Recapping the 2024 Community Banking Research Conference
Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis hosted the 2024 Community Banking Research Conference, which is in its 12th year.
The conference “is keenly focused on bringing together diverse perspectives to discuss emerging research and to debate important issues impacting the community bank business model,” St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem said in his welcoming remarks.
The event is sponsored by the Federal Reserve System, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). More than 150 people attended the Oct. 2-3 conference in person and many more watched via livestream to hear from prominent speakers and to learn about the latest research on community banking. Attendees included community bankers, academics, policymakers and bank supervisors.
If you weren’t able to make it to the conference or tune in to the livestream—or if you want a refresher—here’s a quick recap of what you missed.
2024 Annual Survey of Community Banks
A prominent feature of the Community Banking Research Conference has been the release of the Annual Survey of Community Banks. Now in its 11th year, the survey is conducted by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and state banking supervisors who consult with U.S. community banks of all sizes.
“Adding this year’s responses to over a decade of data helps us understand how risks have changed over time and how the evolving environment affects community banks and their customers,” Brandon Milburn, president and CEO of CSBS, said in a foreword.
Bank executives are surveyed on a wide range of topics, such as external risks, internal risks, technology implementation, competition and credit quality. In addition, the survey features the “Five Questions for Five Bankers” section that offers a firsthand look at the challenges and opportunities that are facing community bankers in 2024.
Keynote Speeches from a Federal Reserve Governor and the FDIC Chairman
Federal Reserve Gov. Michelle Bowman gave a morning keynote speech on the first day of the conference. She discussed various aspects of community banking supervision and regulation and shared her views on building a community banking framework for the future.
The afternoon keynote that day was given by FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg, who spoke about the connection between community banks and small-business lending. He cited data from the Small Business Administration on the importance of small businesses to the overall economy, and highlighted the FDIC’s 2024 Small Business Lending Survey, focusing on the relationships banks have with small businesses and those relationships’ importance to small-business lending.
Research Paper Sessions
Mustafa Emin of the University of Alabama speaks at a research session on deposit stability on Oct. 2, 2024, at the Community Banking Research Conference at the St. Louis Fed. From left at the table are moderator Matthew Plosser of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, presenter Edward Kim of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and community bank discussant Mary Willis of Fidelity Bank, Fuquay-Varina, N.C.
With research playing such a vital role in the conference, event organizers again incorporated three different research paper sessions throughout the agenda. At the 2024 conference, the research papers focused on three topics: community banks and the local economy, deposit stability, and consumer protection.
In addition to the paper presentations, the sessions included insight from regulators and academics who served as moderators. The sessions also featured a community bank partner who offered reflections on each of the papers. This part of the conference serves as another example of how the event brings together multiple segments of the community banking industry.
Meet the authors and read the papers.
Community Banker Keynote Conversation
To open the second day of the conference, St. Louis Fed Vice President Jim Fuchs hosted a conversation with Elizabeth Magennis, president of ConnectOne Bank in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., who served as the community banking keynote speaker for the 2024 event. The conference has featured a community banking keynote speaker in some form for each iteration of the event since it started in 2013.
As the speaker this year, Magennis offered perspectives on the current state of community banking in the U.S., including the opportunities community banks have to compete with larger banks and nonbank competitors.
As an example, she talked about the origins of her bank, which opened in 2005, and how it has grown to $9.8 billion in assets in the highly competitive New York market where much larger institutions are located. She continually cited the customer-first culture that’s been built over time at the bank.
“That’s what’s top of mind all the time is, ‘How do we service our clients in the best possible way?’” Magennis said. “That’s what we’re selling. We’re selling that responsiveness; we’re selling that decision-making and that’s really the only differentiation that we have.”
With ConnectOne approaching $10 billion in assets, she explained how the bank has a plan in place for when it crosses that threshold in terms of regulation and supervision.
“When we were at about $7 billion in assets, we already were talking to our regulators about preparing for the $10 billion mark,” she said. “We created some roles within the organization, we hired some very experienced talent to help us …. We just always wanted to be proactive when it came to that $10 billion mark.”
The wide-ranging conversation touched on topics of employee engagement, recruiting the next generation of community bankers, mergers and more.
More about the Conference
Other speakers at the event included Carl White, senior vice president of the St. Louis Fed Supervision, Credit and Learning Division, who gave reflections at the end of the first day, and Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid, who gave morning remarks on the second day.
The conference also featured a presentation from this year’s CSBS Community Bank Case Study Competition winners. The annual competition for undergraduate students helps encourage more people to go into the field of banking.
Check out the Community Banking Research Conference website for videos and additional materials.
This blog explains everyday economics and the Fed, while also spotlighting St. Louis Fed people and programs. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the St. Louis Fed or Federal Reserve System.
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