-out of not detecting it, is substantial. AI company Coalesce estimates...
ICBA Bancard tool helps community banks assess their small business payments readiness
ICBA Bancard tool helps community banks assess their small business payments readiness From having to adapt to retail closings, diminished staff and customer capacities, a new work-from-home...
Meeting Customers Where They Are for Today’s Digital-First World
Meeting Customers Where They Are for Today’s Digital-First World For community banks, the digital-first nature of today’s world creates an opportunity to forge deeper connections with existing...
Skate to Where the Puck is Going
Skate to Where the Puck is Going Tina Giorgio: As we move into the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, and I move into a series of discussions on U.S. faster payments efforts, I am reminded of a quote from...
Reflecting on ICBA Bancard’s 35-Year History of Success
Reflecting on ICBA Bancard’s 35-Year History of Success In celebration of ICBA Bancard’s 35th anniversary, I sat down with our Chairman Greg Deckard, president, CEO and chairman of State Bank...
2018: A Year of Fresh..
2018: A Year of Fresh.. Tina Giorgio: In an e-book published last week by PYMNTS.com, “Fresh” is how I described payments in 2018. I can’t think of a time when we’ve seen as many innovations emerge...
Developing A Payments Strategy Part II: The Nitty Gritty
Developing A Payments Strategy Part II: The Nitty Gritty Tina Giorgio: In my former role as a community banker, I always found it helpful to create visual aids to clarify complex relationships and...
Positioning ICBA Bancard for the Future: What’s Your Why?
Positioning ICBA Bancard for the Future: What’s Your Why? Back in 1985, the first Macintosh computer debuted, and by today’s standards, it was a boxy, clunky, slow unit, yet Consumer Reports gave...
Navigating the New Norm with Digital Optimization
Navigating the New Norm with Digital Optimization In determining what this new business-as-usual will look like for your bank, it is important to identify where your customers are now and how their...
The Big Trouble with Big Tech
The Big Trouble with Big Tech Last month Google unveiled its new Google Pay app—complete with a DDA-like account attached. This latest effort by Google is part of a trend of non-bank tech...
Safeguarding Against Fraud in a COVID-19 Era
Safeguarding Against Fraud in a COVID-19 Era Despite numerous warnings from the FBI, IRS and others, fraudsters are capitalizing on the pandemic to take advantage of consumers, highlighting the...
The Dawn of Artificial Intelligence
The Dawn of Artificial Intelligence Tina Giorgio: With so many possible applications, it’s hard to predict the path that artificial intelligence will follow. In her latest blog post, ICBA Bancard...
Q1 2020 Bank Executive Business Outlook Survey Highlights
Q1 2020 Bank Executive Business Outlook Survey Highlights What a difference three months make. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the outlook among bankers about the economy and the state of the...
Raising Community Banker Awareness of CDFIs
Raising Community Banker Awareness of CDFIs ICBA is working to raise awareness of a special designation available to certain community banks – the Community Development Financial Institution....
A Guide for Community Banks Reopening Their Doors
A Guide for Community Banks Reopening Their Doors ICBA has compiled a guide to help community banks resume more normal operations and person-to-person services. ICBA has compiled a guide to help...
ICBA’s Annual M&A Workshop Goes Virtual through a Webinar Series
ICBA’s Annual M&A Workshop Goes Virtual through a Webinar Series Kicking off Oct. 13, Community Banker University® is hosting a four-part Mergers & Acquisitions Webinar Workshop series...
Bank Director News has Gone Digital
Bank Director News has Gone Digital Due to the unprecedented challenges presented by COVID-19, this issue of Community Bank Director News is being distributed exclusively in electronic format so...
SBA Offers PPP Answers on Directors, Partnerships, and More
SBA Offers PPP Answers on Directors, Partnerships, and More The Treasury Department and Small Business Administration just answered key ICBA questions about the Paycheck Protection Program relating...
ICBA revamps COVID-19 resource center
ICBA revamps COVID-19 resource center ICBA is continuously updating its COVID-19 Community Banking Resources page to provide community bank leadership with the latest breaking industry news and...
Governance Help is Just a Call Away
Governance Help is Just a Call Away As a subscriber of ICBA's Bank Director Program, you have free access to knowledgeable community bank attorneys at Gerrish Smith Tuck who can quickly and...
Paycheck Protection Plan Flexibility Act Increases PPP Loan Program Flexibility
Paycheck Protection Plan Flexibility Act Increases PPP Loan Program Flexibility On June 5, 2020, the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) Flexibility Act was signed into law by the President. The PPP...
Ready to Run: After a lag, prepayments are primed to take off.
Ready to Run: After a lag, prepayments are primed to take off. If you are inclined to read bond analysts’ research reports, eventually you’ll chance upon some commentary that addresses the...
Why Succession Planning is Key to Bank Independence
Why Succession Planning is Key to Bank Independence Independence is at the heart of many community banks’ ethos, but how do community bankers embed this core value into their strategic planning?...
2008 vs. 2020: A Financial Crisis Comparison
2008 vs. 2020: A Financial Crisis Comparison How does the financial crisis of 2008 compare with the pandemic-driven economic crisis of today? Though both significantly impacted our economy, there...
Kickoff! A Football Fan’s Guide to Portfolio Management
Kickoff! A Football Fan’s Guide to Portfolio Management As the calendar turns to September, millions of Americans gear up for their favorite sport of football. Of course, with this being a year...
CDFI Program Offers Help to Small Businesses in Underserved Communities
CDFI Program Offers Help to Small Businesses in Underserved Communities On Sept. 3, a complimentary presentation hosted by CDFI certified bankers, federal agency staff, and ICBA experts will share...
Shop Talk 2020
Shop Talk 2020 Our conversation with a community banker resumes. By Jim Reber, President & CEO, ICBA Securities Our conversation with a community banker resumes. “This is Jim Reber speaking.” “Hi...
Things You Never Thought You’d Say
Things You Never Thought You’d Say Over time, a business relationship develops, much of which is a matter of convenience for the busy portfolio manager. And out of this relationship comes dialogue....
New COVID-19 Safety and Soundness Standards for Financial Institutions
New COVID-19 Safety and Soundness Standards for Financial Institutions On June 23, 2020, the financial institution regulatory agencies jointly issued “Interagency Examiner Guidance for Assessing...
Succession in a Covid-19 World
Succession in a Covid-19 World One of the less discussed impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic , which is shaking boardrooms and executive suites, is the issue of leadership succession. By Alan J....
An Economic Update for Bank Directors
An Economic Update for Bank Directors As 2020 comes to an end, here are a couple of items to consider within the economy that might be important. By Brad Stevens, Principal and Founder, SRM As 2020...
Congress Could Act to Overturn Treasury Guidance on PPP Loan Expense Deductibility
Congress Could Act to Overturn Treasury Guidance on PPP Loan Expense Deductibility On Nov. 18, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Revenue Ruling 2020-27 and Revenue Procedure 2020-51. This...
An Economic Update for Bank Directors
An Economic Update for Bank Directors SRM founder and principal Brad Stevens has been leading the credit industry as an analyst, trainer and consultant for over 30 years. Read Brad's Economic...
Questions to Answers: Net interest margin in jeopardy? Here are some solutions.
Questions to Answers: Net interest margin in jeopardy? Here are some solutions. To start out the year, I’d like to both properly memorialize the late, great Alex Trebek and provide some helpful...
Employment Advice When You Need It
Community Banker University has teamed with national employment law firm Jackson Lewis P.C. to bring members of the Bank Director Program a complimentary employment law hotline!