November 20, 2025

Use code CBAK20 for 20% off your next webinar.Register now at fin-ed.info/cbak. Bank Webinars

Congratulations to the banks celebrating December anniversaries as chartered institutions!

Citizens Bank of Kansas in Derby congratulates Stacy Gear, chief development officer/SVP, on her completion of the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado (GSBC). This esteemed 25-month program prepares future leaders for success in the community banking sector. Additionally, Gear completed the program’s Committed to Lead Micro-Credential, a supplemental elective that aims to foster bold,

If your client owns a small business, they’re already juggling a lot. Between managing clients, balancing budgets and keeping operations moving, retirement planning often falls to the bottom of the list. Yet, choosing the right retirement plan can be a game-changer, not just for the business owner but also for their employees.

This year began with an Executive Order stating the Trump Administration’s policy to establish the U.S. as a global leader in the responsible growth and innovation of digital assets and related blockchain technologies. In July, President Trump signed into law the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins), 12 U.S.C. §§ 5901 et seq., which recognized a dual federal-state regulatory framework for payment stablecoin issuers, while also codifying related foundational definitions, such as “money” and “digital assets.”

Artificial intelligence is poised to reshape the future of financial services. From personalized customer experiences to faster fraud detection, the potential of AI in banking is far-reaching — but so are the risks. Financial institutions, particularly community and regional banks, must navigate a complex web of ethical, regulatory and operational challenges to use AI responsibly.

Most bank boards struggle with cybersecurity oversight because they don’t know what questions to ask, how to interpret the answers or whether their security measures are actually working.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, fraudsters are leveraging these tools to exploit one of the most vulnerable groups in our communities, older adults. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) data, there were $4.88 billion in losses from seniors in 2024. These numbers continue to trend upwards, and the rise of AI-driven elder fraud presents new risks to victims and financial institutions. AI-driven elder fraud involves scams that use artificial intelligence to make attacks against older adults more convincing, harder to detect and easier to carry out on a large scale. The increased threat requires both awareness and proactive mitigation by banks and credit unions to protect clients and maintain trust in their communities.

Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed an alarming upsurge in the number of nonbank financial technology firms applying for national bank trust charters. We can track this trend back to a shift in policy in 2021 (Interpretive Letter #1176) in which the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) reinterpreted the trust charter to eliminate its exclusive focus on fiduciary activities and redefined it to create an opening for digital asset firms to apply.