"You want to feel wanted, you want to feel like what you are doing, no matter what scale you're on, that it is important to them. And that's what I'm trying to get out, specifically in communities that are underserved or underbanked," says Coaxum. He discusses what the community development function looks like at Moody Bank, including its participation in the Bank On program and its Palm Pathways mortgage program.

Coaxum, a past winner of the ABA Emerging Leader Award and current chair of ABA's Emerging Leaders Council, also talks about how being involved in ABA as an emerging leader has boosted his career and helped him dive into advocacy on behalf of the industry.

This episode is presented by Nexcess.

• Apply for an Emerging Leader Award by June 26.

"There is a lot of money in movement and people are looking to optimize yield, but they're balancing that with their overall financial goals and are not just making the exclusive decision to go with an institution just because they have the highest yield," Womack says. "That may be the only product or service that they actually offer that customer needs at that particular point in time, and they may have other needs that are broader than that one particular product or service."

"If there's something that you don't necessarily agree with, then what's the solution?" Saunders encourages bankers to think through how to describe alternatives, as well as unintentional consequences of particular approaches — and to find common ground on issues like fraud where bankers can find common ground across the policy community.

Saunders also discusses her experience leading in banks of all sizes, career advice for bankers and what the bank policy landscape looks like from the Buckeye State.

This episode is presented by Nexcess.

Among other topics, Delie discusses:

• F.N.B.'s balance of organic growth and M&A and the role of culture in this growth.
• The bank's strategy of hiring data scientists to help the company break down silos and better target customers' needs.
• F.N.B.'s "e-store" concept and how it supports the bank's "clicks to bricks" retail strategy.
• The role of AI in recommending tailored products and providing holistic financial wellness advice, as well as strengthening bank credit and anti-fraud functions.

This episode is presented by Nexcess:

• Their recent participation in the United Nations and Interpol Global Fraud Summit. "One of the key messages that I heard loud and clear is the need for there to be a whole ecosystem approach," said Nichols. "It can't just be banks protecting their customers and their clients. . . . We have to get these other industrial sectors to really step up and do their fair share."
• The growing co-sponsorship of the bipartisan SCAM Act, which targets the source of many scams afflicting Americans.
• ABA's collaboration with the International Banking Federation to bring the best global anti-fraud practices home to the United States.
• The growth of state-level legislative activity, and state bankers association leadership, on fraud issues.

• The structural shift in the wealth management business, including the rise of Registered Investment Advisors that serve HNW and UNHW clients.
• The mix of services — estate planning, tax planning, asset protection and charitable planning — that clients are seeking from their advisors.
• Evolving revenue models for wealth management and the pursuit of scale.
• The strategic question for banks of building versus "renting" infrastructure.
• How banks are positioned to break down institutional silos that hinder full-service client engagement.

• Learn more about the ABA Wealth and Trust Schools.

• Hatch Bank's evolution as a sponsor bank focused on embedded lending and card issuance.
• How boards of directors and bank management teams can evaluate strategy for sponsor banking.
• The importance and scope of due diligence with fintech partners.
• A recently announced partnership with a fintech firm that provides private student loans focused on upperclassmen and grad students who are approaching completion of their degrees.
• Her career journey from enterprise risk management in banking through leading compliance for a fintech startup to president of a bank.
• The experiences she brought from fintech into her newest banking role.

• Register for ABA's Risk and Compliance Conference.

• Catch sessions from the 2026 Summit.

• How the SCAM Act would introduce new know-your-customer and takedown requirements for tech platforms.
• Why there aren't sufficient existing incentives for platforms to deal with the deluge of scam ads.
• Enforcement mechanisms that give teeth to the SCAM Act's requirements.
• How ABA's advocacy on this issue fits into the association's overall anti-fraud agenda

• How Live Oak delivers personalized banking services to a nationwide footprint.
• Where small business owners are looking to grow and build in the coming months.
• The need for liquidity in small business acquisitions and succession planning.
• The role of technology, including AI, in helping to improve the ability of banks to serve small business clients.
• How SBA loans fit into the Live Oak business model.
• Tips for community banks looking to deepen their SBA-guaranteed lending, including outsourcing back-office functions to ensure compliance with guarantee requirements.

• What makes the Lone Star State a compelling economic story and an attractive market for investment (and out-of-state bank acquisitions).
• First Financial's approach to balancing organic growth and M&A.
• The urgency of accelerating de novo bank activity.
• How he and Texas bankers are approaching questions of deposit insurance reform.
• How Texas bankers have been engaging the global economy.

