Independent Banker

"I think when you're looking to buy any kind of a product, a data product," says Kim Snyder, CEO of the fintech KlariVis, "you need to make sure that the vendor that you're purchasing it from understands your industry and understands how that technology is going to be utilized in your industry."

Finding the right fintech for your community bank takes time, but Snyder and Alice Frazier, president and CEO of Bank of Charles Town, worked to create a partnership that has proved invaluable for both parties.

Our two guests join Charles Potts to talk about the importance of budgeting for innovation, tips for doing so, and why innovation doesn't always mean technology. This episode is sponsored by FIS.

Links:

You can see how three CFOs are planning innovation for their community banks in the August issue of Independent Banker.

ICBA's ThinkTECH Accelerator can help you find and connect with fintechs to utilize new technology within your own community bank.

"You can go anywhere and get a loan," says Dan Schopp, president and CEO of First Security Bank in Mackinaw, Ill. "I always say we don't want to be an ATM— just dollar dispensers. The biggest challenge is showing your customer, what value am I adding to you or your operation?"

Every year, Independent Banker ranks the top community bank loan producers of the year, and in this episode we're lucky to have representatives of three winners with us. Schopp is joined by Mike Rizzo, senior vice president, chief banking officer of Five Star Bank in Roseville, Calif.; and Chris Benjamin, senior vice president at Community Bank Delaware in Lewes, Del.

The three community bankers join host Charles Potts to talk technology, relationship building and—yes—the weather.

This episode is sponsored by FIS.

You can hear more from Chris, Mike, Dan and our other Top Lenders in the July issue of Independent Banker, at independentbanker.org.

ICBA's ThinTECH Accelerator is a great program to get involved with if you're looking to boost your community bank's lending capabilities.

2"I just think it's so important to have that overall [compliance] culture at the bank, because then people are also more open and willing to come to you and say, 'Hey, I have a crazy idea. Do you think this can work?'" Ann Buckmiller, director of compliance at Reliabank Dakota in South Dakota, says she has worked hard to integrate compliance throughout her community bank by building personal connections and leading with innovation.

She and her fellow Independent Banker 40 Under 40 winner, Carolyn Watson, marketing officer at Ambler Savings Bank in Pennsylvania, talk to ICBA's Lindsay LaNore and host Charles Potts about what they look for in a workplace culture and why community banking has turned into a dream career for them.

This episode is sponsored by FIS.

"We're not just seeking growth to grow and to reach a certain asset size, or reach a certain profit dollar amount. We're going to stick to our lending philosophy … and let it come as it may." For State Bank of Texas, says president Sushil Patel, blind growth just isn't in its business plan.

In this episode, Patel tells host Charles Potts why this immigrant-founded community bank has thrived by cornering the hospitality lending market and capitalizing on its leaders' and board members' own experience in the hotel industry.

Something's clearly working: State Bank of Texas was recently named Independent Banker's #1 Best Performing Bank in its asset class, based on return on assets.

This episode is sponsored by FIS.

"What a great time for us to demonstrate who we are," says Derek Williams. "What a great time to talk about what makes the community banking model different." The president and CEO of Georgia's Century Bank and Trust and newly minted ICBA chairman believes that the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in late March are an opportunity—an opportunity to show that community banks' relationship-based business model sets them poles apart from the risky practices of megabanks like SVB. He and ICBA president and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey talk to host Charles Potts about what happened to SVB, the apparently lax oversight by regulators, and the government response. But most importantly, they say there has never been a better time to show Americans why community banks are the right choice. Community bankers who want to take their message of differentiation to lawmakers shouldn't miss the annual ICBA Capital Summit, May 14_17 in Washington, D.C. Learn more and register here.

Get the word out to current and potential customers with the help of the turnkey resources in ICBA's National Campaign Toolkit.

"We started focusing on our employees and what they need as much as what we need," says Steve Farbstein, Blue Ridge Bank's chief revenue and development officer. Since the Great Resignation, the Virginia community bank has shifted its approach to recruitment, taking things like flexibility and wellness into account, along with 401(k)s and PTO.

