Washington, D.C. (Feb. 19, 2024) — The Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) recently celebrated the successful conclusion of two important events during its current ThinkTECH Accelerator cohort (AP6), Regulator Day and Core Day.
These two sessions underscore ICBA's ongoing commitment to fostering innovation, collaboration and growth within the community banking sector by bringing together key stakeholders to discuss the current state of community bank innovation and its future development.
Regulator Day: Enhancing Regulatory Engagement and Innovation
Held on Feb. 15, in conjunction with the ICBA Center for Innovation opening, ThinkTECH Regulator Day provides a forum for policymakers to share their expertise and feedback with the current cohort as they work to identify and solve for impediments to technology adoption while promoting responsible innovation.
Participants had the opportunity to hear from Federal OCC Acting Deputy Comptroller for Financial Technology Donna Murphy as well as representatives from several other leading agencies including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Georgia Department of Banking.
"ICBA has been a longtime proponent of technology as a means to solve for community bank pain points and business opportunities, while giving due deference to the regulatory environment in which they operate," ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said. “Forums like ThinkTECH Regulator Day are critical to ensuring that solutions developed reflect regulatory standards and are responsive to market dynamics. We thank the participants for sharing their expertise and experience as we work to create and promote an environment where community banks flourish."
Core Day: Forging Pathways Between Fintechs and Core Providers
Held on Feb. 5, Core Day offered a select group of core bank processing leaders, including CSI, DCI, FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry, and Q2, an exclusive opportunity to engage directly with the participating companies from the current AP6 cohort. The in-depth discussions were rich and insightful, and highlighted future collaboration opportunities.
“In our discussions with today’s community bankers, two main challenges consistently arise: the expense involved in adopting new technologies and the challenge of incorporating these advancements with their current core systems,” ICBA Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Charles Potts said. “These critical points emphasize the banks' need for cost-effective, smoothly integrated fintech solutions within their existing infrastructure to grow and succeed in today’s highly competitive financial landscape.”
Since its inception, the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator has connected the most innovative fintech companies with more than 1,400 community bankers and industry leaders — identifying and designing workable solutions that solve for today’s modern banking needs. The current cohort will be featured during a showcase at ICBA’s annual convention, ICBA LIVE in Orlando, Fla.
Fintech companies interested in participating in future innovation programming can apply here.
About ICBA
The Independent Community Bankers of America® has one mission: to create and promote an environment where community banks flourish. We power the potential of the nation’s community banks through effective advocacy, education, and innovation.
As local and trusted sources of credit, America’s community banks leverage their relationship-based business model and innovative offerings to channel deposits into the neighborhoods they serve, creating jobs, fostering economic prosperity, and fueling their customers’ financial goals and dreams. For more information, visit ICBA’s website at icba.org.