• View ABA resources on the penny phaseout.

• Forming AI brainstorming groups within banks to facilitate collaborative innovation.
• The use of generative AI tools to accelerate policy development and exam preparedness.
• Being ready to move quickly on stablecoins, tokenized deposits and digital assets, even if customers aren't demanding solutions.
• Good ideas surfaced in conversations among CBC members.

Stay tuned for more conversations on tech-forward community banking within the ABA Banking Journal Podcast channel.

• The role of branches in marketing and account acquisition, particularly business accounts.
• PNC's strategy of combining organic growth and M&A (most recently in Colorado with FirstBank).
• Professional opportunities created for bank employees through the in-person delivery network.
• The role of personal touches — down to thank-you notes and branded umbrellas — in reinforcing the bank brand through the client experience.

While this trend has led to a "right to repair" movement in many states, the issue of equipment costs and lost revenue during breakdowns remains a factor in lending decisions, says Pat Kussman, president and CEO of Regional Missouri Bank and chairman of the Missouri Bankers Association. "There are many things that are eroding at our cash flow for our farmers," he notes, "not just input costs, but land rent costs and equipment repair costs."

Kussman also discusses the state of the used equipment market, how farmers are using drones to manage crops less invasively and the growing role of artificial intelligence tools in functions like disease identification

This episode is presented by Agri-Access.

• Register for the ABA Agricultural Bankers Conference, Nov. 12-14 in St. Louis

Joined by ABA SVP Heather Trew, Arquette also discusses:

• The state of play on banks' beneficial ownership reporting obligations.
• Other elements of implementing the AML Act of 2020.
• How regulators weigh AML/BSA performance when approving mergers and acquisitions.
• Fluctuations in AML/BSA compliance investments through the economic cycle.
• The low number (1%) of BSA-related examinations at the FDIC that result in enforcement actions.

Register for the ABA Financial Crimes Enforcement Conference, Oct. 14-16 in Arlington, Virginia.

• The key differences between stablecoins and tokenized deposits.
• Risks that widespread payment stablecoin adoption poses to community bank lending.
• Use cases for payment stablecoins (and areas where hype might exceed value).
• How U.S. banks are approaching stablecoin and tokenized deposit pilots.

Now an instructional design expert and leadership speaker, Castleberry discusses how leaders can understand and manage triggers to enhance their capacity to lead with empathy. Castleberry will also be discussing these and other topics — including how to reduce "conflict waste" — at the ABA Annual Convention next month in Charlotte.

• The evolution of the business model beyond interchange to include embedded finance, faster payments and other opportunities.
• The criticality of third-party risk management in partner banking.
• How Pathward is using AI to accelerate compliance review of its partners' marketing materials — and how some AI uses might be limiting young bankers' learning and development.
• The role of partner banks in advancing financial sector participation by the unbanked.
• How Pathward builds its workplace culture with its "talent anywhere" remote work structure.

• Shifts balance sheet management strategies with a surplus of stable deposits by weaker localized loan demand.
• May increasingly push banks into new markets to drive loan growth, which further accelerates consolidation.
• Magnifies credit risk during downturns in the tail of the risk profile
• Increases opportunities for personalized wealth management solutions and expands the growth prospects of senior-serving business sectors.

• How institutional banking — which includes capital markets, corporate trust, custody and health savings accounts — fits into the business model of the Kansas City, Missouri-based bank and helps extend its footprint coast-to-coast.
• Investments in technology to support the growth of institutional banking.
• The recent expansion in HSA eligibility and how UMB Bank uses the product to engage both business clients and consumers.
• How UMB sources the right mix of talent — particularly from within — to support the diverse and individualized needs of its institutional clients.

• The technological transformation in risk and compliance at community and midsize banks.
• How technological change is driving the industry toward specialization.
• Applications for AI tools and LLMs in risk and compliance — and how to manage risks associated with this transformation.
• The importance of constant learning as a risk and compliance professional.

Resources

• Click here to download the episode if you can't see the player above.
• View a members-only staff analysis

• The scale of physical U.S. Treasury checks and why they remained a potential vector for fraud
• How and why ABA developed the platform
• How ABA member bank employees — including frontline staff — can access the portal to verify a payee
• Ways this new platform fits into ABA's overall anti-fraud initiatives

• Click here to download the episode if you can't see the player above.
• Access the TCVS portal (ABA bank members only)

However, Buran also notes that lending has improved in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, "possibly associated with the Fed keeping rates stable since the middle of the middle of last year. So I think that has helped somewhat. Banks are staying very close to their customers . . . so that they can come out the on other side in a favorable position."

