August 3 2021
IBANYS Weekly E-Newsletter
  • Visit our website at www.ibanys.net to review our daily updates on COVID-19.
The President's Message
By John Witkowski, President & CEO
 
 A reminder: Our new address is: 
Independent Bankers Association of New York State
194 Washington Ave, Suite 420
Albany, NY 12210.


Hope everyone is having a great summer.  
 
Most of this weeks newsletter is to highlight our upcoming meeting, the "Come Back Celebration" in Clayton, NY.
 
It would be great to have all of our community banks, preferred partners and associate members together and celebrate all of your success over the last 18 months.  

There are still sponsor opportunities for the meeting. We would love to have your support. Sponsor form is attached.

See below for more updates from SBA.

John
IBANYS "Come Back Celebration"
Executive Fall Meeting
September 13-14, 2021
We are calling this The Come Back Celebration for good reason. It’s been 18 months since IBANYS had our community banks together in one place. During this time, we have seen community banks lead the way in supporting their customers, small businesses and most importantly their communities through a difficult time. All of you have significantly changed or adjusted your business model to accommodate the pandemic.

This meeting is to celebrate you, your team and all the people you have supported in your community. We will cover a number of topics that will look at business before, during and the effect on banks and what to expect next.

All C-level suite, Senior Management and Bank Boards are welcome.

Please join us for the Come Back Celebration.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Keynote Speaker: Stephen A. Ingalls ("Steve"), President & CEO, Catalyzer

The Post-Pandemic, Evolving Workforce and How You Should be Leading Them

Stephen A. Ingalls joined the organization in 2010, later served as its President from 2011 to 2015, and now leads the team as its President and CEO. In addition to his strategic leadership, Mr. Ingalls leads curriculum development, program management, and oversees program execution, often facilitating engagements.
 
Prior to joining Catalyzer, Mr. Ingalls led and directed operations ranging from climate research in Antarctica and Greenland to attack helicopter deployments throughout the United States, Europe, and Korea. A 1982 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Ingalls holds a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the University of Kansas, a Master of Military Art and Science from the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a former Instructor and Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at West Point and an Instructor of Tactics at the Command and General Staff College.
 
Highlights of his 22-year Army career include: facilitating the Army’s analog-to-digital transition in the late-1990s; the distinction of being the first brigade-level aviation operations officer in the Army’s history to lead a 4,400-soldier brigade combat team to a major deployment at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California; serving as a Longbow Apache Battalion Commander – responsible to form, field, train, and lead the fourth AH64D-equipped organization and first to deploy outside of the United States; and developing a 15-year strategic plan for over 30,000 Army forces throughout Korea to address Army transformation through 2015.
 
He won a NASA-American Society of Engineering Educators Fellowship to Johnson Manned Spaceflight Center in the summer of 1994, where he analyzed next-generation space shuttle designs. In 2010, Mr. Ingalls was admitted into Sigma Gamma Tau, the National Honor Society in Aerospace Engineering, and he received his certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute in 2011.
 
Leaving active duty in 2004, Mr. Ingalls transitioned his uniformed experience to business, supporting manufacturing and project management functions at a Kansas City-based architectural millwork firm, serving as the Associate Director for Administration at a National Science Foundation research center on climate change, and finally working for multiple federal contracting organizations as a Program Manager and Director of Business Development before assuming a full-time role at Catalyzer in late-2017.

Today, his greatest joys are his marriage to Cara, mentoring his children into adulthood, and serving gleefully as Elijah’s, Adalynn’s, and Silas’ grandfather.
Keith Ash
Senior Vice President Business Development,
Strategic Resource Management
2021 Top Payment Trends for a Post Pandemic Recover
Keith Ash has 25 years of payments expertise across issuer, network, and processor roles. Ash began his career with Household Bank, supporting the launch and growth effort of the GM Co-brand through Household Credit Services. He later joined First Data/Concord EFS where he was the SVP of Operations and Implementations for their Northeast Platform. Keith then worked for MasterCard for 14 years, where he gained extensive experience in roles ranging from Account Management to Sales, supporting regulated and unregulated issuers. His prior role at MasterCard was leading the New Business team for Community Financial Institutions. Keith joined SRM to expand the company’s payments acumen and will focus on serving regulated issuers
Upstate New York: Post Covid Market Perspective
Gerald D. Verdi, President of Verdi Planning Company

