At any given time, one-fifth of banking customers are researching where to buy their next product or service, and 42 percent of those who left one institution did so because they received an offer or took notice of an advertisement from a different financial institution. [Continue]
The arts, at first glance, don’t seem to be a banker’s “Field of Dreams.” But like the movie that turned a rural Iowa cornfield into a baseball destination, investments in creative economies offer banks a way to grow, or at least sustain, their communities. [Continue]
Jack Hopkins may never know how much a call from his father 30 years ago was made out of paternal duty and how much of it was rooted in business sense, but that call set his feet on a banking path he’s followed ever since. [Continue]
Minnesota’s newest deputy commissioner of financial institutions, Max Zappia, joined the Commerce Department as a bank examiner in 2009, where he has held several positions, including chief examiner of banking. [Continue]
Camden Fine has closed the door on a 15-year career as the president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America. BankBeat publisher Tom Bengtson recently asked Fine to reflect on his career in advocacy. [Continue]
When Andy Amador was 26, he had enough savings to make a down payment on a ranch in California’s Napa Valley, but no bank financing to close the deal. Lucky for him, the seller was willing to hold the note on the 188-acre estuarine flatland at the base of Mt. Veeder. Amador coveted the ranch’s hayfields and pastureland for their hunting potential. [Continue]
Former CEO and chair of Centinel Bank, Taos, N.M., Rebeca Romero Rainey became head of the Independent Community Bankers of America in May. Once the youngest bank president in the nation, Romero Rainey now brings her passion to the world of community banking advocacy. [Continue]
Wisconsin’s River Valley Bank originally launched IncredibleBank.com as a deposit-gathering tool. It sustained itself during the recession, and now it’s expanded to serve the niche banking needs of luxury motorcoach owners. [Continue]
Arts sponsorship needn’t break the bank. In fact, just a $500 investment each by all five locally-owned banks in York, Nebraska, added tens of thousands to the city’s Firecracker Frenzy fund for its annual Fourth of July celebration. All it took was creative ingenuity, and a coming together of community, to spark a plan. A … Read more
Denise Mainquist, founder and managing director of ITPAC Consulting, LLC. Based in Lincoln, Neb., Mainquist helps guide banks and other businesses through cyber risk assessments and defense strategies. [Continue]