Buran also discusses opportunities for community banks to gain market share in the New York City metro area real estate market and the potential for regulatory change under newly confirmed Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman.

• The bank's growing profile, including its new marketing partnership with the on-fire Indiana Fever.
• Why the bank remains committed to its hometown of Evansville, even as it grows into a more expansive regional bank.
• His views on deposit insurance reform and areas other areas of focus as chair of the American Bankers Council, ABA's peer group for midsize bank CEOs.

Ryan also discusses the experience of leading Old National through the devastating mass shooting at a Louisville, Kentucky, bank branch in 2023 — a tragedy that claimed the lives of 5 victims, all of them bank employees. "We always felt like we were a family, but that definition of family was completely reinforced," he says. "After you go through a tragedy like that, it takes a lot of love, it takes a lot of support, and it takes a lot of care."

• Read more in the ABA Banking Journal.
• Access tips from ABA's Bank Security Committee.

For example, "we can come in at fractional costs to provide them things like telehealth, mobile phone insurance, pet insurance, in a way that is free to the employee but is done and sold through the franchisee," says Bontrager. He outlines Sonata's business of lending to "quick-service" restaurants, as they're often called in the trade, paired with employee benefits, treasury management and a software-as-a-service platform for QSRs.

Bontrager also talks about the health of the Nashville, Tennessee, market where Sonata's community bank franchise is headquartered and how the organization has been able to capture talent with hybrid and remote workplace offerings.

"To start one of these departments is very expensive for a lot of rural banks and credit unions," says Gilpin, "It's very prohibitive to enter the market space if you are a rural bank or even in an urban market where you do you know, maybe 5, 10, 20 of these loans a year."

Hurn and Gilpin are part of a team that has built Community Bankshares, parent of Community Bank and Trust of West Georgia, into a network of Small Business Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture lending subsidiaries that work on a nationwide basis. They developed a model that allows the "the holding company [to] serve as a source of strength for the bank, not just the other way around, which is typical," says Gilpin. Gilpin and Hurn discuss the company's role as a white label lender, referral lender, participation partner or servicer for smaller banks that want to connect their clients to guaranteed loans and the strength of the bank model for supporting these businesses and agricultural enterprises.

• Applications for quantum computing in liquidity management and other complex payment and settlement chains.
• The risks quantum computing poses to current encryption technology and the timeframe over which current encryption might be compromised.
• The emergence of "quantum-safe cryptography."
• The risk of decryption quantum computing poses to data harvested in past breaches.
• Emerging regulatory expectations for quantum computing-related risk management.

This episode is presented by Intrafi's Banking with Interest.

Resources:

• Nacha's report on quantum computing and payments
• FS-ISAC podcast on post-quantum cryptography

• Why ending payments could have a destabilizing effect on the financial sector.
• Why, under today's accounting practices, the federal government would see no near-term bottom-line boost from capturing those payments.
• How reducing or eliminating interest on reserves would disproportionately harm community banks.

Read more in Huther's ABA DataBank post.

• Revisions to the FDIC's supervisory appeals process.
• Transparency in bank merger reviews by regulators.
• The future of bank capital policy after the Basel III "endgame."
• Ethics and operational improvements at the FDIC.

• Citi's financial empowerment workshop for New York City middle schoolers, to be held on Teach Children to Save Day on April 22 at Citi Field in partnership with the New York Mets and several youth-serving nonprofits.
• Citi's work with IlluminArt to produce Sami the Squirrel and the Great Acorn Adventure, a live play about financial literacy for elementary-age students.
• How Roads to Success uses budget scenario games and financial escape rooms to integrate fun into financial learning.
• Free tools from the ABA Foundation, including newly updated Teach Children to Save lesson plans, to help banks deliver engaging financial education in April and all year long.

• The role of Treasury checks in check fraud schemes.
• The order's aggressive timeline, with an implementation date of Sept. 30, 2025.
• The significant challenges faced by different federal agencies in phasing out paper payments.
• The potential scope of exceptions to the order.
• How banks can help the small remaining user base of Treasury checks switch into bank accounts, including Bank On-certified accounts.

• Read our ABA Banking Journal feature on "Is it time to kill the paper check?"

