January 4, 2021

I have been blessed with a 50-year career in the trust business, especially the past 30 years leading The Trust Company of Kansas. I have witnessed many changes in the fiduciary world and take great pride in surrounding myself with a competent and dedicated team of professionals seeing us through each and every up and down.

Now that consumers are adapting to remote banking, they will expect these same services post-pandemic. With record-low interest rates, financial institutions are managing decreased yield and increased loan originations while also facing increased refinancing demand. To meet this demand, financial institutions should consider digital lending tools to enable self-service, communication, and online servicing that drive ROI in our socially distant environment. When evaluating a digital lending tool, there are many things to consider:

Internal and external communications during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic can impact how current and prospective employees perceive an employer. Organizations can boost their recruiting efforts by ensuring that their employer brand is resonating with those seeking employment, and importantly, meeting the evolving needs of job seekers.

Over the last several years, our world has been leaning further into the digital realm, largely thanks to a younger, more tech-dependent generation. To stay competitive, community banks must digitize and develop strategies for digital-first customers.

It may be a gross oversimplification to say this, but in many ways, community banks deal with their favorite broker the same way you deal with your dry cleaner. For one thing, there’s repeat business; we’re not a durable goods vendor that you visit every three years. For another, fixed-income brokers sell a set of relatively fungible products. For another, since there are plenty of us out there, we’re obliged to stay pretty much on-market with our prices.

As the calendar flipped to 2021; we didn’t magically return to a simpler, pre-pandemic era, unfortunately. We are still grappling with a global health crisis and a hefty amount of ambiguity around what comes next. Amid such uncertainty, it’s easy to focus on what we don’t know. But, as community bankers, we have a North Star in our mission, and we can find consistency in what we know to be true in this rapidly changing world: Community banks serve the needs of their communities.