To start out the year, I’d like to both properly memorialize the late, great Alex Trebek and provide some helpful suggestions for investment management in this challenging rate environment in which we find ourselves. And I’d like to do it in the space of this column, so let’s pick up our signaling devices and see what answers we have in front of us.

SRM founder and principal Brad Stevens has been leading the credit industry as an analyst, trainer and consultant for over 30 years. Read Brad's Economic Update for Bank Directors.

Banks are looking ahead to this year with the hope that the human and economic toll of 2020 can be left in the past.

Economic security rapidly evaporated for many households in 2020 as the coronavirus imposed an indelible mark on our nation’s economy. While the consequences were unprecedented, data continues to affirm the vitality of community banks.

It’s a new year and for many of you, your annual employee training calendar is just kicking off. Regardless of where you are in the process, we want to make you are aware of some of great courses coming to you in the very near future.

In a time of ambiguity, you take notice when there’s unilateral consensus, as was the case at last month’s ThinkTECH Policy Summit. During the summit, assembled regulators, legislators, and community bankers all agreed that community bank innovation will drive the future of financial services.

Community bankers have hit the ground running this year with another round of Paycheck Protection Program lending, Economic Impact Payment processing, and the everyday business of supporting local communities during the pandemic.

In our industry if you’re not moving forward, you’re in danger of falling behind. It’s why we created the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator program—to foster community bank innovation.

The end of 2020 is here and so is the end of Adobe Flash! All Community Banker University courses have been converted out of Flash and into HTML so you should have no trouble launching courses come Jan. 1, 2021.

We have had to juggle countless responsibilities this year—to our families, to our businesses, to our communities, to each other. With so many simultaneous demands, we have had to make no shortage of sacrifices.