ABA Banking Journal Podcast

Core providers are large and have significant market power, but bankers are not without options when it comes to working with them. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — presented by Agri-Access — Steve Lewis of Thomaston Savings Bank discusses how to proactively manage relationships with core providers.

A member of ABA's Core Platforms Committee, Lewis specifically recommends reviewing and reconciling bills, monitoring for service-level agreements and meeting regularly at the executive level with one's core provider to understand its strategic roadmap and how it corresponds to the bank's roadmap.

"Technology isn't your strategy," says Lewis. "Think about your strategy and what you're trying to deliver to your clients, and then integrate the technology you need to do that."

• Access resources from the ABA Core Platforms Committee.

Erik VanBramer, Senior Vice President, Head of Customer & Industry Relations, Federal Reserve Financial Services Craig Driver VP, Partner Network, ABA

Agriculture has never been for the faint of heart — but in an environment where global trade policy is changing rapidly, how can ag bankers help position their producers to weather the changes? The latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — presented by Agri-Access — features features Nate Franzén, head of ag banking for First Dakota National Bank and the 2026 winner of ABA's Bruning Award.

On the podcast, Franzén discusses how ag bankers can support farmers and ranchers during turbulent times. He also how the bank is helping family farms stay viable. Its Keep Farmers Farming initiative combines ag lending with estate planning and advice to facilitate effective transitions, and its program for emerging farmers helps new producers position themselves to succeed.

Franzén also discusses his role in advocating on the Clarity Act and supporting a level regulatory playing field for digital assets that preserves community banks' role in lending to their communities.

The latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — presented by Agri-Access — features historian Andrew David Edwards, author of Money and the Making of the American Revolution. Edwards discusses:

• How the American colonies developed monetary systems based on temporary "bills of credit" in the absence of hard-money currency.
• Why British leaders rejected this form of money and attempted to bring the colonies into their global imperial financial order.
• The role of monetary pressures in driving dissatisfaction with British rule and uniting the colonies.
• The challenges the Continental Congress faced in financing the American Revolution, and how the establishment of America's first bank helped turn the tide of the war.

First Horizon Bank is a growing regional bank that spans the nation's fastest-growing population centers, from Texas to Tennessee to Florida. How does that expanding retail franchise meet consumers' digital needs? On this episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — presented by Agri-Access — First Horizon's head of consumer and small business banking Shaun McDougall discusses:

• How consumer expectations have changed — where they expect seamless digital experiences and where they still value human interaction and guidance.
• How AI tools are empowering bankers at First Horizon to engage customers with the right resources at the right time.
• The role of the physical bank branch in First Horizon's footprint.
• What consumer banking operations can learn from small business banking, and vice versa.

John Maxfield has spent 16 studying banking leadership and performance, first at The Motley Fool, then at Bank Director magazine and more recently on his own, creating videos and visuals to tell the story of community banks in new and creative ways (including with drones).

On this episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Maxfield discusses:

• His own family origins in agriculture and banking
• What he's learned from interviewing and shadowing community bank leaders and investors across the country
• What it takes to be a discipline to be a CEO in a business with little margin for error, especially when short-term incentives run the other way.

"Leadership is a skill you have to develop and maintain over time," says Velera Wilson. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, leadership keynote speaker Wilson discusses key practices of leadership development for both current and future bank leaders. Among other topics, she covers:

• How emerging leaders can help themselves succeed in the transition from high-performing individual contributors to high-performing leaders.
• The delicate balance between coaching and hands-on management.
• Why poor-performing leaders can spread weak leadership throughout organizations.
• Tips for identifying and managing the pipeline of leadership.

Wilson will keynote the Emerging Leaders Program at ABA's Annual Convention, Oct. 25-27 in Salt Lake city.

As the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — returning for its ninth season — brings you conversations with two financial industry professionals to help illuminate the impact 9/11 had on bankers, the financial system and the whole nation.

ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols was a senior Treasury Department official on 9/11, and he recounts being sent to a secure bunker in the White House complex with Vice President Dick Cheney and other top officials. At Treasury, Nichols had a front-row seat to how the financial system was rewired in the months after 9/11 to stop flows of funds to terrorists and their sponsors.

Beth Chunn, a regular contributor to the ABA Banking Journal, was working for Morgan Stanley in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Building on her article in the latest issue of the Banking Journal, Chunn recounts what it was like to be in the World Trade Center that day, to evacuate from the building and from Manhattan.

The ability to pay college athletes has led to dramatic upheaval in banking college sports. Revenue-sharing with athletes has required big increases in spending that colleges may not have been counting on, just to be competitive. Meanwhile, the revenue shares and name, image and likeness marketing is putting big money in the hands of athletes who need extra support to handle it. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Q2 Software — Charles Frazier, head of the entertainment and sports banking unit at City National Bank, talks about how his team supports both colleges and athletes amid these changes. He also discusses athletes' need for holistic financial and business advice, the need for financial literacy and the growing need of college athletics programs for balance sheet solutions to help them stay competitive.

• Read a Q&A with Frazier in the latest issue of the ABA Banking Journal.

Virtually all banks engage in strategic planning, but how do they ensure the strategic plan actually drives performance and doesn't just get left in a binder on the shelf? On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Q2 Software — Exchange Bank's Kevin Bender discusses tactics for making strategic planning a process that engages employees and board members in the future of the bank, drives prioritization of scarce resources and identifies each bank's biggest opportunities.

Bender will join Joseph Cady to discuss six components for every bank's strategic plan at the ABA Annual Convention, Oct. 25-27 in Salt Lake City. Early-bird registration ends on July 31.