Your Fed, Your Voice: Lorrie Trogden

Seema Sheth: Hey, there, and welcome to Your Fed, Your Voice. I’m Seema Sheth, Regional Executive of the Louisville branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and your host on this episode. We’re really excited because we’re going to be diving into the world of banking, how banking impacts the economy, what issues are impacting the sector.

All of that will be answered today by our fantastic guest, Lorrie Trogden who’s the president and CEO of the Arkansas Bankers Association. Lorrie, thank you so much for being here with us to have this conversation.

Lorrie Trogden: Thank you. I appreciate being here. I’ve heard that you’re going to be pretty easy on me for this interview, so.

Sheth: Always. We are friends. So to start us off hard with a really difficult question, can you walk us through the work of the Arkansas Bankers Association? What do you do, and why do you do it?

Trogden: Well, when people ask me what does an association do, I say our primary objectives are to advocate and educate. So we are making sure-- at the advocacy level, we work on the state and federal level. And our job is to make sure that bad bills or regulations stay away and that good bills or regulations pass and become law or regulation.

And then education-- we have a world-class education program, as far as I’m concerned, and offer everything from the teller line up to the CEO and president positions. We can educate them, no matter what the training is that they need.

Sheth: Oh, that’s fantastic. So can you describe that a little bit about the current climate? What does it feel like in Arkansas? What indicators do you rely on to assess healthy versus unhealthy conditions?

Trogden: Sure. Well, I think as far-- we’re a little bit different because we are a heavy agriculture state, and we are very rural here. And so the farming crisis is really hitting us. So that has us very concerned. It’s time to put crops in the ground. They’re looking to make their crop loans now.

And so the bankers have to decide, where can we go with this-- obviously, right? And so they’re trying to balance servicing that customer and servicing farming in Arkansas and then also meeting their safety and soundness requirements.

Sheth: So banks in Arkansas-- community banks-- I mean, you hit the nail on the head. They really are integral to the fabric of the community. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? How and why are community banks in your neck of the woods are so incredibly important?

Trogden: Yeah, well, like I said, we are very rural in Arkansas. And so they have those hometown relationships. I would say about 80% of our banks are under $700 million. And so they’re in all of the small communities, and they are out in the community every day. They serve on church boards and school boards and all kinds of charities and things like that.

They’re the ones out there with the grills, and they’re grilling at the local football game on Friday nights. And so they really are the backbones of their communities. Quite often, they’re the employers in their communities. And so they are integrated at every level.

And they know their customers. They watch their customers grow up, and they have multigenerational families that bank with them. And that’s the joy of community banking.

Sheth: So Arkansas is a part of the St. Louis Federal Reserve’s footprint. In fact, you’re the only state that we have the entirety of within our footprint. But can you tell me a little bit about how your work overlaps with the work of the St. Louis Fed.

Trogden: You all put on The Breakfast with the Fed, and it’s always on a Friday morning at 7:45 AM. Now, bankers love mornings. Lorrie Trogden does not love mornings. So I get up, I get ready, I put on the suit, I march in there on a Friday morning, and we have a discussion.

But it really is good. Our bankers enjoy them. It allows me to see the bankers from across the state and talk with them. And then it allows us to interact with the economists and the speakers that the Fed brings in and let them know, here’s what we’re seeing in our communities in Arkansas because you have numbers, and then you have people. And they’re the ones on the ground with the people every day. And so they put the people stories behind the numbers that the economists are pulling out.

Sheth: It’s one of the cool things that we can do. So the Fed, we have this-- we like to call it our convening power. But this ability to bring people together helps us in a lot of ways. First, we get a bunch of folks who are moving the needle on the economy together, and we get to listen to them and listen to what they’re seeing and experiencing.

And then we get to share the best of what the Fed has to offer. So like you share, we’ll bring in an economist, we’ll bring in an expert with the hope to give those folks a little bit of business intelligence that we have to offer to help them make good business decisions.

So one of the things that I know is a big issue in the industry is the concept of fraud. I know fraud has-- with the advent of AI and just with how sophisticated fraud has become-- it’s more and more of an issue for banks. So can you share with me a little bit about how you all are seeing and then addressing the issue of fraud?

Trogden: When I am out speaking in front of civic groups or wherever, if I have a microphone in my face, I take a few minutes and just say, well, whatever topic I’m here to talk about, I am going to stop for just a minute and talk about fraud. And I just talk about what’s happening in the industry and give them tips on what happens when there’s a text message that says it’s from your bank. What should you do? Or what happens if you get an email with a link-- common phishing and things like that. So just trying to educate them before they get to the point of where they’re standing at the bank in front of someone trying to wire money somewhere.

Sheth: As you look out to 2026 and beyond, can you tell me what it is that you are both excited about, and perhaps if there are some issues that you’re spotting that you want to make sure you spend a little more time on?

Trogden: Every day, we wake up and we say, what can we do today for the Association? What can we do to help our bankers to help their customers? And that’s what banks think of too. When they wake up in the morning, their question is what can I do today to help my customer?

Sheth: Lorrie, thank you so much for being here with us today and for sharing your thoughts and wisdom. For those of you that have been joining us online, thank you so much for being here today. Please remember to and subscribe on YouTube and tell a friend or colleague about this great show. Until next time, I’m Seema Sheth, and this has been Your Fed, Your Voice.

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