I've Closed My Lobbies: Now What?

This is my third weekly update to you during the COVID-19 situation.  I’m simply trying to help by keeping you focused on managing your bank as well as you can.  Your employees, your customers, and your communities need you.

First, as I’ve said before, keep doing what community banks do – meeting the unique needs of customers.  In today’s environment, it means closing lobbies to protect the health of employees and customers, while making yourself available via phone, email, and even in-person meetings to be sure your customers’ needs are met.

Maybe I should have said “first, communicate well” but I’ll address that now.  Even if you are doing the right things, all around, it won’t matter much if customers don’t know.  Make sure you are communicating information about hours and methods of operation, how to contact you if in-person appointments are necessary (ranging from business discussions to safe deposit access), using the optimum communications methods in your markets.  Remind them that the authorities consider banking an “essential” service and that you will remain open.  This starts with good signage (hopefully your communities are relaxing any signage rules during this time) at your locations, updating your web site (a stale web site communicates the wrong message, so update it often) traditional media outlets, and various social media channels including Facebook and Twitter.  Messages need to be simple and concise.  Make sure you are answering the phones promptly, in a positive, reassuring manner.

I’m operating on the assumption (based on a lot of discussions) that most of you are not as busy as normal.  Make sure you take advantage of these slow periods to address important projects.

Here are three areas that you may want to consider.

Ø  Lending: make sure you have a plan to renew and extend operating loans, including (for many of you) ag loans to help farmers prepare for planting.  Stay in touch with your farmers, as many areas are also dealing with way too much rain, which may delay planting and impact crop choices, or require farmers to file insurance claims.

Ø  Source of funds: we love small businesses, because they are a good source of low-cost funds.  Make sure you stay in touch with your most reliable depositors, and find ways to help them.  If they are burning through cash, struggling to make payroll, etc., look for creative ways to keep them afloat.  They need you, and you need them.   Of course, if you see that commonly available deposits are dwindling, you’ll also need to consider alternate funding sources, so now is the time to assess your current borrowing capabilities, as well as considering CD promotions to gather additional funds.

Ø  Projects: Let’s get a handle on projects that you have underway: acquisitions, developing new products and services, renewing or renegotiating vendor agreements, or opening new facilities.  While some of these efforts may slow down a bit, there may be deadlines for deals to get done that you want to honor.  Don’t let a temporary situation prevent you from making good long-term decisions.  Dust off that strategy and let’s talk about how to keep you focused on the future while you manage the present.

Odds and Ends

Ø  Remind your employees to look for fraud.  If it doesn’t “feel” right, ask for help before you cash that check, or wire those funds.  Sadly, there are many looking to exploit the difficult times we are operating in.

Ø  Keep your ATMs full.  There’s plenty of cash.  But the last thing you need is for an ATM to run out of money and someone post that on Facebook!  Look at how irrationally people are shopping.  They will fall for a “cash shortage” situation without fact checking, and you may have a run on your hands.  Keeping that ATM full is a good way to protect yourself . . . but you also want to review with your employees your plans for responding to a run on cash. (thanks to alert reader DF for the ATM tip)

Ø  Work to keep up morale.  As a manager, stay visible, stay positive, and LEAD.  Don’t be paralyzed by the situation.

Ø  Finally – feel free to share any tips with me about what’s working for you – I will include them in my next letter.

As always, I’m here if you need me.  Call, email, or whatever works.  Day or night.

Trent Fleming

trent@trentfleming.com

(901)896-4007

Controlling the Message

Since my last update a week ago, I’ve had the privilege of speaking with several of you as you consider how to respond to the COVID-19 situation.  There’s of course the need to assess CDC recommendations and local government issuances, in order to determine what your operations should look like.  There’s the possibility of closing lobbies, closing branches, changing working hours, or reducing staff.  Among other things.

Here’s my key advice – focus on communication.  You can either tell your own story, or let rumors tell it for you.  Guess which is better?

A part of your response plan has to be keeping employees and customers up to date on your efforts, and how you will provide service.  We talked last week about evaluating current activity, leaning toward drive-thru service and promoting remote delivery channels that you already offer.  These are the basics.

Please also consider offering home/office pickup for deposits or the return of signed documents, if customers are concerned about coming into the bank.  Even curb side pickup of documents and deposits (park outside and let us know you are here) may be needed to alleviate customer fears.  The bottom line is this: make sure you are doing what community banks always do well – meeting the needs of your customers, however unique.  Of course, make sure you can do this efficiently and safely.

