American Banker July-August 2024

IS THERE A FUTURE FOR COMMUNITY BANKS?

Despite the continuing trends of consolidation and limited startup activity, bankers and industry insiders say there is a path forward. But small lenders must evolve with changing technology.

Congress needs to take immediate action to reform policies that foster this trend and ultimately subsidize banking consolidation on Main Street, writes Rebeca Romero Rainey, president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

Each year, in advance of our Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance awards, American Banker puts together a list of 15 women who are rising stars at their banks. The honorees, all women 40 years old and younger, are nominated by an executive at their institution who believes that she has the potential to ascend to the C-suite.

For half a century, the Shadow Open Market Committee has been one of the Federal Reserve's sharpest critics. After years of seeing its public profile wither, the group is eyeing a return to prominence.

In a sea of generically named "First Banks of X" and "Community Banks of Y," financial institutions must decide if the painstaking rebranding process is worth the investment and risk to stand out.

Mehrsa Baradaran's new book "The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America" ties together economic history, an expertise in banking regulation and the perspective of someone who's both watched a country be torn apart by extremism and been inside the American political machine.