Earned wage access is the future of payroll, and community banks should be the ones making it available to companies and their employees. EWA is a service employers offer with their financial institution and payroll processor that makes it possible for employees to collect their pay whenever they want. Forget about the monthly, biweekly or weekly paycheck. With EWA, an employee can receive by direct deposit the money they have earned up to that moment. [Continue]
The pandemic has most likely sidetracked adoption and implementation plans and you may feel like you are back to square one. Given mass adoption is 14 months away, CECL fervor will pick up in the coming months. Before the CECL conversation goes mainstream, allow me to dispel a few CECL myths, offer insight gleaned from the more than 150 publicly traded banks that have already adopted the standard, and offer a sensible solution to consider for your CECL problem. [Continue]
The next time you meet with one of your ag customers, please thank them on behalf of your IT department. By adding their political clout to a much broader technical issue, farmers have helped achieve a Federal Trade Commission policy breakthrough heretofore unreachable: The right to repair. If the FTC follows through properly with its new directive, this will help your perennially struggling ag customers’ bottom lines — as well as perhaps lower your bank’s computer equipment costs over time. [Continue]
Joe McIntyre, senior vice president with Robert Half’s technology solutions group, speaks about the difficulty banks are having filling tech positions. “We’re seeing less than a 1 percent unemployment rate for IT professionals, which is creating a real problem for banks trying to hire,” he said. “The supply and demand is really out of whack. There are simply many more jobs than there are candidates.” Digitalization efforts are driving up a demand for experienced IT professionals. [Continue]
We’ve all heard of “company branding” but what does that really mean for community banks? In a highly competitive environment, it’s about more than “we’re here to serve our communities.” It’s about setting your bank apart: What makes you unique? What are your bank’s values? How do you meet your overall mission? [Continue]
The word “fintech” first emerged in 1971, but it really began to rise in the 2000s and then its prevalence exploded in the 2010s. At first, banks weren’t sure what to make of fintechs. Were they products to purchase? Competitors? And what qualifies as a fintech? Different types of fintechs interact with banks and consumers in different ways. Some of them can create a competitive advantage, providing sleek or robust services to community bank customers that are on par with or exceed those offered by megabank competitors. [Continue]
Recruiters say a complicating facet of attracting and retaining key bank employees is a surplus of retirement-age bankers and the deficit of college graduates entering the industry. Stuart Kazor at Omaha, Neb.-based financial recruiting firm Adams Inc., noted other industries or roles, especially fintechs and IT positions, are more lucrative. [Continue]
Strong communication with employees to ease uncertainty and ensure proper governance is essential in successful M&A transactions. [Continue]
With the economic situation still uncertain more than a year and a half after the pandemic started, banks are facing challenges in trying to figure out how to position their institutions for the future. While I offered thoughts on an array of topics — from the need to reimagine what asset-liability committees can and should be to the importance of thinking differently about pricing — my top three ideas are: Develop new relationships, look at derivatives, and examine wholesale funding. [Continue]
Community bankers should use data to modify physical branch settings as Covid-19 and increased mobile banking usage continue to transform the industry. [Continue]