Civic Warriors Episode 48 With Independent Community Bankers of America

Independent Community Bankers of America – ICBA is the leading advocacy organization exclusively representing community banks. We speak with the President & CEO of ICBA, Rebeca Romero Rainey about her background and why she became involved in community banking and ICBA. She explains what a community banking membership looks like, how you can find a community bank in your area, and the many resources and services they offer. Listen to learn more about how community banking differs from corporate banking and the security features (commonly found at large banks) that community banks also offer!

“It’s about investing in the long-term success of a community. A community bank is successful only when the community is successful.”

Transcript:

This podcast was transcribed through a third-party application. Please disregard any misrepresentations.

Brad Caruso:

Welcome to Civic Warriors, brought to you by Withum. On this podcast, we bring the conversation to you, sharing, engaging stories that motivate and build consensus in the nonprofit community. This podcast is about the innovators, the leaders on the frontline of adversity, guiding lights in the nonprofit industry affecting change. And through their stories, we can all join forces to become civic warriors. Hey, warriors. Welcome to today’s episode of Civic Warriors. Brought to you by, Withum. I’m your host, Brad Caruso, leader of Withum’s not-for-profit practice. You know, recently many of you have heard, uh, about certain big bank issues that have occurred, uh, specifically related to SVB and Signature Bank and some others Credit Swiss. Uh, in light of this, you know, we wanted to bring a, uh, banking expert to talk about some other options for banking and the, and really the importance of community banks, uh, and how they benefit society as a whole.

Brad Caruso:

On today’s, on today’s episode, uh, is Rebeca Romero Rainey. Uh, Rebeca is president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America, ICBA, uh, the leading advocacy organization exclusively representing community banks. Uh, she’s one of the nation’s foremost advocates of the community banking industry with a focus on regulatory reform for our country’s nearly 5,000 community banks that collectively hold, uh, approximately 5 trillion in deposits. Uh, also with us today, I is, uh, Brian Bender, uh, who’s been on a couple previous episodes and who leads our trade association and membership organization, uh, niche and also has, has had the pleasure of working, uh, with and for ICBA, uh, in prior years. Uh, so we’re really excited to have a, a very good discussion today, uh, on the importance of community banks, how they operate, uh, and really some other information for our listeners and guests out there. Many of you in the nonprofit industry, of how you can work with your local community bank and other other information. So, so with that, uh, welcome to the show, Rebeca. Happy to have you here.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Thank you, Brad. Really looking forward to the discussion. I’m, I’m intrigued by what you’ve done with this podcast and, uh, look forward to sharing the community banking story.

Brad Caruso:

A lot of fun, <laugh>. So, uh, yeah, so maybe we can start. Um, I always like to give a little context to our listeners. Maybe if you can give a little more background, uh, on yourself. How did you arrive at ICBA? Talk a little bit more about the mission and your passion for it. Uh, it’s just helpful to, to set the stage for the discussion. So if you wanna just share a little information about yourself, that’d be great.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Absolutely. So I am a third generation community banker, and, um, you know, as I talk about community banking, this goes beyond, um, an interest to a very deeply rooted passion of mine. Very long story short, it was my grandfather that started our community bank in northern New Mexico. He was fourth generation to that community, grew up the son of, uh, sheep herders and speaking Spanish, was able to get himself through school, got a law degree, and came back to his hometown, wanting to do whatever he could to serve the local community. Didn’t have any capital to his name, so he went to a bank looking for a loan to get that small business started. And he was denied, uh, despite, um, what, uh, would’ve been, i, I think, an excellent credit profile. You know, somebody just wanting to give back to their community. And so he vowed then and there that someday he’d start a bank to serve everyone in the community that took him 10 years.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

And, uh, 300 people that came together to create the capital for the bank. And on March 1st, 1969, the doors of Summit Bank of Taos open for the first time. And so I had the
opportunity as we fast forward many years from there to succeed my father who was president. Um, and so you can imagine growing up in a small business, um, family owned business, as a very young person, I had the opportunity to learn what community banking meant. It, um, it meant for me growing up, um, being involved in whatever the community needed, um, whatever that business needed. And so it was, it was volunteer days, it was, um, fundraising, it was supporting local businesses. That’s just what we did, um, as, as community bankers. And really inspired, I guess, in me, um, this desire to continue that legacy. So I ran that community bank for 20 years and began to get involved in the community banking Trade association because I also learned very early on that not all banks are the same, and that as rules were being written as, um, we as as community bankers were trying to do the right thing for our customers, the job was, was being really overcomplicated and convoluted by regulation.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

