Your brand and your data are on the line after a cyber attack

Whether it’s a data breach that exposes private information about your customers to the public, an attack that locks up your servers, or even a full-fledged strike that wipes clean all of your data, bankers need to defend against a range of threats. As the number of devices on which customers expect instant access to their data proliferates, the number of opportunities for bad things to happen notches upward. [Continue]

Costing-out the loan process to maximize profit

Do you know how much it costs your bank to process a loan? If the answer is “no,” then how do you know if you are making (or losing) money on the loans you originate? Banks of all sizes experience pressure on profits. Certainly a variety of forces are contributing to any bank’s relevancy in its particular market. [Continue]

Regulators work through crisis with bankers

Regulators are reducing exam schedules, making it easier for banks to do business online, waiving notification requirements and taking other steps to make it easier for bankers to serve as many customers as possible during a crisis that has plunged the nation into recession. [Continue]

No time for timidity

Maybe some good came out of the financial crisis of 2008 — that is, lessons about how to handle another crisis. Congress and the U.S. Treasury have responded to the economic trouble that has followed the nation’s response to COVID-19 in an unprecedented and impressive way. [Continue]

Let’s fight the good fight together

Bank building photo

We know you are now working long and hard to help the economy recover; you are fighting for businesses across your communities to survive. We’re here to cheer you on, to share ideas, to inform and inspire, to get you thinking about new ways to solve age-old problems. [Continue]

Businesses large and small brace for change

Christy Baker left her job in the banking industry in February to start a bank consulting firm and, with her husband, open Destination Coffee and Cuisine in Oakland, Iowa. She planned for the shop’s construction and inventory, and made scrupulous arrangements with her bank for her consulting kick-off. She did not expect, nor plan, to hold her first meeting as an operational strategist virtually. [Continue]

In ag banking, the right relationship still matters

Rows of soy plants in a field

“Ag banking is different.” How many times have you heard that one? Or, if you are an ag banker, how many of you have used that argument in loan committee as the discussion goes on and on about the viability of a particular credit? Is ag lending really different, and if so how? [Continue]

Loyalty programs help banks differentiate

Engage People is a fintech startup providing rewards programs that link together customers, small businesses and banks. Len Covello, chief technology officer of the global technology provider, explains how reaching people with technology changes during and after the events currently shaking the world. [Continue]

Community banking in the era of a pandemic

By the second week of March, bank lobbies across the nation shut their doors with rhythmic acceleration as the number of coronavirus cases shot up, and the nation’s heartbeat quickened. By the third week of March, banks with open doors became an anomaly. [Continue]