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Build Up Your Protections
Fraud remains a pervasive and growing problem for community banks—with tangible losses. According to a survey from LexisNexis Risk Solutions, every dollar lost to fraud costs U.S. financial...
Passwordless Authentication: The Next Ecosystem?
It has been a continuous conversation over the past several years, and one that is gaining further momentum with each reported data breach—when, or should, banks shift to passwordless authentication?
How Visa’s Updated Compelling Evidence Rule Impacts Community Banks
Fraud remains a pervasive and growing problem for community banks—with tangible losses. According to a survey from LexisNexis Risk Solutions, every dollar lost to fraud costs U.S. financial...
Closing The Digital Divide, Opening New Threats
While cash is still considered to be the most secure form of payment by merchants and consumers, there are a litany of established options and more recently, new and innovative solutions are...
Customers as a First Line of Defense
As the payment card industry continues to strengthen its overall fraud posture with the introduction of security features criminals have resorted to classic techniques to perpetrate account...
Preventing Mobile Fraud in Nine Steps
As consumer smart phone adoption has grown over the years, so has the share of online purchases transacted via mobile devices—and with it, incidents of fraud.
ICBA Bancard: Supporting Your Digital Payments Transformation Journey
Digital transformation is a hot topic and a broad concept. It's hard to go a day without hearing a related buzz word or related article on how to do it, why it's important, or what to focus on first.
The Emerging Influence of Open Banking
One of fintech companies’ most disruptive influences is not necessarily taking away primary deposit relationships, it’s how they motivate consumers to pick and choose apps for all kinds of services.
Why Instant Payments Should Be on Your Digital Transformation Road Map
Even if you aren’t hearing the words “faster payments” or “instant payments” directly from your customers, trends and research show the demand is there – and rising.
Navigating The Waters of Digital Transformation
For years, digital transformation has been top of mind, and community bankers have been diligently evaluating our infrastructure, identifying needs, and developing our individual approaches. That...
Seven ways to use card-on-file to reach top of digital wallet
Ecommerce sales are projected to grow from $4.2 trillion worldwide in 2020 to $5.4 trillion in 2022, according to Statistica. And in North America, card-not-present transactions (excluding travel)...
Digital Payments Fraud: New Conveniences, New Opportunities for Fraudsters
Though consumers have embraced ACH and wire transfers as essential ways to pay and move money, digital tools have increasingly become popular payment methods for consumers due to their convenience...
A Note from the Chairman - Bancard Amplifies Our Voices
From digital transformation to the ramp up to instant payments with FedNow and beyond, payments have become the hot topic du jour. However, as community banking executives, we’re juggling multiple...
Increase Credit Card Income with Comprehensive Marketing Programs
Card programs make significant contributions to banks’ revenue through interchange fees, interest charges on credit card balances, and balance transfer fees. Large financial institutions with deep...
Marketing Your Credit Card Program: A Community Bank in Alabama Weighs In
Ecommerce credit card spend is expected to surpass $500 billion in 2022 for the first time, according to insiderintelligence.com. Community bank marketers will need to be strategic in their...
Knowledge is Power – Turn Your Customers into Defenders
Falling victim to fraud or a scam can be an embarrassing and costly experience. According to a CNBC report published this year, consumers reported fraud losses of more than $5.8 billion in 2021,...
Marketing in the round: Using a 360-degree marketing strategy to reach today’s prospects
In the pre-digital age of marketing, connecting with potential new customers was relatively simple. Everyone watched the same TV channels, listened to the same radio stations, and read the same...
Start simple: free marketing assets for community banks
There are several resources available to community bankers who want to market their credit or debit card program. Below are sites we recommend, which all house free marketing and educational...
Maximizing Your Credit Card Portfolio in a COVID-19 Environment
Maximizing Your Credit Card Portfolio in a COVID-19 Environment COVID-19 has created financial strain for millions of Americans. For example, 56 percent of consumers have reported difficulties...
A Note from the Chairman
The writer Henry David Thoreau penned the statement, “Things do not change; we change.” Well, I may not be a poet, but I’d say that COVID-19 has proved that verse tenfold. Overnight, our banks were...