And so, um, that led me to get involved with ICBA as a volunteer banker. I chaired the association, and after my year as chairman, uh, got the surprise question and what I consider succeeding the then CEO, uh, to, to run the organization. That took a lot of time to answer and think through. But, um, long story short is, is as you can probably already tell by now, uh, community banking is something that, um, is near and dear. It’s in the blood and very much worth fighting for and, uh, ensuring a long and bright future for this industry.

Brad Caruso:

I, I love that. Yeah. And, and, and keeping, keeping a family legacy is, is, uh, is a great thing, and it’s, it’s often discounted these days, but, but having that and having that passion that you bring to it, you can’t replicate that. Having that, you know, long-term feel, uh, it’s a good, it’s a great thing to hear. So, ICBA, um, is the, the Trade Member Association that you work for. Um, obviously you have a, as mentioned, have a mission to help help those community banks. Um, can you provide a little bit more context of, of who your member, what your membership is, like, who your membership looks like, and then, and then how do you define a community bank, what, you know, if someone was out there saying, what is a community bank? I, I’ve never heard that term before. How, how would you define it?

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

So, to start with, ICBA represents all community banks across the country. Community banks as a whole makes 60% of all small business loans in this country, and 80% of all agriculture loans. So when you think about what that means, community banks are the financial institutions that are funding entrepreneurs, that are funding the farmers. They’re the ones located, um, in communities of all size that are there to look at banking as a relationship, as an opportunity to help develop capital. Community bankers take local deposits and turn it around in the form of loans in the community. In, in my mind, it’s sort of the purest form of economic development that there is. And so when we think about what is a community bank, it is a business model that is focused on relationships. It’s not about transactions, it’s not about numbers, it’s about looking at all aspects on a loan application. It’s about investing, um, in the long-term success of a community. A community bank is successful only when the community is successful. It really is a symbiotic relationship that drives how they make decisions because it’s not about the here and now. It’s about the long-term vision and success and how decisions are made today that will impact the future.

Brad Caruso:

Yeah. And and when you, when you look at a, a, a community bank, um, you know, I think, I think, uh, the statistic I read was there’s about 5,000, uh, 5,000 or so community banks. How, how do you know, I, I imagine to some degree, um, do, do they ever like, interact with each other? Or is there, is there like a relationship cuz, or maybe this is a silly question, but, you know, are there communities where there’s multiple community banks within that community and, and how do they, what does that ecosystem look like?

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Yeah, there are, it’s, it’s really interesting. So there are communities across this country where you have vibrant, multiple community banks, um, that, um, you know, in some cases may compete against each other for the local business. And in some cases they’re pulling together their capital to help maybe fund and originate some of the larger credits within that community. So it’s a really sort of dynamic relationship. I would, I would, um, explain, and, and it’s one of the things I love about what we do about ICBA, is we’re that network of community banks to pull them together. The other thing that’s really interesting on, on the other side of the spectrum, if it weren’t for a community bank, one third of the counties in the United States would not have a community bank presence. So saying that another way, if not for a community bank, you’d have one third of the counties in the US that didn’t have a financial institution located within that community. And so they are in those communities and counties, the source of capital, um, they’re the ones that, um, are in many cases helping to hold that community together.

Brian Bender:

That is awesome, Rebeca. And I love the philosophy of community banks. And as a West Virginian at heart, coming from a small town in that state, which is all comprised of small towns, you hear a lot of bank names. And as a consumer or a business owner or a nonprofit, you might not know what constitutes who a community bank is. So how would I go about identifying the type of institution that would follow that philosophy?

