Acquire or Be Acquired

Bank Director welcomes business leaders from across the United States to our 29th annual Acquire or Be Acquired Conference. To open the conference, we share what we are hearing about staying relevant and competitive.

KBW’s CEO, Tom Michaud, sets the stage for the conference as he defines where the industry is today and what forces shape its future in 2023 and beyond.

This panel session explores growth options with an eye towards emerging trends and opportunities. While banks were once described as slow and unable to innovate, the last few years have shown the opposite to be the case. As performance expectations continue to shift, we look at macro level trends with an eye on taking advantage of them.

Today, expectations for financial services are being redefined in real time. In our fast-paced, digitally connected world, financial institutions across the globe are preparing to meet the evolving needs of both customers and bankers, whenever they want and wherever they are. In this session, nCino analyzes the past, present and future of fintech and examines how institutions are transitioning from the closed technologies of yesterday to the networked future of tomorrow.

Join IntraFi’s Rob Blackwell as he talks to a balance sheet management expert and bank executives about how bankers can prepare for any eventuality. Topics include the economic and regulatory outlook as well as what’s happening in real-time on Main Street.

New and innovative technologies that can remove obstacles impacting your bank’s bottom line are being developed and rolled out faster than we’ve ever seen. But where do you start? Does your organization use manual processes that are inefficient, prone to error or drain valuable resource hours that can be deployed more effectively elsewhere? Join this session to learn how banks can leverage digital transformation and automation to streamline internal processes, improve customer experience and identify key opportunities to propel your bank forward.

An increasing number of financial institutions are evaluating their performance pre and post COVID, looking for new opportunities to diversify their revenue. Did you know banks working through Fintech Sponsorship Programs can create direct access to additional payments through their existing products? Join Visa, Inc. as we discuss the opportunities available to your institution.

Decisions made even before bankers engage with the other side foretell the likelihood for success. This session discusses various considerations for the boards of both sellers and buyers in order to play the negotiating game in the most effective manner.

The massive increase in unrealized bond losses during 2022 has the industry in uncharted waters, leaving management teams, boards of directors, regulators, investment bankers and investors scrambling to understand the implications on capital, liquidity, valuations and M&A. This session explores the impact of AOCI on equity valuations and whether banks should consider preemptive capital raises or reconsider share repurchase programs. The session also evaluates how AOCI distorts M&A pricing and addresses the question of whether to pursue deals or sit on the sidelines until the dust settles.

This breakout session continues the “Need to Know” series that has consistently been a popular highlight at this conference for many years. Gain practical insight on what CEOs and directors need to know in 2023 and beyond.

This panel is all about types of bank acquisitions: banks buying non-banks, credit unions buying banks, banks buying specialty lines of business, fintechs buying fintechs, traditional cores buying tech companies, among others. Hear what makes these deals great.

As the financial industry continues to evolve, some banks not looking for M&A are uncovering new business lines and other ways to enhance their operations. These may include more traditional avenues like introducing new loan products, portfolio acquisition and reimagining your branches, to more recent trends such as banking-as-as-service, digital assets and BNPL, among others. Hear this panel of experts share opportunities your bank should consider as you develop next year’s strategic plan.

For many financial institutions, the strategic planning and budgeting processes have turned purely into a financial forecasting exercise, projecting growth, earnings and performance indicators based on a set of best-guess assumptions. By combining strategic and tactical planning approaches, financial institutions can better align the organization’s operational, financial and strategic plans with the overall vision of the organization.

There are many alternatives to consider when designing compensatory arrangements (including severance, change-in-control, bonus and equity awards agreements). To that end, this session covers: how to identify the right key employees; things to consider before a change-in-control transaction is imminent; the shareholders’ perspective, including the impact of equity on dilution; the attractiveness to the buyer of certain pay structures; and designing plans that maximize the amounts paid to executives.

It has been a while since our industry has managed through a recession. During this session, we discuss changes in capital allocation, loan pricing and profitability management during a financial downturn. We also discuss key aspects of what community banks will need to do differently to optimize capital and come out with a stronger position as the economy returns to growth.

Is there a chance that your playbook is missing a key component? Even the most experienced acquirers don’t know what they don’t know. Once your merger or acquisition receives that stamp of approval, how can you ensure that the two merging banks are fully integrated efficiently and with the fewest hiccups? This session covers tips for managing an integration effort including vendor partner review, setting process, establishing a governance structure and system conversion. We review tactics for completing a thorough gap analysis in all areas of the bank, what areas are worth extra focus and how to build and maintain a positive culture.

With CEO retirement and talent volatility at an all-time high, is your bank proactively seeking leaders and board members with the abilities required for long-term success? In this session, we discuss the key skill sets needed in the board and C-Suite to thrive and remain independent. Participants receive Chartwell’s proprietary board skills matrix and succession planning model.

