IC University Blog

Cutting costs is an easy process, right? You pick a target, assess what it will take to get there, and make a plan to close the gap. Here’s the reality: The world of community banking is constantly and rapidly evolving, meaning you can no longer rely on a static vision of where you need to go. Moreover, if your cost-cutting initiative doesn’t start with your company mission as the guiding principle, it’s destined to fail.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)—a bipartisan federal agency that champions the interests of American consumers—has added certain businesses to the Safeguards Rule, which was designed by the FTC to protect customer information from being shared inappropriately as required by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that has been in force since 1999.

Community bank spending on regulatory compliance continues to increase with the ever-growing number of regulations imposed on the financial service sector. This situation creates a significant challenge, requiring you to constantly evaluate and improve your operations — and not just to keep up with regulations, but also to satisfy rapidly changing consumer expectations.

In recent years, businesses across the country have struggled to attract and retain a high-quality workforce, a trend that’s been exacerbated by a highly disruptive pandemic. Community banks are not exempt from this predicament, and, in fact, they must grapple with a unique set of challenges.

Create meaningful, personalized, and efficient digital experiences for your prospects and customers — or they’ll take their banking business elsewhere. This is the reality of today’s financial services sector, accelerated by the trend toward a younger, more tech-savvy clientele.

A growing segment of community bank customers want it all: both digital and in-person interactions, coupled with highly personalized banking advice based on their individual circumstances. Smarter, savvier, and more informed than ever, today’s consumers are less concerned about brand loyalty and identity — and more than willing to switch to a competitor if you’re not satisfying their needs and expectations.

Banks and other financial institutions are prime targets for cybercrime — because that’s where the money is. In fact, recent statistics show that financial service firms were hit 300 more times than other businesses. Each of these cyberattacks typically costs financial service firms millions of dollars.

Community banking comes with a unique set of challenges — different from other types of financial service firms. In a new blog series, I’ll be exploring several crucial business issues in community banking, as well as how they may be addressed through innovative strategies and technology. I’ll also pose key questions that can be used as a framework for moving forward.

Recently, Ironcore was notified about undisclosed Microsoft Exchange on-premises servers being exploited by zero-day vulnerabilities.

Our data is collected daily. With security breaches as a common threat, it is important to take precautions in order to keep our data safe, but what about our children’s data? We commonly think of data collection as something that only happens on screened devices while interacting with websites. Your child might not have perused Black Friday sales online, but is there something else that may be collecting their data?