Internally, extra precautions to keep exposed surfaces clean are certainly important, and you want to advertise that you are doing this, as well as instructing employees who don’t feel well to stay at home.  Remember too that money is always dirty.  Extra treatment with disinfectant is probably a good idea (all the time), and make sure to emphasize handwashing after handling cash.

Closing the lobby will be seen as a big deal, so do this thoughtfully and with plenty of notice.  Limiting lobby traffic (some of you already have experience with this in high crime areas) is another consideration, but some combination of reduced lobby hours, and limiting the number of customers in the bank at one time, may be the right course of action, depending on the situation in your area.

Again – communicate. Use customer email addresses if you have them, leverage your Facebook or Twitter presence for one to many communications, and issue press releases to local media so that you are controlling the message.

Finally, a word about your ongoing projects, whether you are considering acquisitions, adding new products or services, or replacing existing systems.  Now is not the time to shelve those projects.  When business returns to a normal pace, you will be behind if you haven’t kept abreast of new things.  So let’s leverage technology to keep these projects moving forward, so that you don’t fall behind.  Consider devoting employees who are working remotely to the task of addressing data quality and integrity in your files, working to improve the overall value of your customer data.  Employees in the bank might have enough free time to help you catch up with the scanning and indexing of documents.  I’m sure you can find other examples.  A proper response to the current situation will not consume all your time unless you allow it to.

I remain ready and able to advise you in these matters.

Trent Fleming

trent@trentfleming.com

901-896-4007

Are You Prepared?

I am sure you are hearing from many fronts about concerns and preparations over the Corona virus issue.  My favorite hardware store even sent me a note about how concerned they are.  It is important to heed advice from your governmental and health care authorities.  I will not speak to the medical side of the issue, primarily because - in spite of being a regular at the Holiday Inn Express - I am in fact not a doctor.  I am someone with extensive experience in disaster recovery, contingency planning, crisis management and PR.  So I’ll take that approach.

What I want to provide are some common-sense steps you should consider relative to your bank and branch operations.  Let’s remember that the goal is to maintain an adequate level of service for your customers, while ensuring a safe working environment for your staff.  Most of the suggested measures below will serve to improve your overall readiness for any kind of business disruption, so there’s a silver lining in the current cloud for you.

Take some time now to understand actual traffic counts in your lobbies.   I suggest you attempt to identify the volume of traffic, and the type of encounter or transaction being conducted on each visit. This will give you an important picture of actual activity.   Simply put: transactions of any sort (financial, address change, new accounts, loan applications, etc.) by hour by day in each location.

It is important to segregate drive-up teller activity from walk-in activity, as one consideration would be to move to drive-in only traffic for all teller activity.  

As a way of assessing overall activity, go ahead and bring remote delivery channel transactions into your reporting, so that you have a complete picture.  This would include balance inquiry, funds transfer, bill payment, on-line applications, and mobile or remote deposit.  The purpose of gathering this data in the short term is to help you assess just how much activity you have, and plan for ways of accommodating these transactions if you have to reduce services.   In the long run, measuring in-person vs virtual activity is a solid management tool.

Prepare for one or more of your locations to be in a quarantined area, and make sure you are prepared to communicate to customers that a particular location is closed, and where they can find the next closest location that is open for business.  Note that this is good advice for any number of scenarios that might impact branch operations, ranging from severe weather to robbery aftermath, so think broadly when developing these communication plans.

Aggressively remind customers about your remote delivery channel options, including Internet, mobile, remote deposit, and on-line account opening or applications.  You may want to loosen current deposit restrictions (only for existing customers) to ensure that they can use those channels for all of their standard deposit activity.  Of course, you must consider the risks involved with any changes in these parameters, but in general terms, (as I’ve told you for years) allowing existing customers to make their normal deposits through an alternate channel does not really introduce additional risk. 

What’s the best way to communicate with your customers?  Ideally, you have good email addresses for all those who use your remote delivery channels.  You will also find that social media like FaceBook or Twitter can provide excellent “one to many” communications for notifying customers and the public in general about your operations.