As Farbstein and our other guest, Renee Peterson of Horicon Bank in Wisconsin, discuss with host Charles Potts, it's no longer enough to do things as they've always been done. Community banks will only win the talent war if they think creatively about recruitment—and then work just as hard to keep the good people they've hired.

This episode is sponsored by Finastra.

The April issue of Independent Banker magazine looks at talent management from all angles, including better onboarding ideas and how to market your community bank as an employer.

Vendor relationships can be purely transactional, but the really high-value ones work more like partnerships. That's certainly what Bob Fisher, president and CEO of Tioga State Bank in Spencer, N.Y., found when his bank hired cybersecurity fintech Beauceron Security of New Brunswick, Canada.

Beauceron cofounder and CEO David Shipley wants his company to be seen as a "worthy investment of time, effort and capital"—and it achieves this by treating clients like Tioga State Bank not as numbers but as true partners.

As well as discussing the ins and outs of their partnership, including how ICBA's ThinkTECH Accelerator led them to each other, Fisher and Shipley offer tips for other community banks that want to forge or strengthen their own fintech relationships.

This episode is sponsored by Finastra.

Links

• If you're joining your fellow community bankers at ICBA LIVE in Hawaii on March 12, 2023, check out the ICBA ThinkTECH Alumni Showcase on Sunday, March 12 at 8:30am, or stop by the Expo Hall on Sunday or Monday to catch up with Accelerator alumni like Beauceron Security.
• Lastly, you'll find stories of fintech collaboration in our monthly magazine, also called Independent Banker.

"It's not hard to advocate for the perhaps underestimated but clearly formidable competitor." That's Anne Balcer's view of her role as ICBA's chief of government relations and public policy, which she took on in July 2022 after time at Forbright Bank, a community bank in Maryland, and in Maryland state government.

Balcer talks to host Charles Potts, ICBA's chief innovation officer, about the value of her background as a community banker, the advocacy wins community banks saw last year, the issues she and her team are targeting in 2023, the critical role community bankers themselves play in advocacy….and even a little lacrosse.

Among the topics covered:

· Durbin-Marshall bill

· Regulatory clarity

· Overdraft fees

· Climate risk regulation

This episode is sponsored by Finastra

Banking solutions that have already been through vendor due diligence and other compliance assessments? Sign us up. That's what the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator has aimed to do for the past four years: collaborate with fintechs to develop plug-and-play solutions tailor-made for community banks.

In late 2022, ICBA announced it was bringing the Accelerator and all innovation activities in house. In this episode, our guests reveal the reasons behind this move and give a glimpse of how the association will develop initiatives that help community banks flourish.

Our guests today are:

- Wayne Miller, ICBA's new senior vice president and director of innovation activities, who is the former executive director of The Venture Center in Little Rock, Ark., where the Accelerator got its start.

- Jack Hartings, chairman of the Peoples Bank in Coldwater, Ohio, who has been involved with the Accelerator since the beginning and now sits on the cohort selection committee.

Independent Banker: A Community Banking Podcast from ICBA is hosted by Charles Potts, ICBA's executive vice president and chief innovation officer.

Head to icba.org/thinktech to learn more about ICBA's innovation activities or, if you're a fintech company looking to better understand the needs of community bankers, apply for the 2023 Accelerator.

"Innovation isn't magic," says Tim Shangle, ChoiceOne Bank's associate vice president of innovation and data analytics. "You don't need a wizard to make your bank innovative. Innovation is simply something that is new today that will eventually become normal down the road."

One key for community banks to harness a successful innovative strategy is by embracing the wealth of new talent—who, like Independent Banker's 40 under 40 emerging community bank leaders, are the future faces of the industry.

In this episode of Communities of Innovation, Tim (a 40 Under 40 winner) joins host Charles Potts to discuss his role as an innovator—leading implementation of an online platform that overhauled the bank's customer experience—and how, for banks, the secret of future success lies in building a culture that rewards talent and ambition.