Banks have always had a lot of data to wrangle. Core processors handle transactions by the millions. Loan applicants have their data compared to underwriting standards. Banks reach outside of their walls to obtain credit scores or verify a customer’s identity. Yet the need for data — complex data — is growing. [Continue]
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the need for third parties and non-core vendors to connect to the core has skyrocketed. Speed is also essential: Bankers can’t wait months to years for a core vendor to add a new feature or for a core to make an integration with a fintech possible. It also raised the question: Is a single, primary product still the way of the future? [Continue]
Most banks have steered away from banking cannabis, skittish because Congress continually sidesteps passage of The SAFE Banking Act, which would provide a safe harbor to banks that service MRBs. However, both banks and industry consultants say that by adopting a stringent compliance program, banks operating in states with legalized medicinal or recreational cannabis can, by utilizing an effective compliance program, set themselves up for long-term revenue opportunities that more risk-averse banks will miss out on. [Continue]
Lakewood, Colo.-based FirstBank has, for decades, sought customers and recruited employees in order to build a business that reflected the diversity of its markets. In an effort to expand this vision, it created a Multicultural Banking Center, which opened in March 2020, just three weeks before pandemic-related shutdowns. [Continue]
Fire in the belly. It’s a key intangible that Dan Boeckermann, chair of EntreBank, recognizes in successful entrepreneurs. And Twin Cities banks, with two or three exceptions, have not adequately fueled such entrepreneurial flames. At least, that was what the principal and CEO of Bloomington, Minn.-based Boeckermann Grafstrom & Mayer, a small-business focused accounting firm itself billed as “entrepreneurial,” had been hearing over and over and over again. When Boeckermann decided to spearhead the launch of a new bank to change things, the CPA also looked for “fire in the belly” in the bankers needed to fulfill his vision. “Fire … and a book of business,” he added. [Continue]
As Covid-19 restrictions begin to lift, customer adaptations will likely become permanent habits, prompting community bankers to reconsider how best to implement relationship-based banking. Does the pivot to digital delivery and remote fulfillment make the physical branch building obsolete? [Continue]
Throughout April, banks across the Midwest engage in activities to promote financial literacy. These activities range from tried-and-true classroom instruction to engagement on social media. Bank Five Nine, based in Oconomowoc, Wis., uses an omnichannel approach to foster financial education for both young and old. [Continue]
As Covid-19 restrictions begin to lift, customer adaptations will likely become permanent habits, prompting community bankers to reconsider how best to implement relationship-based banking. What does this mean for the future of bricks-and-mortar branches? [Continue]
First Internet Bank of Indiana, headquartered in Fishers, was founded in 1997 on the premise that banking could occur entirely online. Of course, the entire banking world has changed in the more than two decades since the bank opened its virtual doors. Today, the $4.2 billion bank’s online mortgage origination experience can stand toe-to-toe with even the biggest competitors. [Continue]
In the early 1980s, billionaire Bill Daniels read about a group of Denver students who were unable to obtain a bank loan and felt society was doing its youth a disservice by essentially excluding them from the banking system. Daniels was a cable television pioneer who’d earned his fortune in tech ventures and sports. In 1987, Daniels turned his attention to banking by forming Young Americans Bank, the world’s only fully-insured and regulated bank for people aged 21 and under. [Continue]