Let’s talk about your staffing needs.  We often see references to “non-essential” employees when operations are limited during severe weather, or other situations.  No one wants to be considered non-essential, so let’s avoid using that term.  Let’s do however determine what a minimal staffing scenario looks like, so that you can reduce person to person contact, account for those who are ill and may need to be out for an extended time, etc.  Take a close look at your overall operations across all applications: loan, deposits, accounting, etc., and make sure you have good coverage if staff has to be reduced.  

Evaluate work at home scenarios, realizing that some of the steps we’ve discussed above may reduce branch traffic and allow you to handle daily work with a limited staff.  One key best practice is to encourage employees who are sick to stay at home.  The old work ethic of “come to work at any cost” has to be replaced by common sense, and managerial understanding, especially during flu season, and in light of any situation like the current virus outbreak.

It is wise to communicate with your primary regulator about any significant changes in your operations – reducing hours, staff, or changing service levels (such as moving to drive-in only for teller transactions).  They may provide additional guidance for you, but I think mainly they will want to be sure you have a plan in place are are managing to this plan.

Finally, as in any crisis management situation, employees need to understand that ONLY a designated spokesman is allowed to speak for the bank.  Employees should not provide any information on behalf of the bank to anyone, including friends, family, strangers or news media but should instead refer any questions to the bank’s designated spokesperson.  Here again, this applies broadly to any situation, not just the current virus outbreak concerns.

I hope I’ve given you some constructive ideas for dealing with the present environment, while making sure your existing plans are updated to provide the best chance of success.  Working on these matters is a far better exercise than watching endless news coverage or fretting over possible outcomes.  In addition, if you do not have some of the tools mentioned above, like on-line account opening, or remote access for traveling employees, it might be time to add those to your technology planning wish list so that you are better prepared in the future.

As always, I stand ready to help.  Email, text, or call me anytime if you would like to discuss these or other matters.  I remain hopeful, and intend to do everything I can to help community banks thrive.

Trent Fleming

trent@trentfleming.com

901-896-4007  

Managing your Image Archive - Fall 2019 Newsletter Text

When’s the last time you thought about your image archive?  Since the advent of COLD storage in the 1980s, (Computer Output to Laser Disc) banks have held some information as electronic images.  Over time, standard documents ranging from loans to photo ID's to general correspondence were added to these systems. Later, with the advent of check imaging there were then check images available.

Your image archive has grown in both stature and importance, and needs to be better managed so that your organization benefits from it, manages the risks associated with it, and prepares for migration from one solution to another.

Let’s address each of these areas:

The basic benefits of an image archive include reduced physical storage space, easier access to documents, and superior backup and archiving based on proven electronic archiving and redundant storage.  Additional benefits include enhanced workflows by incorporating imaging into your day to day activities, and improved compliance by allowing the system to manage your regulatory retention efforts, ensuring compliance and avoiding unnecessary liabilities from having too much retention.

Too often, document retention is an afterthought.  Your image archive solution allows you to develop and codify rules for document usage, retention, and disposal.  There are often state and federal regulations that impact the retention requirements for a particular document.  A properly implemented image archive solution will allow you to plan for, and manage to those regulations. 

Finally, if you are to change your core solution, or just your image archive solution, careful thought must be given to moving your image archive from one system to another.  While technically your image archive is just another set of data that must be converted, there is often complexity associated with it.  

Here are some key steps in successfully managing your image archive:

Clearly identify whom is in charge of the archive.  Your CIO is my suggestion, and absent a CIO, your COO.  This is an important application, with critical data, and deserves to be intentionally managed, and managed well.

Prepare for regulatory and audit requests for real time access to image data.  Increasingly, internal and external auditors, as well as your regulators, are implementing more remote audit efforts.  Access to your image archive will greatly enhance their efforts, and reduce the impact on your staff.

Focus on regulatory requirements for retention, and don’t exceed those guidelines.  You will save valuable space, as well as limit your liability and exposure for maintaining information that neither you or your customers really need.

As always, I’m available to assist you in developing strategy and the appropriate polices and procedures to oversee this important application, including migration to another system if needed. Message me trent@trentfleming.com

The Distraction of Innovation for Community Banks

The word innovation has become popular in banking circles today.  Larger banks claim to have a lock on it, smaller banks seem to think they need it, but what is the real issue here?  Larger institutions have development staff that focus on new products and services, trying to be the first to bring out the next big thing.  Any such advantage from being first in market is going to be short lived.  Often, much of the so-called innovation is merely a variation on an existing capability.  Like using your finger to slide a bar in one direction or the other to transfer funds, instead of typing in an amount.  A good example of true innovation is the extension of so-called “warm carding” capability out to the customer.  Lost your card?  Need some time to look in all the usual places?  Just temporarily freeze it, using your mobile banking app, and have a look around.  If you find it, great!  Turn the card back on and keep spending.  But if it’s really lost, go ahead and report it and get a new one.  This has been a popular feature, rightfully so, and after some initial promotion by those who were early to market, it is largely available to everyone.

