HSAs could boost your community bank’s deposits Jan 01st 2020 12:01am on Focus, General, Operations & Management HSAs could boost your community bank’s deposits Jan 01st 2020 12:01am on Focus, General, Operations & Management Health savings accounts have become more than a savvy way to fund healthcare. For community banks, they’re a way to help customers thrive financially and in life. By Katie Kuehner-Hebert Community banks that offer health savings accounts, or HSAs, can tout more than the immediate benefit of using the funds tax-free to pay for healthcare […]
FedNow is coming. Here’s what you need to know Jan 01st 2020 12:01am on Focus, Other / Payments, Products & Services, Retail, Technology Years of advocacy culminated in the Fed’s announcement of a real-time payments and settlement service. Here’s what to know about FedNow and what remains to be answered. By Colleen Morrison The community banking industry released a collective breath on Aug. 5, 2019, when the Federal Reserve announced its intent to offer a 24/7 real-time payments […]
A CRA partnership case study Jan 01st 2020 12:01am on Banks, Focus, Industry Insight Under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), partnerships between minority- and majority-owned banks can prove beneficial for all parties. Here’s how two banks came together to leverage each other’s resources and get CRA credit in the process. By Cheryl Winokur Munk In 2017, $20 billion-asset BancorpSouth Bank in Tupelo, Miss., invested $8.5 million of capital in […]
The regulatory reforms coming up this year Jan 01st 2020 12:01am on Advocacy & Policy, Focus, General, Regulation & Compliance, Regulation / Compliance The pace of regulatory and compliance change isn’t likely to slow down in 2020. Lawmakers, regulators and community bankers are weighing reforms to the CRA, banking marijuana-related businesses and more. By Mary Thorson Wright Ah, 2020. Arduous regulatory upheaval from recent years, like that under the Dodd-Frank Act, Truth in Lending Act (TILA)-Real Estate Settlement […]
What does 2020 have in store for lending? Jan 01st 2020 12:01am on Business, Focus, Lending, Mortgage Varying interest rates and a mixed outlook for the economy kept community bankers on their toes over the past year, but what can they expect lending to look like this year? By Beth Mattson-Teig Community bankers are trying to read the tea leaves on expectations for lending activity in the coming year in the wake […]
Looking back at 2019’s compliance changes Dec 02nd 2019 12:12am on Focus, General, Regulation & Compliance This year, community banks saw the full implementation of S.2155, which provided regulatory relief. While a quiet regulatory year, many community banks were busy improving their own compliance programs. By Mary Thorson Wright The regulatory machine stayed relatively quiet in 2019, but community banks kept busy implementing compliance legislation and guidance issued in previous years. […]
Could geolocation marketing hit the spot? Dec 02nd 2019 12:12am on Focus, Marketing, Membership, Software, Technology Community banks can use geofencing to tailor their marketing efforts to specific audiences. Through targeted campaigns, bankers can find new customers or deepen their relationships with existing customers. By Katie Kuehner-Hebert It’s a bank marketer’s dream: getting the right message to the right person at the right time, says Jana Jurukovska, ICBA’s vice president of […]
Why small-business payment cards have big potential Dec 02nd 2019 12:12am on Focus, Products & Services Research shows that use of dedicated small business credit cards is set for huge growth in the next few years, but what value do they offer community banks? By Colleen Morrison Imagine a relatively untapped market with the potential to balloon to $700 billion by 2022. According to Mercator Advisory Group, this may be the […]
How you can combat elder financial abuse Nov 01st 2019 12:11am on Focus, Membership, Other Programs The financial exploitation of seniors is a nationwide problem, but experts say community banks are in a key position to thwart this type of fraud. They recommend banks train staff to spot red flags and report suspicious activity to authorities. By Beth Mattson-Teig Community banks are finding themselves fighting on the front lines of a […]
Why blockchain still has potential for banks Nov 01st 2019 12:11am on Focus, Technology, Trends Many financial institutions are looking to blockchain, the still-novel distributed ledger technology, as a means to create more efficient and less risky solutions to today’s—and tomorrow’s—challenges. By Karen Epper Hoffman It could be said that blockchain’s affiliation with cryptocurrency is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. But blockchain—a digital distributed ledger platform invented […]