Mr. Verdi has worked in banking, finance, technology and strategic planning positions for over thirty-five years. He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo (B.A.) and the Pennsylvania State University (M.S.).
Bruce Paul, Managing Director
Banking Customer Research Team, Rivel, Inc.
The Pandemic Impact on Customer Loyalty Across New York, for You and Your Competitors
Bruce Paul leads the Banking Customer Research team at Rivel Inc and founded the New York Banking Benchmarks (and 23 other States). He previously was the Global Head of Financial Services Research at the Nielsen Company and the US Head of Customer Experience Research at Greenwich Associates. He has spent the last 3 decades focused on banking customer behavior and has designed the brand tracking and customer experience programs at 7 of the top 15 North American banks and dozens of smaller institutions. A former Fulbright Scholar, Bruce has degrees in Political Economy, Cantonese, and Asian Studies from Yale-in-China (CUHK) and UC Berkeley.
Cannabis — An Emerging Market
Corey Massella, Managing Director
UHY, LLC
Corey has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, tax and business advisor, and as a specialist in SEC accounting and audit services. Additionally, Corey has experience serving as a Private Equity and Technology Industry Group Practice Leader for a top 20 accounting firm.
 
Corey has successfully guided his clients through all facets of the mergers and acquisitions transaction cycle to help them make critical decisions while ensuring transactions are strategic and seamless. In 2015, He was selected as the winner of the SmartCEO award for Industry CPA Leader in New York. Corey has completed over 300 M&A transactions and was the lead partner at the firm awarded M&A Advisor’s Accounting/Due Diligence Firm of the Year award in 2017 as well as being nominated as Dealmaker of the Year by ACG New York and M&A Advisor. 
Matthew VanDerbeck, Managing Director
UHY, LLC
Matthew VanDerbeck has more than two decades of experience in accounting and auditing, with extensive experience in the non-profit, governmental and privately held for-profit industries. While working for a Big Four accounting firm for 10 years, Matthew was able to further develop his experience working on larger non-profit entities (including colleges and universities, private schools, unions, governmental entities and other non-profits), non-public and public for-profit entities.
 
Matthew formerly headed the quality control practice for an accounting firm and served on the New York State Peer Review Committee. 
Will Your Bank Emerge Stronger When the Liquidity Surge Recedes?
Reece McKenszie, Director, New York Territory, IntraFi Network, LLC

Reece joined IntraFi in March 2020 and is the Managing Director for the New York territory. Prior to joining IntraFi, Reece spent 29 years in the banking industry starting at HSBC where he held positions in Treasury Management, Branch management and Product manager for Liquidity. Upon his return to western NY in 2003, Reece held positions in commercial lending, commercial depository services and treasury management for a few local community banks in the Rochester region.
Data Infused Marketing
Lou Costello, Director of Sales Spectrum Reach

Over 20 years in the Marketing/Advertising Industry.
Michael Schuler,Director of Market Research and Insights Spectrum Reach 

Over 15 years Conducting Market Research and Implementing Marketing Strategies.
Ben Collins, Account Executive at Spectrum Reach 

Bachelors in Marketing and Over 10 years Conducting Data infused Marketing Campaigns.

MEET THE SPONSORS
The Independent Community Bankers of America creates and promotes an environment where community banks flourish.

ICBA is dedicated exclusively to representing the interests of the community banking industry and its membership through effective advocacy, best-in-class education, and high-quality products and services.
ICBA Securities Corporation (ICBA Securities) a subsidiary of the ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America) that was founded in 1989 following two years of intensive research by ICBA's Bank Services Committee. Based on the proposals submitted and lengthy interviews, the Committee selected Vining Sparks to serve as ICBA Securities' exclusively endorsed broker.
 
As ICBA Securities is owned by the nation’s largest trade association for community banks, it has a commitment to return all of its profits to the industry, in the form of royalties, sponsorships, or dividends. Through 2020, it had reinvested over $48 million back into its supporting state/regional partners or into the ICBA that it has received from Vining Sparks. Six of the seven ICBA Securities board directors are influential community bankers.
 
We are also proud be to the endorsed broker-dealer for over 30 community bank state associations.

Slippery slope
Another yield curve shift has community bankers guessing.
By Jim Reber

IBANYS Preferred Partner
T. Gschwender & Associates, Inc. is a diversified consulting company that has been providing services to financial institutions and businesses in the Northeast United States since 1984. Our financial institutional clients include small community banks and credit unions with less than $100 million in assets to much larger regional institutions with over $5 billion in assets. Our business clients include small sole proprietorships to middle-market privately held corporations.
 
For our financial institutional clients, we like to describe ourselves as a highly sophisticated "Credit Department," able to handle all functions from initial borrower due diligence to collateral liquidation, and everything in between. Our goal is to provide these services in a timely and cost effective manner, allowing our clients to tap into resources they would not otherwise be able to employ internally.
 