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

So a couple different suggestions. Uh, one, you can visit bank locally.org and find a community bank near you. It’s a great way to find, um, members of ICBA and, and folks, uh, that we have identified as community banks. The other thing I would tell folks is just inherently, as you think about, um, the institution that you’re banking with, do have, um, resources that are available to you. Is that bank and the management, the president of the bank, are they involved in the local community? Are they sponsoring the little league team? Are they active in the summer parades? Um, you’ll see a, a difference just in terms of, of the presence and, um, what that means. And, and those folks will be available to you. I often said as, as the president CEO of my bank, some of the greatest questions I got was when I was walking through the grocery store and somebody really needed something, they’re trying to figure out, you know, what, what was going on. So it’s, it’s about, um, community bankers are, are, are part of that community, and as you explore the options that that difference will really, you’ll, you’ll notice it, you’ll feel it as you engage with those institutions.

Brad Caruso:

Yeah. And it’s definitely a trust and a connection aspect too, right? I mean, I think many of us are starting to have a little bit of a distrust in the, in the, you know, big corporate world, right? But then having someone in your community is, is certainly, uh, you, you, you learn to know them and, you know, similar, like, I volunteer for my fire company. That’s, that’s my community activity. And when I do that, like I meet other people in the community, I meet all the police officers, I meet all the EMS folks, I meet just random people on, you know, I go into their houses and check their smoke alarms. So like, you end up just interacting with a lot of people, and I think it’s probably a similar thing, that they’re, they’re ingrained in your community so they understand, you know, they’re probably going to the town hall meetings to understand like, you know, what’s, what’s happening right now? You know, who’s trying to do development in our town that we don’t want? Who’s trying to do development in our town that the people are actually supporting that we actually wanna support now? So I imagine that that plays a big role in, in, um, not only the importance, but just, just the benefit of it because it, it’s, it’s a connection, it’s a personal connection, which a lot of us are longing for these days. Is that personal connection, right?

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Well, it’s, it’s so true. And it’s, it’s one of those things. It’s, it’s that connection. It’s the, the trusted resource. Um, you know, if if I’m looking to start a small business, I wanna go talk to that local community banker because they’re gonna know everybody that could, will probably be part of my network, can make those introductions. They can help me think through that business plan because again, they are a member of that community and can really help, um, both assess some of the viability, but then help make the connections that will, will create that success. I mean, I look back to my days at the community bank and you know, whether it was the, we were looking at losing our only local pediatrician and we brought everybody together to ensure that that person stayed within the community and, and that we solve for some of those underlying dynamics. And, you know, that really, I, I think is, is the core of, of what they do is it’s, again, it’s not about a transaction, it’s about the long-term success of the community. And as we know, there’s so much that goes into that and it’s, it’s being there in the good times, but maybe even more importantly, it’s being there in the challenging times. And that’s where a community bank really thrives.

Brad Caruso:

Yeah. And you’re invested financially and mentally, right? You’re, you have both of those. It’s not just a financial investment.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

And emotionally emotion. It’s, you know, this is your community, this is your home, this is your neighbor,

Brad Caruso:

Right? Your neighbors running the daycare, they need to stay afloat and yeah. You know, the importance of that by living through it. Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. Very interesting. Yeah. And, and, and you know, a lot of this too, Brian and I were talking a lot, um, since all the national news on some of the banking issues that have occurred at the, you know, some of these large, um, some of these large banks out there. And, and, and I, you know, we field questions all the time and, and even, you know, I I was never bat ingrained in the banking world to understand it. And I think what would be important for some of our listeners to kind of help differentiate a little bit is, you know, now flipping on the other side, you know, how, how do community banks then differentiate from your larger multinational banks?

Brad Caruso:

Um, you know, cause I know a lot of organizations now are asking us the question, what do I do? I have my money at BOA, I have my money at, I had my money at svb, and I I was lucky to transfer, whatever it might be. And they’re saying, what do I do with this? What are options out there? What are things? So how does, how does a a the community banking world and structure, um, from your perspective, differentiate from that large, you know, international multinational corporate banking structure that, uh, you know, are more that I think a lot of us, you know, see on the advertisements every day, <laugh>?