• How stablecoins work and why people are interested in this kind of digital asset.
• Use cases for payment stablecoins, such as cross-border payments.
• Challenges that stablecoins may pose for today's anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act framework.
• The outlook in Congress for the Stable Act in the House and the Genius Act in the Senate and what these bills would do.
• Key principles for thinking about stablecoins, including economic effects, disintermediation of financial institutions, regulatory arbitrage and consumer protection.
• How ABA is engaging on Capitol Hill and with regulatory agencies on stablecoin issues.

Piasecki describes how the internet serves as a perfect sharing and recruiting platform for criminals aiming to get their hands on as many paper checks as possible. Encrypted platforms are where criminal organizations in New Jersey can easily connect with those operating in Los Angeles, she notes. "We have seen a huge influx in the complex nature these investigations have taken, where previously it was a local group in a local area," she says.

And as chair of ABA's Government Relations Council, he also talks about ABA's legislative and regulatory priorities for the year ahead, including tax reform and Subchapter S, regulatory challenges like the Section 1071 final rule, the SAFER Banking Act, credit card interchange policy and more. For Clayton's 22-employee bank, policy challenges hit home in a challenging way since he and his CFO also share duties as the bank's compliance officers. "As a banker, don't just sit at home and say, 'Gee, I wish this was different,'" Clayton says. "Get involved. It's very rewarding, not to mention that it helps your customer and it helps your community."

Clayton also discusses his own career journey in banking, his home community of Artesia and his approach to developing leaders within his bank.

• Read the ABA Blueprint for Growth.
• Register for the Washington Summit.

Olson and her colleagues randomly assigned new couples to one of three conditions for a two-year period: using only separate accounts, using a joint account only or to a third group that received no instructions about the kind of accounts to use. Couples in the no-instruction group and the separate account group saw declines in relationship quality during the experiment, couples with joint accounts were "buffered" against the declines otherwise expected, she says.

"Because we randomly assigned couples, we can take better steps toward understanding causality," Olson says. "Our results really do suggest that having a joint bank account improves relationship quality." While every couple's financial needs are unique and separate accounts may be what's needed in many situations, Olson discusses implications of the research for how bankers and wealth managers approach financial planning conversations with clients.

• Read the paper by Olson et al. in the Journal of Consumer Research.

This episode is presented by R&T Deposit Solutions.

"We're now almost three years past the last shock to the sector, and people have had a lot of time to kind of think through how to deal with this and what the implications are for credit risk," says Huther. "We're in a situation where " extending and pretending" is just not the right way to describe the condition and market."

• Read the ABA DataBank post.

To find the ABA Fraudcast, visit aba.com/fraudcast or look for it in your favorite podcast app.

On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, veteran bank board members and executives Jenn Docherty and Virginia Varela discuss how bank boards can position their banks for success in a challenging environment. They discuss the importance of sourcing diverse expertise and how board members can start and lead difficult conversations about where their banks need to go, creating space for new ideas and giving management more flexibility  — and more incentives — to innovate.

Docherty and Varela will discuss these topics and more at the ABA Conference for Community Bankers, Feb. 16-18 in Phoenix.

This episode is presented by TransUnion.

Seventy-eight years ago, George Bailey memorably explained the operation of a mutual savings and loan to a national audience in It's a Wonderful Life. But while today's bankers understand mutuality, do today's potential clients? On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by TransUnion — bank leaders Gregg Tewksbury and Lori Dufficy discuss a new campaign, Mutuals Matter, that aims to educate consumers about mutual bank ownership. Among other things, they talk about:

• Why present, and future, customers need to be educated about the distinctive values of mutuality.
• How the campaign developed messaging that resonates with consumer.
• The role of the campaign in helping mutual bank employees understand their unique value proposition and take pride in their work.

This episode is presented by TransUnion.

• If you can't see the audio player above, click here to listen to this week's episode.
• View the campaign at MutualBanksMatter.com.
• Read more in the ABA Banking Journal about public opinion on mutuality.
• Register for the ABA Mutual Community Bank Conference, April 6-7 in Washington, D.C.

• Which rulemakings are subject to CRA disapproval resolutions — in financial services, principally Section 1033 and the newly finalized overdraft rule.
• How the GOP Congress might prioritize regulatory actions for CRA resolutions.
• The limitations on CRA and why, as Sutton says, "this is not a magic wand situation where Congress can just step in and CRA everything that we have a problem with."

This episode is presented by TransUnion.

