Director succession planning a key issue

Finding the right replacement tops the list of issues on the minds of bank board members, according to a recent survey from Bank Director.

Forty-five percent of respondents listed developing a succession plan as their chief concern, followed by 44 percent who wanted to find more tech-savvy members.

Another challenge listed by just over a third of respondents (35 percent) said finding female board members was a pressing concern. Things have improved from last year, however, with seventy-seven percent of respondents indicating their board has at least one female member, up from two-thirds last year.There remains great scope for improvement, as only 14 percent said their board has three or more female members.

Boards still struggle to represent diverse racial backgrounds — 77 percent reported their board doesn’t have a single nonwhite director. They also need to gain more age-diverse views, with just 16 percent reporting they have a director who is aged 40 years old or younger.

Other key findings were that two-thirds of respondents expected to actively recruit commercial lenders in 2018, followed by technology (38 percent) and compliance (21 percent). Nearly half have increased salaries in the past three years to attract younger talent while 44 percent have dedicated more resources to training current employees.

More than 200 CEOs, HR officers, senior executives and board members participated in Bank Director’s 2018 Compensation Survey, conducted in March and April 2018, which examines the talent challenges faced by the banking industry.

The survey also includes data collected from proxy statements to reveal how — and how much — CEOs, directors and chairmen were compensated in fiscal year 2017.