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How Community Banks Can Cut Down Data Privacy Threats
Education on how to keep data safe is important for both community bank employees and their customers. Community bankers and data privacy experts share their tips to help keep data safe
Member Benefits: Tips for IT Outsourcing
For community banks that are considering or are already working with a third-party IT vendor, ICBA’s IT Outsourcing Toolkit has a collection of resources that address the process and considerations.
Generative AI in Community Banking: What's the Risk?
Generative AI, such as ChatGPT and Jasper, is growing and evolving rapidly. How can community banks leverage this technology while avoiding scams?
Leveling Up: How Community Banks Should Navigate Asset Size Growth Thresholds
As your bank grows in asset size, it’s vital to keep up with compliance regulations to meet the standards of each new threshold. By planning ahead and preparing your staff, the process can be...
How Technology Can Simplify Banks' Workflow
As compliance obligations mount, community bankers reveal the benefits regtech brings to their banks and offer tips for finding the right partners.
How to Streamline Balance Sheet Risk Management
Balance sheet risk management is a constantly evolving area. Luckily for community bankers, new tools are being created in turn to help optimize the process.
Tips for Better Community Bank CMS Testing
By understanding and leveraging compliance management system testing, community banks can limit potential risk.
Your 2021 physical security assessment checklist
Social distancing measures had a large effect on branch security over the past year. Here’s what to look for when doing a physical security assessment to account for the latest trends in...
What’s a special-purpose credit program?
In an effort to help financial institutions expand access to credit, the CFPB recently addressed regulatory uncertainty around special-purpose credit programs, or SPCPs. These programs are intended...
Stop elder financial abuse with data analytics
Elder financial abuse has been on the rise for the past decade, but so has data analytics technology, which banks can use to fight this fraud. Experts share strategies for community banks to...
Fighting fraud with education
COVID-19 has exacerbated vulnerabilities to fraud. To combat this trend, Tompkins VIST Bank has been delivering valuable education to its small business customers to keep them informed and protected.
The advertising regulations you need to know
Like any business marketing its products and services, a community bank must keep its advertising truthful. There are plenty of regulations specific to financial institutions under the FDIC, CFPB...
The overdraft regulations that you need to know
This past year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) fined a national bank for misinforming its accountholders about its overdraft services fees. A handful of regulations apply to banks...
How community banks serve immigrants
When people move to the U.S. from other countries, they often don’t have an American credit history, identification or other typical requirements of the account-opening or loan process.
Fraudsters’ latest target? UI benefits
Criminals have stolen more than half a billion dollars by taking advantage of the surge in unemployment claims during the pandemic. Luckily, most of this money has been recovered. Here’s what you...
Safe deposit boxes can have benefits beyond revenue
Safe deposit boxes aren’t big revenue drivers at most community banks, but for some customers, they can be an important service. They provide peace of mind when breaches and hacks have eroded trust...
Why diversity and inclusion matters to regulators
This year, many businesses have prioritized diversity and inclusion. But what are regulatory agencies doing to track and enforce diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the financial industry?
7 best practices to help avoid audit missteps
An audit tells a community bank whether it’s adhering to regulations and objectives. However, a lack of preparation and poor scoping techniques, among other factors, can lead to wasted time. Here’s...
What you can do now to prepare for CECL
Community banks won’t have to implement current expected credit losses, or CECL, standards until 2023, but it’s never too early to start getting ready. Here’s what industry experts say you should...
How branch security is catching up with branch design
As the design of the branch has advanced, so, too, have the measures that community banks use to keep their branches secure.
How your bank can fight first-party fraud
First-party fraud puts banks in the tough position of deciding which account applicants are synthetic and which are real. But experts agree that there are ways to can use technology and...
Preventing and detecting mortgage fraud
Many compliance functions are needed to detect mortgage fraud, from FACTA and FCRA to the SAFE Act. Here’s a look at the requirements.
How your bank should handle consumer complaints
It’s important for community banks to understand and respond to customer complaints. But what should a complaint program include, and how might complaint data be an opportunity to improve your...
How your bank can stay compliant on social media
It’s common for community banks to have a presence on one, two or up to half a dozen social media platforms to engage with customers. But what does being an active social media user mean for...
Protect your bank from remote deposit capture risks
Despite the advancements of today’s banking industry, checks remain a common part of the customer experience, and remote deposit capture (RDC) has followed. What risk management strategies should...
Five steps to building an effective deposit strategy plan
SPONSORED | Building an effective deposit strategy plan is an integral tool to acquiring new, and retaining existing, deposits. Here are the five steps for designing, organizing and implementing a...
Let's define 'unfair, deceptive or absuive'
More than its predecessors, the Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices can be a murky regulation for compliance officers. How well do you know the ins and outs of UDAAP?
Ways to avoid flood insurance compliance violations
Avoiding flood insurance-related violations requires understanding loans, notifying customers and/or assessing insurance coverage requirements.
Site visits still matter. Here’s why
Site visits are the key to protecting your community bank’s commercial and industrial portfolio. Here’s why.
Focus: The Right to Financial Privacy Act
What community bankers need to know about protecting and disclosing customers’ financial records.
Best practices for fighting counterfeit bills
Cash may no longer be king in the U.S., but millions of dollars in counterfeit bills make their way into the system each year. Fortunately, there are some simple ways community banks can stop...
Internal audit: in-house or third-party?
An internal audit reveals opportunities for improvement across the board, making your community bank safer and more efficient. Take a look at the pros and cons of conducting an internal audit...
Qualitative ALLL
Considering qualitative factors in calculating loan-loss allowances
What happens when a bank hits $10 billion?
How—and when—should you prepare for the regulatory and cultural aftershocks? And can smaller but ambitious community banks learn from these best-practice preparations?
Creative Solutions for Fortifying ATM Defenses
Faced with continued ATM security theft and threats, community banks and vendors are banding together to share creative strategies and bolster ATM defenses.
The Overlooked Role of ECM in Compliance, Privacy, and Customer Experience
Enterprise content management (ECM) systems have traditionally been viewed as tools for organizing documents and managing retention schedules.
Scott Anchin: Let's Win the Fight Against Elder Fraud
June 15 is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. Recognized by the United Nations since 2011, the date serves as a reminder to protect vulnerable, older members of our community from exploitation.
Taking the Proper Steps to Unmask Deepfake Fraud
Community banks face the threat of deepfake fraud as developments in AI continue to refine it. While addressing such a challenge, banks must remain cognizant of reporting practices.
How Community Bankers Can Fight (and Win) Against Fraud
IBT Apps’ newest ebook is available now! Discover the rising threat of fraud and learn how community banks can proactively defend against it with modern tools and strategies.
How Fraudsters Prey on Good Nature Following Disaster
Even as people suffer and others help their neighbors after devastation from fires, tornadoes or floods, fraudsters are looking to capitalize on both vulnerability and generosity.