• What bankers and their business clients need to know about the preliminary injunction and its provisions.
• How the preliminary injunction does not affect financial institutions' customer due diligence requirements — even if businesses are not required to report their beneficial ownership information to FinCEN, banks are still obliged to collect it from clients as part of CDD.
• Potential ramifications for AML/BSA activities if the Corporate Transparency Act that authorized the BOI registry is found to be unconstitutional.
• How this and other cases challenging the BOI registry may shake out, as well as the range of views on Capitol Hill on where to go from here.
• How ABA is engaging with both the current Congress and administration, and will advocate with the next Congress and incoming presidential administration, on these issues.

This episode is presented by TransUnion.

On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Agri-Access — we take a look at bank jingles past and present. Expert bank marketers discuss:

• How and why community banks still find value in their jingles.
• The use of "sonic branding" and audio signatures as an alternative to traditional sung jingles — and how that sonic branding builds on historically successful and long-running jingles.
• The role of music in memory and brand recognition.
• Where banks overseas are using jingles.
• The interesting intersections between bank marketing and pop music.

Read Craig Colgan's recent article on bank jingles.

• Why middle market business leaders have grown more positive this fall about the outlook.
• How middle market firms' cost control and resilience-building during the inflationary period position them well as rates begin to come down.
• The improvement in the talent outlook for middle market firms.
• How middle market businesses are prepared to capitalize on the efficiencies, including automation and AI, that they instilled in the past few years.
• How KeyBank integrates its commercial payments business with its middle market services.

This episode is presented by Agri-Access.

• The priority of extending Section 199(a) provisions for Subchapter S banks.
• Potential approaches to paying for a multi-trillion-dollar tax package.
• Issues related to credit union taxation and the base erosion that accompanies CU purchases of community banks.
• A range of complex technical tax issues, including GILTI, BEAT and Pillar 2 changes.

This episode is presented by Agri-Access.

• BOK Financial's diversified business model that balances lending with fee businesses like an EFT network and treasury and wealth management.
• The role of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based BOK Financial in financing the energy economy.
• BOK Financial's tribal banking programs in Oklahoma and New Mexico, including a unique mortgage loan product for tribal lands.
• The bank's plans to grow share in core markets of Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas and Houston.
• BOK's approach to talent management, recruitment and acquisition.
• The importance of having banks headquartered in "flyover states" that can meet the capital markets needs of large and middle-market firms.

• The origins of Banesco USA, which is an independent U.S.-chartered bank that is part of a franchise of other Banesco banks across the Americas.
• Banesco USA's growth plans in the turbocharged South Florida market, including its pivot into C&I lending and residential mortgages to balance its commercial real estate portfolio.
• How Banesco USA's loan growth was fueled by a capital award from the Treasury Department's Emergency Capital Investment Program for minority depository institutions.
• His own journey as a banker, which included turnaround assignments at troubled banks in Puerto Rico.

• How a new core met the business strategy needs of Massachusetts-based Webster Five.
• The process of developing an RFP, exploring models and working with a core selection consultant.
• The role of commercial client growth in driving the need for a new core platform.
• Challenges and successes experienced in the conversion process.

Megraw will join fellow Core Platforms Committee members to discuss conversions at the ABA Annual Convention, Oct. 27-29 in New York City.

• Webster's focus on access to capital for small businesses, including those owned by minorities and women.
• How Webster designed its special-purpose credit program focused on homeownership.
• Webster's innovative "finance labs," built in partnership with local schools and nonprofit partners, to provide hands-on financial experience for young people from low-to-moderate-income areas.
• The role of Bank On accounts in Webster's financial inclusion strategy.

Weidner also discusses her career journey — including experience in economic development, bank human resources and bank merger integration — that led her to her current role.

This episode is presented by Alkami.

• Benda discusses ABA's recently expanded Fraud Contact Directory, which is free to all banks and now encompasses other forms of fraud to facilitate prompt claims.
• He also explores new tools banks are using to tackle rising fraud numbers.
• Meanwhile, Cook discusses the latest incarnation of ABA's award-winning #BanksNeverAskThat anti-phishing campaign — returning for a fourth year in October and also free to all banks — and previews a new companion initiative, Practice Safe Checks, that educates consumers about how to avoid becoming unwitting victims of check fraud.

Taylor also explores his career history in banking, the story of VersaBank as the first new bank to receive a license in Canada in 18 years, how the bank developed a deposit broker network in Canada, VersaBank's point-of-sale lending strategy (and how it can acquire loans without any equity from the finance company), and VersaBank's talent and culture.