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

So I think there’s, there’s two key factors that, that really, uh, for me are the differentiators. There’s probably a million different factors, but, uh, to keep it in the time that we have here today, you know, first off, I think it goes back to this concept of, of how and why decisions are made. So as we look at what maybe happened in these failed institutions, they were taking on a significant amount of risk with incredible growth concentration, um, and, and in a, you know, risk management practices that didn’t match the decisions that they were making. The, the opposite of that is what you see in a community bank, again, because they’re making decisions over the long term. It’s not just about this quarter or this month or this week’s earnings. It’s about decisions that will drive the long-term success. You’ll see an approach to risk management that looks holistically different because of that long-term vision and and desire for what they’re trying to accomplish.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

It’s also, again, rooted in a, a very different business model because the, the focus is that aggregation of local deposits and loans. And so the other types of, um, maybe riskier aspects of, of what some of the larger banks are doing are just not typically part of the balance sheet of a community bank. And so you, you look at, just from the onset, there are two very, um, different approaches to this business of banking. So as, as folks now are paying a lot more attention to, you know, where am I banking? How much money should I keep there? Again, I would encourage folks, go visit your local banker. You know, now is the time. Take advantage of the fact that you have access to these folks and they’re vested in, in developing and ensuring your trust and confidence because that’s inherent in the model and the business that they’re running. And so I think there’s a great opportunity to really get a sense not only understand FDIC insurance, but understand that local bank and, and what, um, what is going on in, in that institution and, and how do you, um, be a part of that local economic development in a way that can, can do more than just keep your deposit safe, but give back ultimately to the community.

Brian Bender:

I love the give back approach, and I think that to your point, gets to philosophy and the short term versus the long term. And I think what would be really helpful for a lot of people to understand, and I think you could probably communicate it way better than any of us could, is how money that you deposit at a community bank finds itself back into the community versus how that might differ at an SVB or a large multinational.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Exactly. No, great, great question, Brian. And I think the, that, again, is what is so different here about community banks is that as I, you know, as a depositor of, of a, a local community bank, those that is essentially it is those deposits that are being used to fund loans within that community. Again. So as we think about the different of the, the business model of a community bank, they’re not looking to take the deposits from that community and invest it in a, you know, a a, a large project in downtown New York City like that. That’s just not what they do. They’re looking to, um, finance, home loans, uh, finance, the acquisition of, of small business and expansion of those small businesses. And so what you’re doing by placing your deposits in a local community bank is you’re essentially providing your capital to reinvest within your community. And so those dollars can then be multiplied and leveraged in a way that if they’re sent out to some large major institution, your local community will never see the benefit of that. And so that really is, is what I think is so exciting and, and inherent, uh, about the opportunities in the community bank business model is, is you play a part as a local depositor in helping your community grow.

Brian Bender:

So my deposits can help my neighbor start a restaurant or start a retail store mm-hmm. <affirmative> that could later help me earn interest or other types of income

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Exactly.

Brad Caruso:

I can get my loan from, to start at my hotdog enterprise. I wanna start, I’m gonna start small and have one hotdog cart on the, on the corner. But it’s my big dream in life to get out of this accounting world and just have it run a hotdog truck. <laugh> sounds like I know where to go to get loan <laugh>

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

I have a community bankers I could connect you

Brad Caruso:

Go with there. Go, that’s what I need to do. I need to get that going. Cause uh, it’s been a dream of mine. I just, you know, I’ve mean

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Probably a few more that’ll wanna come visit you and, uh, and chase the products. That’s right.

Brad Caruso:

So <laugh>, you know, a as, as we, um, and, and I think, like I said, a lot of the genesis, me and Brian have had a million conversations on, on a arrival levels with, with clients. And you know, obviously, uh, we work in the public accounting world. We’re, we’re kind of one of those frontline advisors to businesses for-profit, non-profit. Uh, Brian and I work in the not-for-profit space, but, um, to a lot of individuals, a lot of organizations and, and really, um, you know, we could ask all the time, like, how do I go about kind of selecting my bank, you know, and, and, and how do I know that a bank is stable? You know, now that’s kind of like the big thing, like how do I know the bank is managed properly from a risk perspective? How do I know the bank is stable, that I’m gonna put my money there and I’m not gonna be scared one day that it’s not gonna be there? You know, how, how, how should we be responding to that kind of, as a, as advisors or, or, you know, from your perspective as an advisor as well on this topic, you know, how how do you approach that question when someone asks you that?

