Between 2012 and 2019, banks eliminated approximately 2,700 branches a year. In 2020, as the global health pandemic set in, banks shuttered more than 3,500 branches. And if the pace of branch closures—more than 1,700 so far in this calendar year through May—continues to hold, 2021 could see more closures than 2020.

The fundamental duty of community bank directors and executive officers is to enhance shareholder value. One of the key tenets of enhancing shareholder value is providing actual common stock liquidity. In this regard, liquidity is defined as the ability of a shareholder to convert their shares to cash at a fair price in a timely manner.

As part of its ongoing efforts to expand financial inclusion, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) #GetBanked campaign encourages consumers to consider opening a checking account that can result in access to safer and lower-cost financial products.

Business continuity and disaster recovery are essential to an operation’s contingency plan. Following these established fundamentals can help increase your organization’s resilience.

Chances are, your bank’s portfolio has been affected by declining portfolio conditions, erratic cash flows, call option exposure, or paltry yield spreads over the past year. The wild ride in interest rates kept producing surprises for the bond portfolio, and, in truth, about the only thing positive to be said is that prices rose—then declined—over that period.

If my recent aggregate conversations with investment managers are an indication, there is still a lot of seat-of-the-pants decision making going on out there when it comes to portfolio strategies. And I hasten to add this is not a criticism; it’s merely an observation. Why should we expect anything else?

Despite some improvements in outlook, bank leaders continue to be wary about the prospects for an economic recovery in 2021. Two-thirds stated the economy will not fully recover until at least 2022 or later—with 43% saying recovery will happen in 2022 and 23% indicating it will come after 2022.

Data matters and it can drive better service. If you truly want to connect and care for customers, data needs to be part of your solution. As a consumer we are conditioned to give out certain personal information when making a purchase or when seeking to have a customer service need met. We can use those pieces of information on future interactions with customers.

Some boards function as little more than an audience for management while others serve the institution as a true asset. Here’s how you can tell the difference.

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.