"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
– St. Nicholas in Clement Clarke Moore's famous poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year, to you and yours from ICBM! The next BankWise is on January 2nd.
Lawmakers urge caution on CU-bank deals
ICBA isn’t the only one sounding the alarm over credit unions and their encroachment into banks’ territory.

In recent congressional hearings committee members, including Reps. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) and Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), raised concerns over credit union acquisitions of community banks .

ICBA’s “Wake Up” campaign is gaining steam.
Download ICBM's 2020 Event and Network Calendar
The schedule is out for ICBM's 2020 networks, workshops, conferences, and convention.


Here's an idea: Print one for you, then print another for your break room.


Proposed brokered deposit rule would ease funding issues
The FDIC issued a proposed rule to update its regulations on brokered deposits to improve bank flexibility. Among its provisions, the proposal would establish a new framework for deposit placement arrangements and clarify that deposits are not considered brokered when the customer has a direct relationship with the bank.

In a recent CSBS poll, “cost of funds” topped the list of community banker concerns for the next 12 months. The new rule could help ease those worries.

FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams previewed the proposal in a speech last week and called on Congress to streamline legal restrictions on the use of brokered deposits by troubled banks.

ICBA supports reforming guidelines on brokered deposits and successfully advocated provisions in the S. 2155 law that allow community banks to exclude from their call reports a significant amount of reciprocal deposits as brokered deposits.
Spat between PNC, Venmo illustrates the need for FedNow
A twitter battle erupted last week after customers of PNC lost their accounts' connection to Venmo. While reporting from the Wall Street Journal indicates the issue was caused by PNC's security requirements, the Pittsburgh bank took it as an opportunity to win customers over to its platform, Zelle. The fight indicates how helpless a lone community bank could be without an independent p2p platform.

When customers contacted PNC customer service, they received a message that said,
“if you are having this difficulty, you may want to explore alternative means of money movement, such as Zelle, or work directly with the third-party applications to explore other alternatives,” according to customers of the bank.

If PNC Bank can use IT issues as an opportunity to entice Venmo customers to move to Zelle. Zelle can also use connectivity issues between it's platform and a community bank to nudge customers to change banks. Zelle is owned by Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, US Bank, Citibank and Wells Fargo.
House passes USMCA Trade Agreement
The leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives has reached an agreement with leaders from the Trump Administration on the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. The agreement passed in the House today. The Senate is expected to approve it in early 2020.

How will it impact the ag industry?

Mark Your Calendar
Is your bank truly ready for a cyber attack?
ICBM has partnered with SHAZAM to bring your CEO, Marketing Director, and IT officers for training, discussion, and planning for a cyber attack.
We want you to be ready!


Note for first-time logins: ICBM has a new registration system. If you have not yet logged in, please select the “Forgot password?” option to the left of the registration page. Your username is your email address. Instructions to reset your password will be emailed to you.

Who: CEO, IT Officer, Risk Officer, Marketing Director
When: January 29 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Where: ICBM Training Center
Investment: $199 for 1st registration, $99 for 2nd/3rd from the same bank.
Faces and Places
Our executive team, board of directors, and past chairs recognized Kevin Paulsen for eight years of service – six as a board member representing ICBM District 3 and two as a Director at Large – to Minnesota community banking on Dec. 6th.

Thank you Kevin!



  • With the completion of $32 million in 10-year fixed-to-floating rate subordinated notes for their client First Carolina Financial Services, Inc., Performance Trust Capital Partners closes its 13th transaction in 2019, making it the top issuer of subordinated debt for banks under $2 billion.
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