This episode is presented by Alkami.

But why do credit unions, which serve members from defined fields of membership, spend so much? On the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Brown and Flock break down the legislative and regulatory history of fields of membership and how the average credit union has more than doubled its "potential membership" since new rules were finalized in 2015, using their taxpayer subsidy to fuel growth via marketing rather than lower rates and costs for their members.

Davis, the founder of the Bank Slate newsletter, also discusses what he's hearing from banks about succession planning and talent and talks about budget forecasting, an area the Bank Slate is surveying bankers on for 2025.

• How not having any chartered banks prior to 1782 put the United States at a disadvantage during the Revolution.
• Conversely, how the Bank of England was a "secret weapon" for Britain during the war.
• The role of patriotic financiers like Robert Morris in achieving U.S. victory.
• The debates over a central bank in the post-revolutionary period and how they contributed to the development of the Constitution.

In the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Alkami — Andrea Mitchell, a top fair lending attorney, reviews the latest trends in redlining enforcement. She reviews cases brought by the Justice Department, the importance of screening programs, planning for entering new markets, the role of peer analyses in managing redlining risk and the effects of redlining enforcement on M&A activity.

Mitchell also discusses the intersection of DOJ enforcement and prudential supervision, noting that "if your regulator thinks you're doing very well, even in in terms of minority market lending, and is relying on your CRA rating, there's nothing that prevents HUD or DOJ or other agencies from scrutinizing you."

In the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Alkami — Beardall discusses technology experiments that didn't work, and those that did. He discusses the bank's tech lab subsidiary Archway Software and its combined voice- and phone-based authentication for wire transfers.

Beardall discusses WaFd's commercial real estate portfolio, which he notes is majority "stabilized multifamily, which is the safest asset class that we or any bank can make." Office buildings — the most distressed CRE asset class — account for just 4% of WaFd's portfolio, Beardall says, noting that CRE is a big and diverse sector beyond the office headlines.

Finally, Beardall talks about his remarkable personal story of surviving a deadly plane crash in early 2023. "You're flying on a jet airplane to go to the Rose Bowl, and all of a sudden you go from being pretty good to fighting for your life and you realize just how vulnerable you are and how precious life is because it can change in a heartbeat," he says. "People that I competed with, bankers that I would compete with, they set it all aside and said, "Let's focus on helping each other.' We have a lot more in common than we have in terms of differences, and let's give equal weight to what we have in common and work together for the collective good."

The latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Alkami — features part two of a two-part conversation with Imm and David Kelly, retiring chief risk officer at Denver-based FirstBank. At ABA's Risk and Compliance Conference in Seattle, Kelly was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for Risk, and Imm was honored with the Distinguished Service Award for Compliance.

In part two, Kelly and Imm discuss the role of technology in the compliance and risk disciplines, how they hire and coach talent, and their involvement with ABA and other professional development providers over their careers.

This episode is presented by Alkami.

• Listen to part one of this conversation.

The latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Alkami — features part one of a two-part conversation with Kelly and Greg Imm, the retired chief compliance officer at M&T Bank and Fifth Third Bank. At ABA's Risk and Compliance Conference in Seattle, Kelly was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for Risk, and Imm was honored with the Distinguished Service Award for Compliance.

In part one, Kelly and Imm discuss their experience across different institutions — Kelly spent most of his career at FirstBank, while Imm worked at numerous large and regional banks as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. They also discuss the evolving role of technology in risk and compliance professionals and how soft skills contribute to risk and compliance career development.

This episode is presented by Alkami.

He also talks about new areas where Pathward is branching out, including commercial finance solutions like merchant services, and working capital. "As we think about financial inclusion and financial education and bringing people through that journey of creditworthiness, we are excited about the credit builder product for small and midsize businesses, which are really those entrepreneurs that are the backbone of how we just expand commerce in the United States," he says.

During the conversation, Sharett also talks about his own background in bank leadership as an attorney who rose up the ranks on the risk and compliance side of banking, and he discusses how Pathward, formerly known as Metabank, developed its new brand when it sold its trademarks to newly renamed Meta Platforms.

This episode is presented by Biz2X.

Daniels highlights the role of SBA lending in making efficient use of capital, mitigating risk, providing more tailored solutions to businesses and driving Community Reinvestment Act impact. He also talks about the value the bank gets out of making SBA loans as a portfolio lender, "which gives our customers great opportunity with rate structure, modifications, any flexibility down the road. . . . Being a portfolio owner gives us the optionality to help them in any way that we can to make their experience a good one."