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

So the first thing I would encourage folks to, to remember is, is what is what happened with the failure of SVB and signature is extraordinary. I mean, this is, this is not an everyday occurrence. Um, but of course, you know, the media and, and it, and it was, it was scary. What we saw happening there is, is folks were thinking about, um, losing money. So I think, you know, the first thing we all need to do is kind of take a deep breath and put this in terms of perspective with, um, the, the long-term resiliency and stability of what we’ve seen historically over crazy economic cycles and over time to be a very safe and secure, um, banking system. The other thing I would tell you, and I think again, another benefit of banking with a community bank, you know, as a community banker, it was something I always complained about, but we’re examined on a very regular basis.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

And when examiners come into community banks because we’re smaller and scale, they’re basically looking at everything. I mean, it really is quite phenomenal. It’s something I learned to appreciate, um, and leverage to help ensure and help our institution just to continue to, to grow and, and be better. So I think the first thing we all need to remember is, is that we’re, we’re really actually quite blessed in this country to have the resiliency of the banking system that we do, and to have choices that we do in terms of, of where we’re banking. So once we take that deep breath and realize that what’s happened here is, is not the ordinary course of, of business or, or action, again, I think it’s a great opportunity for folks to visit with their local community banker and ask some of these questions. I mean, as, as you all, um, you know, for, for those of us that, that enjoy, you know, reviewing and reading financial statements, you know, there’s obviously many factors we can look at and there’s peer reviews you can do.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

And so if you wanna go down that path, there’s an incredible amount of data that’s that’s very actually accessible for folks to, to look at. But I, I, I think, again, this is where that relationship comes into play. And then I think the other thing for folks to think about is, you know, the types of decisions that are being made, um, especially as, as we think about, you know, within your practices supporting nonprofits and associations, who are the banks that are supporting the groups that you’re working with? Um, you know, that, that, again, that’s gonna be maybe not the, the financial indicator, but it’s gonna tell you the philosophy of the organization and, and some of the decisions that are being made. So if, if I’m running a nonprofit that is, is being supported, or, you know, there’s particular institutions that are showing up to support what I’m doing, inherently there’s gonna be, again, a symbiotic relationship there that’s going to, um, articulate the, the philosophy and the long-term perspective to, to risk management and an investment back in the community that they could be a, a perfect, um, relationship to explore for that entity.

Brian Bender:

And you touched on so many good terms there with risk management and trust and philosophy, and, and I think about a lot of our clients in nonprofits, especially those that might have larger endowments that might be really risk averse, that might have a lot of deposits in, in stable investment options, a lot of which might be CDs or savings accounts. And so we’ve had a lot of those discussions around how to, um, not to get too geeky accounting, but, um, <laugh>, but to look at the footnotes of the financial statements and say where it might there be a concentration of credit risk and what options at your bank and you need to talk to your banker. And a lot of those bankers are talking about CS and ICS and other programs. Um, can you talk a little bit about those programs at community banks and if they’re available and what other types of, I’ll say, risk, um, diversification options there might be?

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Absolutely. So, so yes, this is another great, um, option for folks to explore. And, and essentially what all of this is, is on top of FDIC insurance, which all chartered banks will have many, um, community banks will also offer some sort of, uh, private insurance basically, or way to, um, essentially structure deposits so that additional, um, insurance is available while still just banking with that one institution. And so, um, banks are, are gonna structure that a little bit differently. But again, this is, you know, where the, the opportunity and the relationships come back into play in where folks, you know, whether it’s an endowment that I’m managing or, um, an operations account on, on behalf of a client base means so many different factors that go into it. And, and that is, is where, again, the creativity, the, the knowledge of that local community banker working with their trusted accountants as well can help them find, um, that best package. So again, the thing I would say here as everything the way community bankers work is it’s never a one size fits all. So it’s about finding the solution that is best crafted to meet those individual needs. And, and so I guess my message here is there’s, there’s a lot of options out there. It’s, it’s just a matter of phrasing your hand and asking the questions

Brad Caruso:

Yeah. Without question. And, and it sound, it sound, you know, from everything that, that we’ve kind of heard so far. And I think just the, the importance of, you know, what we all yearn for, as I said earlier, is that connection. And, and you’re right. Like we, you know, we often are the frontline of defense. You’re that front line of defense where you get these questions all the time, which are, what’s the answer? What’s the answer? What’s the answer? And the answer is to talk to somebody. The answer is not to talk to an automated telephone that puts you on phone tag for days. And, you know, there, there definitely is an environment where one of the one side of the world does that and the other side of the world doesn’t. Um, and, and, and I think that’s a, that’s a big component here that, uh, or the message that I’m hearing, which is probably the message that we all know, but, you know, we all want quicker, faster, better.

Brad Caruso:

And so we’re like, just tell us the answer. Tell me what to do. You know, I I have board meetings all the time. Well, what do you advise here? What do you advise here? And I I love that. That’s a great answer. It’s, I advise you to, um, you know, go to your site, find your local community bank, meet some of your local community banks, talk about who would be a good fit for you, and ask them. Ask them. They’re, they’re the experts. They’re the ones that are actually reinvesting in their communities. They’re the ones that are talking to many people about their options. They’re the ones that know the banking world inside and out. And as much as we’re accountants and, you know, we should know the banking world, I never worked at a bank. I mean, I understand the, the basics of it.

Brad Caruso:

I understand risk management, but do I understand how a bank makes loans? Eh, not really <laugh>, do I understand how interest rates work? Eh, not really. You know, I understand how the public purports them, but, but hearing that directly from the person that is the true expert, who is that banker who is involved, um, I is great advice and I appreciate you sharing that. Cause it’s definitely, um, def that’s a good, for everyone that’s listening to this kind of hearing. What are some options out there? What are some things you can think about as you’re, as you’re evaluating your banking relationship and you’re evaluating your risk management portfolio and you’re, you’re trying to make these decisions in a turmoil, in a tumultuous time where, you know, every day you read a headline, there’s something new going on in the world. And yeah, you gotta make these decisions real time, but you don’t need to rush with this.

Brad Caruso:

And I think the thing that frustrates me as an auditor accountant is that everyone’s, like, they call you like, I need an answer by 3:00 PM today. It’s like an answer to what <laugh> your future, your future banking for the next 30 years. Like, I’m your auditor. I could tell you whether cash is right or wrong, but I, I don’t know that I can actually answer that question. And I don’t wanna sound, sound silly, but at the end of the day, I also don’t wanna lie to someone. And I’m like, Hey, listen, I I can’t answer that for you. We have to, this is a longer term discussion here, so I appreciate you supporting that, that, uh, common question we get as well is helping us, uh, respond to that in a, in a very, very important way, which is, here, here’s an actual solution. And it’s not an easy solution, it’s not a quick solution, but it is the right solution because you’re gonna get a good answer. Well,

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

You’ll, you’ll get a good answer and it’ll be an answer that’ll serve you over the long run. And it’ll probably lead to other opportunities as well. You know, so if if we allow ourselves to take the time for the conversation, it might amaze us what else we might learn, um, and, and benefits that we could come out of from that conversation that, that are gonna help us maybe in ways we never thought about for our business or our not-for-profit.

Brian Bender:

And, and if I could switch gears just a, a little bit, um, just because I think that some folks might hear community bank and they might have, I’ll say a preconceived notion of what that means. Um, whether it means technology or it means security, or it means a lot of other things. And can you talk a little bit about where community banks are as far as, um, information controls, access, security, um, a lot of those things that we think about as auditors, meaning, um, dual authentication, electronic lockboxes, um, all of those features that those who might be banking at larger institutions, the availability of those features at community banks as well.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Definitely. And, and what I love about that question and realization is, again, the community banking world is based on this trust and relationship. And so as we think about how we manage the it, the, the cyber aspect of what we do, it’s, it’s ensuring that, you know, we build a strong fortress, um, not around, you know, every aspect of, of our risk management to, again, ensure that long-term viability of the bank. And so the way I like to talk about it is, at community bank, you’re gonna find all of the high tech solutions that you might find at one of the bigger bank, but deployed in a high touch way. You know, they are not trying to give you all of these simple mobile solutions and then push you off to the call center to get your questions answered. They’re there to help you learn those tools and utilize them and an actual person to walk you through that process.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

