High-performing community banks know that the key to growing profitably and building franchise value is to control what they can and strategically manage against market factors they cannot. Banks have recently had a laser focus on the efficiency ratio as they strive to offset the additional expense of loan loss provisions to cover asset quality issues.
The efficiency ratio is comprised of noninterest expense, noninterest income and net interest margin. However, we’re going to focus on expense management and fee income, because community banks have the greatest control over these variables. The management of these two elements is critical to maintaining or optimizing overall earnings performance.

You know things are bad when the Simpsons cartoon series can instruct us on security. But here we are, considering the example of Montgomery Burns, the Simpson’s maniacal owner of a nuclear power plant, as he runs a gauntlet of body scans and password challenges required to enter his palatial office. Once inside, Burns notices a rickety screen door open to an unprotected field behind the plant.
I mention this in the context of a recent hacker headline – “Google Mail Hack is Blamed on China” (Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2011). After reading through the ominous description of a brewing international incident, I saw that the victims had merely been tricked into sharing their Gmail passwords through a phishing attack.

As the president and owner of a mystery-shopping service firm that serves the needs of financial institutions, I am always struck by the absence of top-notch quality customer service. At a time when the level of business competition has significantly increased, is it any wonder that customer loyalty is fast becoming an endangered species? Overall, customer service is lackluster and nondescript at best.
Given this epidemic of poor or non-existent customer service, successful business organizations are checking up on their most valuable and important marketing tools – their employees. These organizations know all too well that each member of their customer service team is a critical link and personifies, pleasant or unfriendly, the professional service brand image in the eyes of their customers.

Wall Street and New York’s biggest banks may be eager to call it a day on the sorry foreclosure mess and its many scandalous subplots, even at the expense of writing a very big check. But alas, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, is having none of it. Just a year into the job, Schneiderman has succeeded in helping shift the debate, both in New York and nationally, away from efforts to close the book on the foreclosure mess and onto a new and seemingly growing round of investigations aimed at getting at the root causes – and supposed villains – behind the ongoing catastrophe.

Virtualization is a proven software technology that is rapidly transforming the IT landscape and fundamentally changing the way that people compute. Virtualization allows you to enhance the way your IT environment operates. It simplifies the physical infrastructure, providing centralized management and better flexibility for resource sharing. From data centers to desktops, virtualization lets banks pool and share IT resources centrally and standardize computer deployment and resources so data is more secure.
For years, bankers have been watching and waiting for the definitive direction of virtualization. Although the technology isn’t new, there has been a delay in adoption for reasons ranging from an overall lack of knowledge about the benefits, to banks fearing a shift in their day-to-day operations.

Finding the right executive for an important position in banking, and particularly in the specialized field of wealth management, can make or break an organization’s performance. Unfilled positions and failed new-hires can cost an organization money and momentum and undermine their status in the marketplace.

Meanwhile, the task of identifying top talent gets harder all the time. A declining number of mid-career workers, fewer younger workers entering the workforce and a rapid growth in workers above the age of 55 are all contributing to a talent gap. Furthermore, with the walls separating the various financial services firms tumbling down, banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, money managers and others are all searching for the same talent.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), in its original form, was designed to protect workers by imposing overtime premiums, establishing minimum wages and abolishing the use of oppressive child labor. But today, nearly 70 years after the act’s inception, some believe it is the employees, counseled by plaintiffs’ lawyers, who are taking advantage of their employers.

 In February of this year, the Financial Accounting Standards Board released Statement 159, which allows fair-value accounting for most financial assets and liabilities. This is no surprise, as this ...

For every bank there is always the risk of acquisition.

Community banks can thrive and grow, but the risk of a larger bank acquiring it is always there, said Gordon Coleman, president and CEO of Patriot Federal Bank in Canajoharie in Montgomery County.

Strategic flexible working is based on the core concept of traditional flexible working and telecommuting programs. But when elevated to a major corporate initiative driven by producing measurable results...