Marketing Payments Products to Small Business Customers
Marketing Payments Products to Small Business Customers As community bank payment products become an increasingly central product line for small business customers, community banks are seeking new...
Now is the time for card modernization
2020-12-03 Now is the time for card modernization Digital transformation isn’t just a buzzword—it’s become a critical need that will determine winners and losers in the coming year. The delay in...
Protecting Against Fraud as Adoption of Digital Payments Soar
Protecting Against Fraud as Adoption of Digital Payments Soar The global pandemic has prompted consumers to reimagine how they interact with others, how they handle their daily duties, and how they...
Shift in Spending Habits Spurs Acceleration of Digital Payments Transformation
2020-12-03 Shift in Spending Habits Spurs Acceleration of Digital Payments Transformation Community banks were already planning for a digital payments transformation, but the shift in spending...
Mitigate Fraud and Increase Profitability
Mitigate Fraud and Increase Profitability By Alan Nevels In today’s card risk environment, your bank needs a comprehensive fraud strategy that includes cardholder education backed by powerful...
Your ACE in the Hole: Optimize Your Credit Card Program Today
By Scott Broughton A banker asked me recently how to increase the profits of his bank’s credit card program. This Midwest bank had been issuing cards for more than a decade, but recent growth had...
Leverage the Power of AI to Predict Delinquencies
Leverage the Power of AI to Predict Delinquencies By Rebecca Kruse Artificial intelligence is a hot topic across all lines of business in all industries, and banking is no exception. How an...
Mobile Contactless Fraud Schemes: What You Need to Know
Recently, with the growing popularity of mobile wallets and contactless cards, we are seeing criminals using contactless near-field communication (NFC) acceptance as an alternative way to monetize...
A New Tool to Fight Synthetic Identity Fraud
2019-11-12 What is Synthetic Identity Fraud? Synthetic identity fraud occurs when bad actors use a combination of real and fictitious information to create new (synthetic) identities, which may be...
Meet your ICBA Bancard Support Team
Meet your ICBA Bancard Support Team Our mission at ICBA Bancard is to deliver flexible, innovative payments and digital commerce solutions that allow community banks to flourish. ICBA Bancard’s...
Migrating to 8-Digit BINs: Key Information to Consider Before Transitioning
ICBA Bancard’s partner card networks, Visa and Mastercard®, have released several notices and bulletins regarding the migration to 8-digit Bank Identification Numbers or BINs, but many banks are...
Credit Card Marketing: Driving Engagement and Combating Cardholder Fatigue
2021-03-24 Community banks that issue consumer credit cards are faced with some common challenges: how to match their card options (rewards vs. non-rewards) with the best promotions to produce a...
Payments Trends to Watch in 2021
2021-03-24 Few would disagree that COVID-19 was a catalyst for significant changes in the way that Americans shop and manage their money. In fact, many experts believe years of behavioral...
A Note from the Chairman
A Note from the Chairman “Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning,” so attested Bill Gates of the factors behind Microsoft’s decades-long dominance. While he was...
Honoring Our Past, Embracing Our Future
As ICBA Bancard transitions to ICBA Payments, reflecting on our past will help to fuel our future success. While our name has changed, the goal of serving community banks has remained a constant...
A Renewed Commitment to Our Mission
From deploying instant payments to enhancing the customer experience to competing with Bigtech, community banks face complex decisions about priorities amidst current fiscal realities.
Introducing ICBA Payments’ New Chairman: Ruth Christopher
When she launched her career as a CPA, Ruth Christopher wasn’t necessarily envisioning a role at a community bank. But after a few years at a regional CPA firm, a partner encouraged her to apply as...
Unlock Your Portfolio’s Potential with Credit Card Marketing
Marketing programs are critical to portfolio health and expansion. The key to success is simple: get started and take action! The steps below should help you start your journey.
Branding on Purpose
There’s been a lot of chatter lately about brand power and how brand drives an organization’s outward expression of its mission and values by being at the heart of great client and employee...
Rethinking Merchant Services
Banks have traditionally relied on interest income from loans and deposits, but non-traditional financial services companies are providing competition for these core products. To survive long term,...
