Survey: Regulatory burden is top community bank concern

Regulatory burden has risen to the top of community banker concerns alongside cost of funds, according to the Conference of State Bank Supervisors Annual Community Bank Survey.

Highlights:

• Net interest margins and core deposit growth also ranked highly among surveyed banks.

• Survey respondents view cybersecurity as the highest internal risk to their banks.

• Technology implementation and costs ranked second, up from a tie for third in the 2023 survey and replacing liquidity, which held the second spot in last year’s survey.

• Respondents indicated that inflation-created challenges are likely to persist but are manageable, similar to last year’s survey.

• Bankers indicated that the effects of inflation are most impactful on costs of deposits, personnel expenses, value of securities investments, and operating expenses.