And so whether those are things like dual authentication, um, on the cash management W app or for your own personal online banking, whether it is positive pay as you’re working through your ACH transactions, I mean, those features are readily available and again, can be customized in many ways to help your entity meet the unique needs that you might have. Again, it’s, it’s not about a one size fits all solution, it’s about solving for and meeting your individual needs. So if somebody is looking for a community bank near them, uh, would encourage you to visit the website bank locally.org, where you can enter in your zip code or location and find the local community banks near you. And that, uh, really is, is a great starting point in terms of beginning to understand some of the local options. I think too is, is I think about this from the perspective of a nonprofit organization.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Folks in this setting are really looking for partners. Um, you know, just as we think about, um, you know, what the, the mission is of that nonprofit, ultimately your community bank has a mission about the, the long-term success in the community. And so I really see a very sort of inherent, um, opportunity here where the community bank can be part of, of that, um, uh, journey for the nonprofit as they think about, you know, ultimately impacting and, and growing their mission. And it’s, you know, it’s, it’s what drives us at IBCA, our mission is to create and promote an environment where community banks flourish so that their communities can flourish. And so as we think about, um, this opportunity to take local capital and reinvested in the future, and as we think about the missions that we’re trying to serve, to me, there is just such an obvious connection and, and exciting opportunity here to think about some of these future partnerships. So check out the website, have that conversation, and, um, I’d love to hear how it goes.

Brian Bender:

Thank you, Rebeca. And, and if I could just add, add into, you talked about partners trust and mission, and we all have short-term memories, but I do want to thank you and all the community bankers for all that you did in the area of PPP, um, we all had <laugh> forget that it was 60, 70, 80 hours per week. The community bankers came in and issued those PPP loans to keep all of our non local nonprofits and businesses up and running. Um, and there was a lot of effort and blood, sweat and tears that went in, and I believe community banks issued a majority of those PPP loans. So, so thank you and thank you to your members.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

Yeah, absolutely. And, and that a again, it’s, it’s, it’s one of the things I love about community banking is, is they, they are there for the communities and it’s, it’s not just about in the easy times. It, you know, more importantly in those times, were it as challenging and community banks knew that they needed to get this capital deployed to their communities, and, and they made it happen despite crazy technical challenges and uncertainty and a world that we had no idea what was gonna happen the next day. But that’s, that’s what they do. And, and that, um, that sense of service and responsiveness, um, is why I am so excited to represent this industry is that, uh, you can make great things happen when that’s how you approach a problem.

Brad Caruso:

Yeah. And that’s a clear testament to, to the value and to, to the importance and, and just the community aspect. Well, this was such a good discussion. I, you know, I think this is a lot of very good information. We, we really appreciate Rebeca, your time today and joining us, and thank you, you know, so much for joining Civic Warriors.

Rebeca Romero Rainey:

It’s been a pleasure. Thank you both

Brad Caruso:

And Warriors out there. Thank you for listening. Uh, you know, in today’s day and age, you know, I, I always think about that we, we really can’t lose sight of community involvement. Um, we can’t get lost in the big complex world or, or the big corporate world, uh, although there’s a place for that. You know, our, our communities are really our lifeblood. And, and you know, as you’ve all noticed through the pandemic, beyond the Pandemic, you know, working with your local community, working with your local community bank is one way to maintain that close relationship and one way to build that partnership that’s so important in both times of need as well as times that are flourishing. Um, so, you know, we always need to constantly rethink how we approach business. We need to constantly assess risk, social impact, uh, financial availability and, and other factors, uh, as we manage our not-for-profit organizations. And so, uh, this is a great discussion today, just talking a little bit more about some options out there, uh, and really appreciate that time and, and really hearing a lot more and learning a lot. I learned a ton today about how the impact community banks have and, and what are some of those services, what are some of those benefits? So really appreciate the time and, uh, warriors, thank you for listening and subscribe and meet us back here for another episode. And, uh, we’ll see you all soon. Have a great day, everybody.