January marks National Mentoring Month, a campaign aimed at expanding quality mentoring opportunities. As part of our overall diversity and inclusion efforts, the VBA has created the Women’s Mentorship Pilot Program to assist our member banks with preparing the talented women within banks for future senior leadership positions. Our research shows that women often don’t recognize their own talent and need someone to identify the potential for future success in leadership. In this program, mentor/mentee pairs participate in a 10-month experience involving one-on-one interaction and discussion combined with training and regional networking opportunities.

This program is designed to help:

• Motivate women to explore their potential and focus on their development within the bank
• Enhance their knowledge of bank management and their role in the success of the organization
• Empower women to set goals and develop a path for achievement
• Connect with peers in the industry

The Women’s Mentorship Program pilot kicked off in December 2019. We hope that you will embrace this very important initiative for Virginia banks as we work to demonstrate that banking is gender diverse and inclusive in attracting and retaining talented women. Learn more about the program here. Contact Courtney Fleming or Laurie Milligan for more information.

Bank of Botetourt
Sharon Cooper – Mortgage Loan Officer
Kimberley Davenport – Mortgage Loan Officer

Benchmark Community Bank
Robert Foley – Assistant Branch Manager
Tammy Robinson-White – Vice President, Branch Manager
Kristen Sadler – Assistant Branch Manager
Sherry Shriver – Branch Manager
Nicole Young – Vice President, Branch Manager

Blue Ridge Bank
Jim McCarty – Chief Administrative Officer

Middleburg Financial, a subsidiary of Atlantic Union Bank
David Zimmerman – President

TowneBank
Mathew Clarke – Market President

Truist Bank
David Camden – Regional President, Virginia-West
Evelyn Lee – Regional President, Greater Washington, D.C. including Northern Virginia
Dan O’Neill – Regional President, Virginia-East

United Bank
Tim Veith – Regional President

Virginia Commonwealth Bank
Michael Troutman – Executive Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer

In this column, ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols discusses some of the red flags that can signal elder financial abuse, as well as some positive news amid all the data surrounding elder financial fraud. (American Bankers Association)

From making everything move smoother and faster to the evolving and changing role of banks, experts don’t necessarily agree on what’s coming next. There is generally consensus, though, that consumers are the beneficiaries of the increasing competition in the space. (Tearsheet)

Now that the famed Apple Card has been in the market for nearly 10 months, what can we learn from Apple’s foray into the banking, or more specifically, the credit card space? (ABA Bank Marketing)

When bankers talk about their teams’ hesitations and struggles to embrace a digital-first banking model, many seem to feel that changes are happening to them, and not for them. That perspective shows that they aren’t looking at the changes and digital banking tools as empowering their jobs as much as threatening the existence of those same jobs. (American Banker)

We tend to think of burnout as an individual problem, solvable by "learning to say no," and other self-help strategies. But evidence is mounting that applying personal, band-aid solutions to an epic and rapidly evolving workplace phenomenon may be harming, not helping, the battle. The responsibility has shifted away from the individual and towards the organization. (Harvard Business Review)

There’s a clear business case for offering Bank On-certified accounts as a way for financial institutions to both serve the unbanked and grow their banks. (ABA Banking Journal)

In the payments ecosystem, sometimes there's a nagging feeling that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Yet over time, things do change in payments, even though it is more often occurring at the pace of an evolution rather than a revolution. In this article, VBA Endorsed Provider TSYS spoke with a few experts to see what struck them most in terms of significant developments in the payments space in 2019.