As I lead strategic planning sessions for community bankers, I hear a lot of discussion and
frustration about the need for innovation, how vendors are holding them back, and that large banks have an advantage.  I also see a lot of industry publications promoting an innovation mentality.  As a community financial institution, it will be very difficult for you to pioneer new banking products and services.  There, I’ve said it - you should be breathing a sigh of relief!  It should be very easy, however, for you to rapidly deploy new technologies as they become available.  This is where your focus should be.
In my experience, it is not a lack of availability that causes community banks a problem, it is delays in deploying products that customers want and need.  Today, many smaller banks are woefully behind with technologies like on-line account opening, mobile deposit, and on-line loan applications.  Internally, failing to make email and the bank’s core application available on remote devices hinders lenders and other calling officers when they attempt to be responsive and work in the field with customers and prospects. At a recent EFT conference, a panelist asked for a show of hands of those who had deployed biometric technology for digital account access.  Not only were there no banks among the 100 or so in attendance who had it, NONE of them reported they were even considering it.  In a day where security is an important concern, this is troubling, since such technology is readily available.

My recommendation is that you focus on your deployment cycles, so that your bank is as
competitive as it can be in the markets that you serve.  When combined with the personalized service that community banks are famous for, this creates a scenario for success.

Here are four steps to success:

> Ensure that your strategic plan is designed to identify your desired direction, and the products and services needed to support your goals.

> Evaluate your current situation and enumerate the gaps in products and services, relative to the first point, above.

> Engage with all key constituencies simultaneously to plan the acquisition, implementation, training, and deployment of these resources.  Include marketing, operations, finance, compliance, retail banking, and commercial business lines.  Often, I see compliance concerns overriding operations needs, or operational practices that ignore compliance issues.  Building a team that works together can help you overcome such typical obstacles.

> Ensure that your effort to roll out these new technologies starts with knowledgeable,
enthusiastic employees, and carries through to customer education and marketing efforts.  This is always a formula for success with new products and services.

As always, I am available to assist you in addressing these or other matters. 

trent@trentfleming.com

Trent Fleming Quoted in Recent American Banker Article

This bank learned the hard way to ramp up M&A-related retention efforts By Jackie Stewart Published July 25 2017, 3∶37pm EDT More in Community banking, Recruiting, M&A, Employee retention, Client retention, Virginia Union Bankshares doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past. The $8.6 billion-asset parent of Union Bank & Trust, which endured employee attrition after its 2014 purchase of StellarOne Financial, has taken steps to improve the odds of keeping more people after its pending acquisition of Xenith Bankshares.  Executives, since announcing the deal in May, have spent time on the road visiting employees. A video featuring the CEOs of both companies has also made the rounds in an effort to allay fears while promoting the merger’s long-term value.

The realization is that other banks will aggressively court nervous lenders and support staff, while the hope is that better communication will persuade anxious performers to stay at Union.
“Competitors immediately assume that there will be disruption and angst so they decide to approach your customers and your employees,” said John Asbury, Union’s president and CEO. “We knew that was going to happen. It’s important that we control the message immediately.”
StellarOne, an acquisition completed by Asbury’s predecessor, taught the current management team a harsh lesson about retention. More than 10 StellarOne commercial lenders left after the deal closed, which factored heavily into flat loan growth in the first year.
The experience isn’t unique to Union, but it does underscore how critical it is to be proactive with employees. Staying out in front of people with the right message can be challenging, industry experts said.
“It’s one of those things you can go crazy trying to deal with,” said Tim Chrisman, founder and principal of the executive search firm Chrisman & Co. “It’s become a bigger issue because of

the availability of talent. Lenders are the franchise.”

