Pub. 18 2021 Issue 1

Larry Willard, long-time president and chief executive officer of Wells Fargo New Mexico and West Texas, died on February 24 in Midland, Texas. Mr. Willard was 78.

Farmington-based Four Corners Community Bank recently appointed Sam Summers to lead its Cortez, Colorado branch. Sam has over 30 years of progressive lending and leadership experience. For the past 20 years, Sam has served as president and senior lender of several community banks in Wyoming. He has extensive experience in commercial, construction and agricultural lending. Further experience includes commercial real estate, credit analysis, management and customer service. Summers hails from Sheridan, Wyoming and earned his B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Wyoming.

$14 Million Creates Wastewater-Related Infrastructure Serving Six New Mexico Reservation Villages — Wells Fargo
Project Investor

Despite new pushes toward digital transformations, many financial institutions continue to use manual lending processes that add costs, create delays, and make their staff work harder than they must, according to a new survey by Abrigo, the leading technology provider of compliance, credit risk, and lending solutions for community financial institutions.

On March 9, 2020, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued guidance encouraging financial institutions to assist customers and communities affected by COVID-19. With the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, many banks were faced with their own set of challenges. During this time, many banks took steps to assist consumers, including allowing loan modifications with no fees, waiving fees on accounts and offering in-home banking services. Many were also participating in providing Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to small businesses. Because of these accommodations, many banks struggled with high volumes of COVID-related mortgage requests and questions from customers and PPP loans. Banks were overcoming these overwhelming volumes while also maintaining their efforts to keep the physical locations of the banks safe for both customers and the employees. Through these difficult times, financial institutions created and revised policies and procedures to adjust and provide excellent service to customers.

The road to setting up a cannabis business gets thorny and tough to navigate when it comes to protecting assets. We sat with Southwest Capital Bank president and chief operating officer Lonnie Talbert to chat about cannabis banking.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic fallout, many states are becoming more active and creative in promoting local economic solutions. Desperate times tend to force the hands of elected officials and inspire the quest for nontraditional solutions. In New York state, Governor Andrew Cuomo, facing multiple mushrooming scandals, decided to relent and sign a law that legalized recreational marijuana in his state, a logical move he was opposed to until he became desperate enough to relent.

Relationship value pricing can be an effective strategy for improving a community bank’s fee income and determining the worth of the overall customer relationship. This is especially important in the current interest-rate environment.

The Agencies (OCC, FRB, FDIC, FCA and NCUA) have recently proposed1 revisions to the Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Flood Insurance. The proposal’s purpose is to supplement the July 20202 proposed Q&As, which only contained two proposed questions on private flood insurance. These new proposed Q&As are formulated based on questions received by the Agencies regarding private flood insurance rules that went into effect July 1, 2019, and include 24 proposed Q&As on private flood insurance.

Digital banking trends have accelerated as a result of the pandemic, and many institutions have pivoted toward digital transformation. But in the digital lending space, slow-moving institutions
still face a disadvantage.