For our business clients, we provide Accounting/Bookkeeping, Business Advisory, Business Valuations, and Tax Services. We also leverage on our numerous banking clients to assist businesses obtain loans at a reasonable rate. Whether you are a new business, growing rapidly, or experiencing some challenges, our Associates can help!
 
Our Consultants all have extensive banking and corporate management experience. Some of our Associates have been with us since the company was started, and our current staff provides a wide depth of experience, having held high level positions within banking, accounting, and regulatory institutions. With expertise spanning "both sides of the street", the company's Associates provide a well balanced and thorough approach to all that we do.
 
T. Gschwender & Associates, Inc. is a privately held company that was started by Tom Gschwender on November 9, 1984 and purchased by Bharpur "Bo" Singh on April 1, 2008.
IBANYS Preferred Partner
About Pentegra
 
Unparalleled Governance
Founded by the Federal Home Loan Bank System in 1943, we do not answer to shareholders, we answer to our clients. Our boards of directors are made up of our clients, Presidents and CEOs, who use our services and place their own futures in our hands. Our Boards serve with excellence and the highest ethical standards and set the very same ones for our organization.
 
Unmatched Fiduciary Protection
With a legacy built serving as an institutional fiduciary, Pentegra offers a level of fiduciary protection that is unmatched in the industry. We deliver an unrivaled level of oversight and accept a higher level of responsibility. Our fiduciary heritage shapes our culture.
 
No Conflicts of Interest
We are not a “Wall Street” firm, or owned by a larger financial services organization, mutual fund or insurance company. As an independent organization, governed by our clients, our focus is to enhance the value of our clients. We partner with firms as a trusted resource to bring an objective perspective and maximum flexibility to every opportunity—to deliver the very best solution for clients.
 
Client-driven Culture
We were founded by our clients, are owned by our clients, and governed by our clients – simply, we exist for our clients. When we say we are “client driven,” it is not an empty marketing tagline, it’s our DNA. Our solutions begin and end with each client’s real life needs, objectives and goals. Today, we have more than 100 clients who have been with us for over 30 years and maintain a 98% client retention rate.
 
Deep Expertise and Bench Strength
Our team is comprised of highly-skilled professionals—ERISA attorneys, Enrolled Actuaries, Certified Plan Consultants and specialists in investments, education and compliance. The advantage—access to multiple experts guided by a relationship management team that eases the way for you.

Comprehensive Solutions
Whether you are a financial advisor seeking a fiduciary outsourcing retirement solution for your clients, a client seeking a benefits financing solution to fund an executive benefit plan, or an institutional investor looking for help with your balance sheet, our structure and collaborative culture enable us to align our full resources behind your needs. We deftly draw on our collective resources and team of highly skilled professionals to create exceptional client solutions.
Serving clients is our fundamental purpose

As a leading investment bank, we enable growth and success for our clients through deep sector expertise, candid advice and a differentiated, highly productive culture.
 
OUR VALUES
 
We create and implement superior financial solutions for our clients. Serving clients is our fundamental purpose. We earn our clients’ trust by delivering the best guidance and service. Great people working together as a team are our competitive advantage.
 
As we serve, we are committed to these core values:
  • Always place our clients’ interests first.
  • Conduct ourselves with integrity and treat others with respect.
  • Work in partnership with our clients and each other.
  • Maintain a high quality environment that attracts, retains and develops the best people.
  • Contribute our talents and resources to serve the communities in which we live and work.
ROOSEVELT & CROSS AT A GLANCE
  • Entirely employee-owned and directed
  • The firm is structured into underwriting, trading, sales, public finance, project finance, and research departments
  • 100% of our firm’s capital is committed to municipal securities
  • Top ranking municipal bond underwriter in New York, New Jersey, and New England
  • Co-senior manager and co-manager on major issues throughout the country
  • Consistently ranked #1 underwriter of education bonds in New York
  • Leading underwriter of short-term financings in New York
  • Quantitative expertise in structuring and executing complicated financial transactions
  • Strong distribution capabilities across major and mid-size institutional accounts, professionally managed retail accounts, and high net worth individual accounts
  • The main office is located in New York City with branch offices in Buffalo (N.Y.), West Hartford (C.T.), East Greenwich (R.I.), Boston (M.A.), and Warren (N.J.)
PROFESSIONAL CONSULTING SERVICES TO BANKERS BY BANKERS

The CEIS Review mission is to be the preeminent provider of independent outsourced loan reviewloan portfolio stress testingALLL methodology validation or refinement, as well as being a provider of related commercial credit management techniques to financial institutions worldwide. Our commitment is to commercial banks, savings banks, credit unions, foreign branches and agencies, multinational organizations and other firms requiring a third party assessment of loan portfolio quality and process.