Daniels also discusses anticipated changes to SBA programs in 2024 and 2025, and he shares insights on the small business outlook from U.S. Bank clients and survey research.

This episode is presented by Biz2X.

On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — presented by R&T Deposit Solutions — Stevens discusses his approach to cultivating a bank where engagement scores have climbed to 89 percent, triple the national average. Stevens works to build this culture through a framework called Leading Life on Life that emphasizes loving, equipping, affirming and developing ("LEAD"ing) team members. Among other topics on the show, Stevens discusses the role of love in bank management, the importance of active listening and how an environment of healthy affirmation actually allows leaders to hold their teams to higher standards.

• Hear Stevens discuss bank culture and employee engagement at the ABA Annual Convention, Oct. 27-29 in New York City.

• Access free financial education resources from the ABA Foundation.

In this episode, Kelly discusses his personal story of getting involved with reward travel, his opposition to efforts to cap interchange or impose routing mandates on credit cards and the value that all kinds of consumers get out of card rewards.

• Read more about taking action on interchange and routing on Secure American Opportunity.

Among other topics, Benton explores:

• The Justice Department's review of bank merger guidelines
• The FDIC's newly released policy statement on mergers.
• How the OCC is evaluating mergers among national banks and federal thrifts.
• How bank mergers fit into the Biden administration and executive agencies' broader approach to antitrust considerations.
• A new resource from ABA and Squire Patton Boggs to help banks assess their readiness for a transaction.

Access "Bank Mergers & Acquisitions: A Self-Assessment Guide"

This episode is presented by Alkami.

Athletes make a lot of big financial decisions at fairly young ages. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — presented by Alkami — Ghee, a community banker and former NFL cornerback, discusses how Cogent Bank's sports and entertainment vertical comes alongside to help with this transition. In addition to traditional financial services, the bank offers specialized education on investing and financial decision-making as well as referrals to key service providers.

Ghee also discusses the fast-growing wave of highly compensated athletes amid the rollout of NCAA permission for name, image and likeness marketing deals and why student-athletes and their families need support and engagement from banks.

• Access financial education resources from the ABA Foundation.

To mark International Women's Day and Women's History Month, the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — presented by Alkami — features three top executives from First Horizon discussing how the bank built an inclusive culture. For Beth Ardoin, chief communications officer, it's less about focusing on women per se and more focusing on "how do we build the organization around exceptional talent, no matter who you are, where you came from?"

Hope Dmuchowski, First Horizon's CFO, adds that for "our top talent, whether they're female, male or diverse, we're making sure they have lots of opportunities for lots of people that see how talented they are." Ardoin, Dmuchowski and Erin Pryor, chief marketing and experience officer, also discuss the role of sponsorship, allyship and executive leadership in creating a culture that allows women to showcase their excellent work. "Great work always speaks for itself," says Pryor. "How do you take those who are doing great work and helping to lift them up and to lift the women who are doing great work in the organization and amplify them?"

Resources:

• Access women in banking resources and training from ABA.
• Register for the ABA Women Lead Symposium, July 17, 2024.
• Listen to First Horizon's Bucket List-ening podcast.

"There is a lot of nuance within the commercial real estate market," says Brown. There are going to be some challenges for sure. But at the same time, too, though, there's going to be a lot of resilience. A lot of these loans are very conservatively underwritten. I think a lot of banks would be in a very good position no matter what may come in the future."

This episode is presented by Alkami.

On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, the host catches up with Koontz at the Conference for Community Bankers to discuss the committee's recent work on core resilience and competition, as well as the committee's plans for 2024. The show also features past chair D.J. Seeterlin of Chesapeake Bank on the committee's newly released Core Provider Flexibility Assessment, a tool to help banks identify what the need to power their strategies.

Tangen also discusses her own career experience working at banks of all sizes and how BankFive is embracing its mutual identity and investing in growth.

• Connect with peers on these issues at the ABA Mutual Community Bank Forum and ABA Women and Allies Forum, March 17 in Washington, D.C.

• The operational challenges of moving from today's tri-merge system to merging just two credit reports.
• How FICO 10T and VantageScore 4.0 differ from credit scores in use today.
• Why rushing the transition might be counterproductive to the initiative's financial inclusion goals.
• The role of core platforms and other technology vendors in supporting the transition.
• What may happen in the Federal Housing Finance Agency makes the change but the Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Administration and others don't.
• Why the industry needs to see data on how the new credit scoring models would perform, and how banks can get involved in sharing feedback with FHFA.