Before they announced the Xenith deal, Union’s executives reviewed missteps tied to StellarOne, Asbury said. Management, which largely focused on the communication strategy, determined that it would quickly get as much information out to employees as possible.
Accurate and timely disclosure is critical, particularly when addressing the company’s strategy and an employee’s future, industry experts said. Failure to do so can spur employees to look for opportunities elsewhere.
“Role clarity and honest and clear communication of the ... vision are the two things that must occur,” said Robert Voth, who leads Russell Reynolds’ consumer and commercial financial services practice. “If you don’t have a clear and transparent message ... you can’t have the merging of two cultures into one working toward one unified goal.”
Discussing layoffs can be an uncomfortable process, which is why some executives avoid the subject. Avoiding such a conversation can often lead to uncertainty and attrition that may have otherwise been avoided.
“There is great fear in a merger,” said Tim Scholten, president of Visible Progress, a consulting firm. “There’s a culture change, a system change, technology change, leadership change. ... There’s never a more fearful time than that.”
Union and Xenith, both based in Richmond, Va., filmed a 15-minute video of Union’s director of corporate communications interviewing Asbury and T. Gaylon Layfield III, Xenith’s CEO. The executives discussed the merger’s timing, post-closing priorities and how the deal would benefit clients. The video, which also had a transcript, was distributed to employees after the deal was announced.
Videos can provide additional insight that employees may not get from written correspondence, while allowing well-prepared CEOs to let their personalities sell the deal, said Trent Fleming of Trent Fleming Consulting. People may be more apt to watch a video than wade through a lengthy memo, he said.

“Video is where communication is going,” Fleming said. “People turn to YouTube and other media for everything. If you use video, then people can see" a CEO’s likability or honesty. "No other medium other than an in-person meeting gives you that.” Sellers also run a risk of losing key staff, which can be particularly damaging in rare instances where a deal is called off, industry experts said.

“As the seller, you’re concerned about being able to hold together the kind of team you need to operate until the deal occurs,” Layfield said. “You never know with 100% certainty that any deal will occur, so you have to plan for that very remote possibility.” 

Union and Xenith made an attempt at “harmonized” communication, where each CEO sent a message to employees the deal the deal was announced, along with a customized list of frequently asked questions for staff at Xenith and Union. 

After completing conference calls with media and analysts, Asbury and other Union and Xenith executives visited Xenith’s headquarters, along with offices in Virginia Beach and northern Virginia, to meet with employees.  Outreach continues. Both banks have mechanisms in place for employees to let the integration teams know if something is working well or if any improvements are needed. Asbury has also continued to meet with Xenith’s employees.

“Communication is critically important,” Layfield said. “We both ascribe to that point of view. It’s a lot better for the organization as we go through the changes that inevitably happen from a merger with the two of us working in tandem. That’s the appropriate tone that two CEOs should take.”
Jackie Stewart
Jackie Stewart covers community banks and mergers and acquisitions for American Banker.

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Urgent Alert - Intellectual Property Issues in Banking Software

Rarely do I deviate from 6 newsletters a year, but I am issuing this “Urgent Alert” because it contains information that will help you to best protect your bank should so-called intellectual property issues arise.

One of the non-financial terms that I always try to negotiate in software vendor contracts involves intellectual property. Because of the rise of so-called “patent trolls” and the ease with which patents are being given, banks need protection from such claims. The best way to handle this is to ensure that your vendor offers language indicating that they will defend any such claims that are brought against your institution. Now is a good time to review your current contracts to ensure that they contain such a clause. If they do not, contact your vendor and request that such language be added. I can supply sample language if you need it, but in almost all cases the vendor will have suitable language that can be added to your contract. The most likely reason you don’t already have this language in a master agreement is if you have just renewed such an agreement over and over, never updating the language.

Several banks have already received a letter regarding a certain issue surrounding mobile check capture. It is likely that your bank will too. I want to encourage you to refer any such claims directly to your software vendor(s) so that they can help you to manage this. Please don’t respond directly to these letters, as your vendor(s) are well aware of the situation and are best positioned to respond. I would also advise you to alert your state and national banking trade associations about the receipt of such a letter, as these organizations are also working to help the industry manage such claims.

My purpose in writing this alert is to make you aware of both the general issue of your needing protection in the case of intellectual property disputes, and the specific issue concerning mobile check deposit that I expect you will see shortly in the form of a letter.

Remember, I am not an attorney, and you should always consult an attorney about legal matters. Please let me know if you have questions or if I can assist you in any way.

Trent Fleming

trent@trentfleming.com
901-896-4007