Rebeca Romero Rainey: Getting to the Core of Innovation

As community banks embrace innovation, they do so with the knowledge that each new solution becomes a product in their portfolio. With every integration comes the reliance on existing systems to support regulatory compliance, operational requirements and customer-facing usability. That generally means core integrations or top-layer API enablement to ensure functionality that delivers an optimal user experience. Quite often, that’s much easier said than done. 

It comes as no surprise that community banks, by and large, are dependent upon their cores. As the innovation landscape evolves, so, too, do those relationships. Community banks remain focused on determining the right mix of integrations and layers to ensure a seamless experience for their teams and their customers, while seeking to collaborate with their cores for a more efficient outcome. However, while the innovation environment continues to shift, community banks’ underlying dependency on core providers remains constant. 

What Are the New Compliance Requirements for Core Providers?

At the same time, today’s innovation landscape requires novel approaches to infrastructure that introduce new compliance requirements, and agencies are aware of this dynamic. For instance, late last year, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a request for information on community bank engagement with core providers that sought input on the challenges community banks face, how those concerns affect competitive positioning and ways the OCC can play a role. 

Community banks now must ensure that regulatory agencies and core providers both provide the elements they need to innovate. As we shared in our response to the OCC, any development that allows for innovation on a quicker, more creative basis is a win. Specifically, clear and faster regulatory guidance that does more to clarify expectations will help ease the burden on community banks. Regulatory sandboxes and pilot programs also create a way for community banks to test new solutions and offer an environment for experimentation. Core providers can also continue opening access via APIs and make those connections seamless and functional for community banks. 

There’s clearly a lot at play as we continue in this era of innovation, and ICBA is committed to supporting community banks with actionable choices to embrace opportunities. Whether it be by researching and identifying potential partners through ICBA Preferred Service Providers, corporate members or the ThinkTECH Accelerator, or better connecting with peers via ICBA Community to learn from their experiences, we are here to support your journeys. Community banks will continue to flourish by offering the distinct solutions that they know will uniquely support their customers and communities.

Where I’ll be
this month

I’ll be in our Atlanta offices, spending time with the ThinkTECH Accelerator companies and visiting bankers and welcoming state community banking associations and their executives to Washington, D.C.