Pub. 17 2020 Issue 1

6 O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S — H E L P I N G N E W M E X I C O R E A L I Z E D R E A M S Those of you reading this column have a good idea of the variety of jobs held by the 2 million women and men who work for America’s banks. WASHINGTON UPDATE ROB NICHOLS PRESIDENT AND CEO American Bankers Association W hile we have over 5,000 banks that compete with each other, the vast majority of those banks rely on just a handful of large technology companies to provide the core processing systems that allow banks to operate every day. More than any other topic — even more than credit unions! I hear from bank leaders that their existing relationship with their core processor limits their bank’s ability to innovate and provide the new banking tools customers want and need in the digital era. For that reason, I convened a banker-led ABA Core Platforms Committee with a mandate to improve the relationship between banks and their core providers. Over the past year, the com- mittee has had direct and productive conversa- tions with executives from four of the major core IMPROVING BANK-CORE RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP COMMUNITY BANKS THRIVE