Our commitment to excellence includes delivering clear & concise reporting, utilizing cutting edge credit and portfolio management techniques, maintaining an objective viewpoint, providing adequate flexibility to clients needs and consistently staying ahead of emerging industry and regulatory matters.

Ultimately, we are dedicated to our client’s success and growth.
Moving businesses upward, outward and onward
 
Sometimes, the audacious is worth pursuing. For more than 65 years, Pursuit, formerly known as New York Business Development Corporation, The 504 Company and Excelsior Growth Fund, has offered innovative lending solutions to help business owners in NY, NJ and PA follow their dreams.
Founded in 1978 and led by active and engaged problem solvers, we bring a unique passion and approach to our work. For 40 years and counting, we have been listening to our clients and partnering with them to create solutions that address their financial and business challenges.
 
This dedication has not only contributed to our growth, but has led us to become a Top 50 National Accounting firm.
Grow your business with the best content, insights, products & people.

No matter who you need to reach, we’re here to help you connect. Work with a local advertising expert or create your campaign online.
The Baker Group has been a trusted financial partner helping community financial institutions improve their decision-making, interest rate risk management, and investment portfolio performance since 1979. 
 
Today, The Baker Group is one of the largest independently owned securities firms. After decades of industry service, they continue to grow and adapt in order to better serve their financial partners.
Onovative, an automated marketing and communication software provider, put controls back in the hands of bank marketers. Onovative’s affordable marketing software for planning, automation and execution empowers you to manage data for strategizing throughout the consumer lifecycle and engage with consumers through multiple channels. With software that integrates directly with your existing core banking systems, Onovative helps banks drive results by bolstering growth with their current account holders and within their markets.
Going on the Boat Tour? What you will see....
Boldt Castle
At the turn-of-the-century, George C. Boldt, millionaire proprietor of the world famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, set out to build a full size rhineland castle in Alexandria Bay, on picturesque Heart Island. The grandiose structure was to be a display of his love for his wife, Louise.

learn more here
Yacht House
The Boldt’s family yachts and enormous houseboat were housed here in the slips 128 feet long. Towering bay doors on the decorative facade provided access to the river. The building, rising 64 feet, also featured a shop to build racing launches and quarters for crew and staff. The grandeur of the Gilded Age is fully embodied in the structure’s shingle-style architecture, tremendous towers and spires and the steep-pitched gables.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS & PREFERRED PARTNERS
Live Webinar
August 19 - 12 pm. EST
We're hosting a live webinar on August 19th 12pm EST titled "Automating Commercial Account Opening at Your Financial Institution" and wanted to pass this on for the benefit of your members. 
 
The webinar will address the many silos and inefficiencies FIs face with cumbersome processes and a lack of a fully automated online commercial account opening solution. 
Record number of NY households and businesses switching banks.
  • The latest NY Banking Benchmarks show that 31% of all households statewide are currently unhappy with their primary bank and open to switching. Businesses are even more unhappy with almost half open to switching their main banking provider. Both of these figures have shot up as the pandemic has dragged on.
  • New York currently has the highest percentage of unhappy banked households of any state in the region (more than Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut).
  • Customers in NYC are the most unhappy, with 36% of households vulnerable to switching and a whopping 58% of businesses.
  • Customers in Greater Syracuse and the Southern Tier are the least vulnerable, comparatively. But they too are experiencing more dissatisfaction than ever before.
  • Some banks are in more dire straits: 9% of NY banks actually have more of their customers wanting to leave than wanting to stay (yikes!). On the bright side, a few banks have less than 10% of their customers even considering switching.  
  • Some of the banks that are best positioned to keep their customers (according to those customers themselves): Solvay Bank, Trustco Bank, Saratoga National Bank & Trust, Lake Shore Savings Bank, M&T Bank, Ulster Savings Bank
  • To see your local data: bpaul@rivel.com.
Is the Economy Improving Too Quickly?
Our latest issue of “The Advisor”, framing our view and outlook for the economy, interest rates, markets, and key financial institution balance sheet management themes, is attached. 
 
This issue focuses on the economy...the rapid acceleration, low yields & interest rates, and rising inflation. We present our strategies in Fixed Income, Equities, and ALM to help you navigate in the current environment.
 
We hope this writing will be helpful and welcome any questions or comments you may have.




