The VBA is excited to share a new way to listen to recent conversations and virtual events – VBA Audio Online. On this platform, we will include links to recordings of different virtual meetings that have been held so you can listen on the go.

Two recent event recordings are now available:
• VBA Town Hall on Racial Equality – Panel conversation, moderated by Bruce Whitehurst, between VBA Chairman John Asbury, President and CEO of Atlantic Union Bankshares; Tamika Brewer, SVP, Head of Teammate Engagement at Atlantic Union Bank; Wendy McSweeney, SVP, Chief Inclusion Officer at Truist; and Naomi Mercer, SVP, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at American Bankers Association.
• Retail Banking Post-COVID Virtual Roundtable – Conversation between VBA industry partners and event sponsors Haberfeld, Harland Clarke, PWCampbell and Q2 on best practices, takeaways and considerations as banks prepare to return to normal operations in a post-COVID world.

We will continue to add recordings to this page as they become available.

American National Bank & Trust Co.
Allison Petty – Assistant to the CEO, Strategy Coordinator

Benchmark Community Bank
Christine Amos – Assistant Vice President, Mortgage Officer
Philip Kallam – Assistant Vice President, Relationship Banker
Eboni Lee – Assistant Vice President, Marketing Officer
Tonya Rhodes – Relationship Banker
Stephanie Sullivan – Assistant Vice President, Human Resources Officer

EagleBank
Jeff Curry – Chief Risk Officer
Sam Pepper – Chief Operating Officer

F&M Bank
Matt Beahm – Vice President, Commercial Relationship Manager
Barton Black – Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Strategy & Risk Officer
Carlie Kelly – Bank Officer, Credit Analyst
Kevin Russell – Executive Vice President, President of Mortgage, Title and Financial Services

Village Bank
Cindy Hodges – Commercial Relationship Manager
Eva Matalone – Senior Vice President, Business Solutions
Amanda Porch – Commercial Relationship Manager

The banking industry is not just a great long-term career opportunity, but a uniquely fulfilling one. Bankers go to work every day to help their organizations, their peers, employees and most important, their customers. In today’s challenging times, that’s more important now than ever. (American Banker)

In this column, ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols discusses some of the ways that ABA is engaging in an open dialogue of how the banking industry, both as employers and as facilitators of wealth creation, can further the principles everyone agrees on: That all Americans should have a truly equal opportunity to prosper and that economic inclusion is essential to creating such opportunity. (American Bankers Association)

VBA Announces New Endorsed Providers

HealthEquity
HealthEquity administers Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and other consumer-directed benefits for their more than 12 million accounts in partnership with employers, benefits advisors, and health and retirement plan providers who share their mission to connect health and wealth, and value their culture of remarkable “Purple” service. To learn more, visit www.vabankers.org/endorsed-provider/healthequity.

Paycor
More than 40,000 small and mid-sized businesses trust Paycor to manage their most valuable asset – people. Paycor delivers intuitive technology, but is legendary for their singular focus on helping professionals make a real difference in their organizations. Paycor’s personalized support and scalable technology streamlines every aspect of people management, allowing their clients to focus on their business and mission. Paycor is recommended by today’s most innovative brokers, bankers, and CPAs. Paycor is offering no payroll fees for 2020 for VBA member banks. To learn more, visit www.vabankers.org/endorsed-provider/paycor.

Cloud technologies and AI can help banks weather changes brought by COVID-19 and distinguish their offerings in the long term. (World Economic Forum)

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said in a television interview that the fate of the economy is tied to what happens with the coronavirus pandemic, adding that the central bank can and will do more if it determines such action will help it achieve its job and inflation goals. (Wall Street Journal)

The coronavirus outbreak has reshaped the financial services industry, and that is especially true for card issuers. As the situation has evolved, we've seen our financial institutions and retail issuing clients display incredible agility and resourcefulness in responding to the marked shift in how consumers want to pay. Here, Gaylon Jowers, president of VBA Endorsed Provider TSYS, looks across a broad and diverse landscape of issuers, both in financial services and in retail.

To meet the demands of organizational growth and complexity, organizations require a combination of flexibility and control in how they pay for mission critical inputs of production. Simple, centralized purchasing inevitably cracks under the strains of growth. Leading financial professionals get out ahead of this breaking point by adding purchasing cards to the suite of treasury services they receive from their banks. In this whitepaper, VBA Endorsed Provider ServisFirst explores some of the primary reasons organizations add purchasing cards to their payables arsenal and the benefits they derive from that important decision.

While you may not be thinking of customer profitability as much these days, customer relationships are always important. Right now, you are working on filling the immediate needs of your business customers, which is crucial. However, there will come a day when COVID-19 isn’t a crisis anymore and businesses start settling back into their place in the economy. Here, VBA Associate Member PCBB discusses the top three steps to assessing your customer profitability.

On June 29, 2020, FinCEN published FIN-2020-G001 providing guidance for obtaining due diligence information for hemp-related businesses. In this article, Brian Crow of VBA Endorsed Provider TCA highlights some key takeaways from the current guidance.