Illinois targets financial services as way to achieve racial equity
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a series of bills aimed at tackling racial and income inequality in the state. [Continue]
Print Issue: 2021 - June Edition
Apples-to-apples comparisons are less fruitful these days
To say banking is competitive today is a revelation as surprising as acknowledging that the Pope is Catholic. So why, then, are we still measuring success relative to a peer group that includes only banks that look like we do, act like we do, and operate in the same geography we’re in? I’m not saying that traditional peer comparisons are wrong. I’m saying they’re insufficient. As a marketer, acting only on traditional apples-to-apples numbers can lull us into a false sense of security and a plausible excuse to forgo proactive urgency. [Continue]
Blending tech with the human touch at TrailWest
When Rich Zins, president of TrailWest Bank, Lolo, Mont., received an email congratulating him on receiving the “Best Small Bank” designation, “I was expecting it to come with a solicitation as many of these types of things do. I was quite pleased to learn that the designation was legitimate.” [Continue]
Cascading effects of climate change increasingly a Fed concern
Climate change is already imposing substantial economic costs and is projected to have a profound effect on the economy … and could have important implications for the Federal Reserve in carrying out its responsibilities. The Federal Reserve created a new Supervision Climate Committee to strengthen our capacity to identify and assess financial risks from climate change and to develop an appropriate program to ensure the resilience of our supervised firms to those risks. [Continue]