CLO Teach-In with Piper Sandler
August 12, 2021 | Conference Call & Webinar

View this week's Balance Sheet Insights report here.

You are invited
The Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO) market has seen strong and consistent growth in recent years and continues to present relative value in the world of fixed income. Please join Michael Piper and Mark Bowie for a discussion on understanding, underwriting, purchasing, and surveilling CLOs in the current market environment. This teach-in will include key information on regulatory and accounting considerations as well as policy considerations for depository institutions.
Date and time
Thursday, August 12, 2021
3:00 p.m. ET
Registration
Please register using the link below. You may also use this link to access the webinar on the day of the event.

Questions? Contact Heather Hofer at Heather.Hofer@psc.com.


© 2021 Piper Sandler Companies PiperSandler.com 7/21
800 Nicollet Mall, Suite 900, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402-7020 USA
Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE: PIPR) is a leading investment bank driven to help clients Realize the Power of Partnership®. Securities brokerage and investment banking services are offered in the U.S. through Piper Sandler & Co., member SIPC and NYSE; in Europe through Piper Sandler Ltd., authorized and regulated by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority; and in Hong Kong through Piper Sandler Hong Kong Ltd., authorized and regulated by the Securities and Futures Commission. Private equity strategies and fixed income advisory services are offered through separately registered advisory affiliates.
© 2020 Piper Sandler PiperSandler.com 7/20 800 Nicollet Mall, Suite 900, Minneapolis, MN 55402-7036 US
News from ICBA
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Leadership is a lifestyle! The ICBA LEAD FWD Summit is back for its ninth year and is your ticket to becoming the best leader you can be.
Slippery slope
Another yield curve shift has community bankers guessing.
By Jim Reber

And now for something completely different. Except it’s not; it just hasn’t been around for a number of years. But it most assuredly has an impact on your community bank’s bond portfolio and on the securities you’ll be thinking about purchasing the next time you’re in the market. 

WEBINARS
IBANYS Webinars

Are you participating in IBANYS webinars? Now is the time! IBANYS webinars provide timely, important information on subjects of interest to New York community bankers including human resources, business development, investment, compliance and security and much more. They are valuable not only for their content, but for their convenience and low-cost. Take part from the comfort and privacy of your office, without leaving the bank. 
Subscription Tokens
The More You Buy, The More You Save
 
How does it work:
Tokens can be used to purchase live or recorded webinars anytime, with no expiration! Tokens for both live and recorded webinars are available for an additional fee. (What’s the difference? Click here for the full description.)
 
Once you have your Subscription Token code, you can immediately register for webinars by using the code at checkout! (Subscription tokens not applicable for full series registrations, or other specials.)
Albany Update
A new Payroll Protection Program IFR has been issued “Paycheck Protection Program – COVID Revenue Reduction Score, Direct Borrower Forgiveness Process, and Appeals Deferment”. Click here for direct link to the IFR. In addition, updated PPP Forgiveness Forms are posted to the SBA website. (please see further below)
 
This interim final rule further streamlines the forgiveness process for First and Second Draw PPP loans of $150,000 or less by: (a) allowing lenders to use a COVID Revenue Reduction Score at the time of forgiveness to document the required revenue reduction for Second Draw PPP Loans, and (b) establishing a direct borrower forgiveness process for lenders that choose to opt-in as an alternative method of processing loan forgiveness applications.  This interim final rule also extends the loan deferment period for those PPP loans where the borrower timely files an appeal of a final SBA loan review decision with the SBA.
 
The COVID Revenue Reduction Score portion of this interim final rule applies to all Second Draw PPP Loans for which the lender has not yet issued a loan forgiveness decision to SBA as of the effective date of this rule. The direct borrower forgiveness process portion of this rule applies to all PPP loans sized $150,000 or less for which a loan forgiveness application has not been submitted by the borrower to the lender as of the effective date of this rule. The deferment portion of the rule applies to PPP appeals filed after the effective date of this rule and to those PPP appeals filed before the effective date of this rule for which a Notice and Order has not been issued.
 
The updated 3508 forms (3508s, EZ and 3508 full forms) are now available. Lenders are advised to incorporate these forms into their process as quickly as practical.  Further, SBA updated the PPP FAQs on (July 29) to formally announce the discontinuance of the Loan Necessity Questionnaires (SBA Forms 3509 and 3510)
 
Valerie Shoudy, Lender Relations Specialist               Grace Conners, Lender Relations Specialist
Valerie.Shoudy@sba.gov                                                 Grace.Conners@sba.gov
U.S. Small Business Administration
224 Harrison St., Suite 506 | Syracuse, NY 13202