Independent Banker

Check image exchange has opened new check clearing options for community banks. While banks can send and receive their check image files through the Federal Reserve, now they can quickly and inexpensively add clearing options through their bankers' bank,...

"To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last-but eat you he will."These words, spoken by the late Ronald Reagan, convey the idea that you have to be engaged in...

It's not what you earn, it's what you "keep" that counts. Good advice for all and sentiments I've shared with clients, friends, high school economics classes and even my own children. These words of wisdom, often associated with the young as they accumulate...

In a major victory for ICBA and community banks, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox accepted ICBA's repeated calls to postpone the reporting deadline for Sarbanes-Oxley Act's Section 404 internal control audits for small SEC...

Rising retirement assets present new opportunities for community banks, but the clock is tickingNot too long ago, banks dominated the market in overseeing the retirement savings of Americans. As recently as 1990, banks held 42 percent of all Individual...