Mid-year Checkpoint on Digital Payments Transformation
With over half of 2023 now firmly in the rearview mirror, we’re hoping community banks have put our digital payments transformation resources to good use—leveraging our whitepaper and workbook to...
Where Does Your Community Bank Fall on the Digital Payments Spectrum?
2019-09-03 Payments Executive Brief Issue 1 For a printable PDF of this issue, click here. By Tina Giorgio Use the ICBA Bancard Digital Payments Strategy GuideSM to Address Your Payments Business...
Value of the FedNow Service for Community Banks
2019-09-09 The Federal Reserve’s development of the FedNow Service provides the opportunity for all banks—both large and small—to capitalize on the value of faster payments and brings significant...
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 we near the close of the application period for our...
Strategies to Help Fight Back Against Card Fraud
2019-12-11 First-party fraud and synthetic identity fraud is an area of growing concern, exacerbated by difficulties of identifying these attacks, but there are ways the industry is fighting back....
Digital-First: Meeting Customers Where They Are
By Tina Giorgio We live in an age where almost nine in 10 U.S. households own a smartphone, making it the second-most owned technology device after television sets. When it comes to financial...
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 of the...
7 Tips for Mitigating Synthetic Identity Fraud Risk
2020-08-11 Catching synthetic identity fraudsters remains difficult, and the fall-out of not detecting it, is substantial. AI company Coalesce estimates that synthetic identities account for more...
ICBA Bancard tool helps community banks assess their small business payments readiness
2020-09-10 From having to adapt to retail closings, diminished staff and customer capacities, a new work-from-home infrastructure, and more, the nation’s small businesses have reacted quickly in...
What You Need to Know about Today’s Credit Card Rewards Programs
2021-02-25 Having the right rewards program to match your existing and targeted cardholder customer base is more important than ever. That’s why ICBA Bancard, in partnership with TCM Bank recently...
Meeting Customers Where They Are for Today’s Digital-First World
2020-11-20 By Tina Giorgio This year has brought a seismic shift in how consumers conduct their financial affairs. What was once a gradual move to digital payments and shopping methods has become a...
Continuing the Conversation: What You Need to Know about Today’s Credit Card Rewards Programs
Continuing the Conversation: What You Need to Know about Today’s Credit Card Rewards Programs 2021-03-11 Recently, ICBA Bancard, in partnership with TCM Bank, released the white paper, “Cultivating...
How Community Banks Can Help Customers Evaluate Buy Now, Pay Later Offerings
2021-05-06 Buy now, pay later or BNPL, is the latest cautionary payments tale for community banks. Much like digital wallets, its appeal—with instant gratification and integrated payment at...
Three Ways Community Banks Can Respond to Generational Digital Payments Needs
When it comes to payments, the generational divide has been shrinking. While Gen Z and Millennials still lead the way in digital payments adoption, Baby Boomers and Seniors (over 76) are increasing...
Faster Payments Have Arrived — Now What?
2021-06-17 Faster payments have arrived. Accelerated by the pandemic, the growth in digital and contactless payments has pushed consumer and business expectations toward the real-time movement of...
How to Digitize the Community Bank Relationship Model
When it comes to community bankers’ technology to-do lists, 35% view investing in digitalization as their top business opportunity. We’ve clearly arrived at a tipping point.
Why Instant Payments Should Be on Your Digital Transformation Road Map
Even if you aren’t hearing the words “faster payments” or “instant payments” directly from your customers, trends and research show the demand is there – and rising. Recent Federal Reserve surveys...
Zelle Fraud: How Community Banks Can Respond to This Cautionary Tale
In 2020, nearly 18 million Americans were defrauded via digital wallets and person-to-person (P2P) services, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. With numbers like that, P2P solutions like...
Six Steps to Your Bank’s Digital Payments Transformation
To support community banks in establishing concrete next steps for their digital transformation efforts, ICBA Bancard has developed the report, “Digital Transformation: The Payments Business Model.”
Building a Concrete Roadmap for Your Digital Transformation
According to a recent survey, 99.8 percent of community bankers feel the adoption of new or emerging technologies to meet customer demand is at least somewhat important, with 64.7 percent labeling...