76% of companies that import or export have less than 20 employees. You are banking these small businesses today. When have you last considered how to best serve them? Come learn how banks can take control of their international payment and FX activities, enhance the customer experience, and create new sources of revenue.

Hear from Bank Director’s Editor-in-Chief as she shares the most significant developments and stories we have been writing about.

What are the primary factors affecting bank value in today’s market? How do the recent changes in market conditions impact the way buyers value a target bank? In this session, we discuss the primary drivers of value as we enter 2023 and look to where community banking is heading.

ConnectOne Bank and Alliant Credit Union are two of the most innovative financial institutions in America. They’ve both embraced omnichannel technology as a competitive advantage, building strategic partnerships to drive operational efficiency and achieve explosive growth. Join MANTL in conversation with ConnectOne and Alliant as they discuss why an omnichannel strategy is more urgent than ever — and how forward-thinking institutions can capitalize on this emerging trend in 2023 and beyond.

The ERC is an overlooked payroll tax rebate born out of the CARES Act to help small and mid-sized businesses through the Covid pandemic. These businesses are eligible to receive up to $26,000 per W2 employee as a payroll tax refund. Rules have changed recently, now allowing businesses who received PPP to also claim and qualify for the ERC. Attend this session to learn more!

This session shares updates on top accounting and auditing matters specific to the banking industry.

What are the 7 ways to avoid the biggest blunders in banking? Year by year, we’ve been seeing seemingly small shifts in shareholder dynamics, capital strategies, asset allocation, deposit mix, competition, technology, etc. But when looking back over the last three decades, the cumulative consequences are catastrophic. This session looks closely at 7 characteristics of the most successful management teams as they have navigated these changes and acted upon opportunities (and avoided the wrong ones) for superior results. We also show how to find strategies to effectively manage and allocate capital given ever-changing market dynamics, volatility and uncertainty.

Your financial institution has access to a plethora of data, but are you maximizing its value? In this session, Apiture’s EVP of Innovation Daniel Haisley discusses how you can close the expertise and tool gaps that may be holding you back from fully leveraging the data available to you today.

Proactively planning and executing retention strategies before, during and after M&A is critical to a deal’s success. This session provides a checklist of the processes, actions and specific compensation strategies each bank needs to have in its “tool kit” to avoid talent disruption during a transaction and ensure successful outcomes.

In this panel discussion, Adam Maier and Jeff Newgard share success strategies as they discuss the story of how an M&A transaction can come together with everyone’s interests and goals met. Their story provides an example of how all parties used existing relationships to build new opportunities through a capital raise to successfully complete the M&A transaction.

Small business has become big business and represents an estimated $400 billion opportunity. Until recently, this market was expensive to reach and serve. But a growing number of institutions have been following the path of disruptors like Square and PayPal — rethinking their strategy to better serve this lucrative segment. Learn about the evolution of the small business market and come away with a plan to prepare your bank for long-term success.

Moody’s provides their outlook on the community and regional banking sector, including the impact of interest rates, inflation and recession risks. Other forces shaping the sector including developments in cyber risk and technology-enabled disruption are also part of the discussion.

Green Check’s Chief Strategy Officer invites the leader of one of the fastest growing, most innovative cannabis banking programs in the U.S. to provide an inside look at how they navigated building and scaling this exciting, niche line of business.

This session focuses on the current regulatory climate with regard to M&A with an emphasis on changing regulatory standards for approval of transactions, hot button issues and potential regulatory threats to the successful and timely completion of a transaction. We also discuss the growing trend of non-traditional buyers (such as credit unions and investor groups) and the unique regulatory and diligence issues they raise. The session also provides examples of merger agreement provisions that can (and should) be considered when engaging with these non-traditional purchasers to better protect the seller. With the increased regulatory scrutiny of merger transactions, we also discuss ways to optimize the diligence process, including how to balance a party’s need to ascertain an entity’s regulatory standing while continuing to fulfill its obligations about the treatment of confidential supervisory information.

In this panel discussion, hear from bankers at leading financial institutions as they discuss proven strategies for driving efficiencies in commercial lending. This panel of experienced bankers and lending experts reveals best practices for establishing effective commercial loan origination processes and considerations when identifying new commercial lending opportunities, including how to evaluate and adjust credit policies in the current economic environment and more.

With the battle for business deposits becoming increasingly more competitive, banks need to offer better tools to serve business needs or else lose business to alternative options. The challenge: how do you provide a first-class digital experience while also ensuring KYC and KYB compliance requirements are met? Join Narmi as we dive into the strategies to win business relationships in a digital-first way.

Customer-centric banks are the product of deliberate design, precision building and, given today’s technology costs, enlightened funding ideas. Join PwC as we discuss a holistic approach to digital transformation, tech modernization and the hidden levers that can defray the cost.