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• Learn more about the credit score transition at the American Mortgage Conference, April 15-17 in Savannah, Georgia.
• Contact Sharon Whitaker to join ABA's working group on the issue.

Among other topics, Suggs discusses:

• Why and how Warsaw Federal sought and obtained MDI status, and how it helps the bank meet the needs of the Price Hill community of Cincinnati.
• The role of the bank in serving unbanked and underbanked households in Price Hill.
• Warsaw Federal's use of tier 1 mutual capital certificates.
• How Warsaw Federal is supported through its affiliation with First Mutual Holding Company.
• Her own journey as a banker and community and economic development executive.

Join mutual bank peers at the ABA Mutual Community Bank Forum March 17-18 in Washington, D.C.

Mai discusses Esquire Bank's content marketing site, LawyerIQ, which has a unique value proposition of educating attorneys on the business side of running a law firm successfully. He explores how LawyerIQ's AI-driven tailored content helps the bank generate leads in a niche market. He also talks about the bank's use of Salesforce platforms and other technology services to compete for business.

Shook also highlights areas where ABA is looking to press gains on its positive agenda, including the SAFER Banking Act, the ACRE Act and financial inclusion. And as president and CEO of Community Bankers' Bank in Virginia, Shook discusses the role of bankers' banks in today's landscape, including helping the industry transition to new payment platforms like FedNow.

A veteran of family offices in central Texas, Brockwell discusses how bankers and wealth managers can effectively approach generational dynamics and difficult conversations. He also emphasizes the importance of education, especially for young people in these families. Brockwell offers practical examples of how wealth managers can add value in family transitions.

He also discusses the business model of 1900 Wealth and how it interacts with its "old school" parent, Jefferson Bank, a community bank in San Antonio.

• Register for the ABA Wealth Management and Trust Conference, Feb. 21-23 in New Orleans.

Olson and her colleagues randomly assigned new couples to one of three conditions for a two-year period: using only separate accounts, using a joint account only or to a third group that received no instructions about the kind of accounts to use. Couples in the no-instruction group and the separate account group saw declines in relationship quality during the experiment, couples with joint accounts were "buffered" against the declines otherwise expected, she says.

"Because we randomly assigned couples, we can take better steps toward understanding causality," Olson says. "Our results really do suggest that having a joint bank account improves relationship quality." While every couple's financial needs are unique and separate accounts may be what's needed in many situations, Olson discusses implications of the research for how bankers and wealth managers approach financial planning conversations with clients.

• Read the paper by Olson et al. in the Journal of Consumer Research.

On the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by R&T Deposit Solutions — Williamson discusses how $6.7 billion-asset First Bank — itself a family-owned enterprise — supports this sector through its Center for Family-Owned Businesses and wealth planning options. He also discusses the bank's investment in core transformation and open digital banking architecture and his background in Texas banking before joining First Bank earlier this year.

In the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by R&T Deposit Solutions — Huffman provides an overview of Atlantic Union's Solutions Banking product, which brings consumer accounts into more than 2,300 small and midsize business clients of the bank. She discusses how it fits into Atlantic Union's organic growth strategy, how the program developed and how it furthers the bank's financial inclusion and financial financial wellness goals.

Huffman also discusses her career journey at Atlantic Union Bank, describes her role in the bank's Women's Inclusion Network and shares her tips for leadership and career development as one of ABA's Emerging Leader Award winners for 2023.

In the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Intrafi — Miller provides an overview of the long-awaited Section 1033 proposed rule. In this episode, Fink also talks about:

• How the bureau's proposed framework recognizes industry-led efforts like FDX to facilitate safe data-sharing.
• The end of screen-scraping as envisioned in the proposal.
• Challenges in the proposal on liability issues and privacy.
• The need for a level playing field in terms of how Section 1033 supervision is applied across banks, nonbank fintech providers and aggregators.
• The compliance timelines envisioned for banks of different sizes and the types of accounts covered.
• How core providers will be positioned to help banks comply.

To join ABA's comment letter working group, contact Ryan Miller.

In this episode, Fink also talks about:

• Where businesses are looking for growth in an era of rates being "higher for longer."
• The durability and strength of warehousing and manufacturing facilities in commercial real estate.
• Continued opportunities for add-on acquisitions amid a constrained M&A market.