ABA Banking Journal Podcast

Connecticut banker George Hermann discusses his bank's in-school branch program. Windsor Federal Savings, a mutual thrift in northern Connecticut, has two locations in minority-majority high schools in its local market that are staffed by students, and the program has "evolved in ways that we didn't expect it to," says Hermann. "We initially did this for financial literacy. What it's turned out to be is job training, introducing students to careers in banking."

Joe Ficalora of New York Community Bank discusses NYCB's unique (and conservative) real estate business model of lending to rent-stabilized, non-luxury building owners, its long-standing strategy of growing through acquisitions and balance sheet restructurings and how the Dodd-Frank Act's arbitrary $50 billion asset threshold for "systemically important" status has limited NYCB's ability to grow. Listen to this week's podcast to hear about a distinctive corner of the banking industry.

At the end of a whirlwind week in D.C., ABA's James Ballentine recaps the action at the Government Relations Summit. Ballentine joins Evan Sparks and Shaun Kern to cover the latest news from Capitol Hill on regulatory reform efforts; proposals, both legislative and regulatory, to address anti-money laundering rules; changes at the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection; and the reception bankers received during their congressional visits. This episode is sponsored by Windstream Enterprise.

Mobile banking use is growing fast, and as mobile banking customers use it more frequently, they are able to move on more quickly to other life activities. That's an insight shared by Citi's Alice Milligan in this bonus episode. Her research shows that nearly half of all customers increased their mobile banking use in the past year. And mobile banking apps are designed to get customers in and out of the app quickly -- in "snippet" activities. With that convenience comes higher levels of customer confidence.

ABA this week released a host of new resources to help bankers communicate with their customers and lawmakers about the real-world impact of the industry. On this bonus episode, ABA's Peter Cook talks about these resources and how to use them, including the refreshed America's Banks campaign; an interactive U.S. map that -- for the first time -- provides state-by-state figures on banks' impact in terms of jobs, lending and community involvement; and polling figures on the public's positive view of banks.

Pilot Bank in Tampa is a full-service community bank with a unique wing. It makes loans for owner-flown aircraft throughout the country, providing credit opportunities for the hundreds of thousands of individuals in this middle-market segment. These pilots love their planes, notes Pilot Bank President Rita Lowman, which makes this a high performing business of the bank. Pilot Bank also developed an online account feature that allows aircraft borrowers to bring the rest of their banking business to the bank

Banks have several opportunities in the HSA market, says Jim Gandolfo, the chairman of ABA’s HSA Council and SVP in PNC’s treasury management group. Some may see it as a play for sticky deposits. The HSA market also offers interchange opportunities and account-level fees as wel. HSAs are a powerful way to deepen relationships with commercial customers, Gandolfo says, since they provide an additional touch point in the commercial business and give employers with a tool to constrain their health-care cost

In this episode, sponsored by Windstream Enterprise, Steve Goodenow discusses how his he built a 48-state health care equipment finance business within his rural Iowa community bank. The business serves office-based doctors, dentists and veterinarians across the lower 48 states. The equipment finance arm has brought 6,000 new customers to the bank, Goodenow says, and today, the equipment finance business accounts for about 15 percent of Bank Midwest’s $700 million loan portfolio.

On the latest episode, sponsored by Windstream Enterprise, community bank CEO Luanne Cundiff discusses the current state of the mortgage market and how recent regulations are affecting it. New regulations have also changed how First State Bank services single-family mortgages, Cundiff says. She also discusses the growing need for scale in the mortgage business, First State Bank’s celebration of its 150th anniversary last year and the value of serving on ABA’s Community Bankers Council.

What keeps Frank Sorrentino up at night? It's the question of culture -- maintaining "the same level of entrepreneurial spirit in the company as the company continues to grow," he says. Sorrentino is the chairman and CEO of ConnectOne Bank.  Sorrentino discusses partnerships between banks and fintech companies -- ConnectOne Bank was one of the first, and smallest, banks to be part of the initial rollout group for Zelle, and it built out a new loan/deposit origination system with nCino.

On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, three top ABA leaders break down the Senate passage of S. 2155, the bipartisan regulatory reform bill passed last night, and explore both what’s in the bill and the path ahead for the legislation. Rob Nichols salutes the senators who brokered the compromise and drafted the legislation. Wayne Abernathy highlights three key provisions of the many that are included in the bill. Nichols and James Ballentine outline the next steps for the bill.

Iowa banker Jeff Plagge discusses how a smaller community banking company like his, with $1.8 billion in assets, can make investments to stay on the technological cutting edge. His bank is in the pipeline to implement person-to-person payment app Zelle, and he adds that the Clearing House’s RTP initiative, on whose advisory board he serves, will offer a similar service for business customers that he considers even more important for bankers to understand.

This episode offers insights from four speakers at this week's National Conference for Community Bankers in Honolulu. Co-hosts Evan Sparks and Shaun Kern conducted the interviews live in the conference's exhibit hall. Each interview excerpt is about five minutes long. Featured in this episode are Mark King, president of Adidas North America; Siya Vansia, VP for marketing at ConnectOne Bank; Laura Marshall, partner at Hunton & Williams; and ABA Community Bankers Council Chairman Trey Maust.

The latest episode tackles the shortage of qualified appraisers -- especially in rural areas. Shan Hanes of Heartland Tri-State Bank in Elkhart, Kan., discusses how high demand for appraisals means that his clients face long waits. In addition to the opportunity cost of delayed investment, he explains, it also harms younger agricultural borrowers. ABA's Sharon Whitaker outlines some of the efforts ABA has taken to address the appraiser shortage and minimize its negative effects.

On this special holiday episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Colleen Tressler of the Federal Trade Commission and Corey Carlisle of the ABA Foundation explore the dark side of Valentine's Day: online romance scams. These scams accounted for $220 million in fraud in 2016. Reports of online dating scams to the FBI have tripled since 2012. Tressler and Carlisle share common red flags for the scams and provide tips and resources that banks can use to educate customers about these scams.