In June, Clayton Legear became president and CEO of Merchants and Marine Bank in Pascagoula, Mississippi. As one of the country’s generation of young bank CEOs, and one whose professional background is in risk management and regulatory compliance, Legear shares his unique outlook in the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, sponsored by OneTrust Vendorpedia.

Legear discusses key risk topics, including the way that dealing with hurricanes and severe Gulf Coast weather helps M&M Bank prepare for economic or credit difficulties. He also talks about growing credit risks he’s seeing in the commercial real estate sector, including the return of “phantom equity.”

Beyond immediate risks, however, Legear also emphasizes the need to develop technology to attract and retain customers, “maybe not the customers we have today, but the customers we will need to attract five, 10, 15 years down the road.” M&M Bank has reorganized its operations to facilitate innovation and is exploring voice banking deployment and evaluating a core provider conversion.