A Quicker Way to Get Debit and Credit Cards to Your Customers

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credit-cards-11-30-16.pngAs consumers continue to embrace online and mobile banking channels, financial institutions are reevaluating the branch’s role in modern banking. Historically, branches have served at the forefront of the financial institution and customer relationship. Even though digital account solutions provide new levels of convenience and flexibility, the branch remains a vital channel facilitating interpersonal interactions between financial institution and customer, and fosters greater in-depth communication between the two.

Instant issuance is establishing itself as a proven program to attract more customers to the branch. Instant issuance systems allow financial institutions to print credit and debit cards on-demand inside the branch, for new customers or when an existing customer needs a replacement card. When branches enable on-demand printing of credit and debit cards, both issuers and customers win. Banks that take the additional step in providing permanent payment cards on the spot realize a much stronger return on investment in terms of customer acquisition, satisfaction and loyalty.

New programs, like instant issuance, draw customers, especially millennials, because it reduces the wait time in receiving access to their funds. Contrary to common perception, cash is a large draw for millennials. According to a GoBanking Rates survey released in 2016, 60 percent of millennials still prefer to be paid in cash, which means the millennial reliance on debit cards will remain strong, presenting a natural opportunity to actively engage millennials more effectively in their branches.

While millennials may appear to operate much differently than prior generations, their core expectations are much the same. They seek convenience and want their financial institutions to provide new and innovative technologies that keep pace with the technologically driven world in which they live.

In today’s world, where bank customers are subject to card data breaches with alarming regularity, protecting customer data is paramount to the success of any financial institution initiative. Instant issuance provides an opportunity for financial institutions to lead the conversation around EMV® integration and security. EMV provides heightened security by embedding microprocessors inside debit and credit cards, replacing the magnetic stripe card.

Financial institutions that implement scalable, cost-effective solutions that are EMV-enabled are better able to educate customers on changes to the transaction process. As EMV adoption has been a source of uncertainty and concern for financial institutions, retailers and consumers alike, instant issuance provides a convenient method for providing much-needed knowledge around the shift.

Instant issuance proves to be a secure and affordable way for financial institutions to realize the value of their branch investment. By drawing customers into the branch and getting credit and debit cards to market quicker, issuers are keeping payment cards top-of-wallet and increasing interchange revenue.

As the branch continues to reassert itself as a strategically important banking channel, financial institutions that leverage instant issuance as a strategic differentiator and recognize its role in driving customer activity within their branches will be better positioned to exceed customer expectations.

To learn more about millennial payment trends, download the whitepaper, “What Small-to-Midsize Financial Institutions Can Learn From Millennials.”

EMV® is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo LLC in the United States and other countries.

Five Predictions About Banking’s Future

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techonology-10-7-16.pngWhat does the future hold? As I referenced in an earlier article, I gave a presentation about the future of banking at Bank Director’s third annual Bank Board Training Forum in Chicago Sept. 29-30, and promised that I would share some of my thoughts with you after the conference. I might end up being completely wrong, of course, but here are my predictions and I’m sticking with them.

Technology
Going forward, I think we will begin to see the ascendancy of digital distribution channels in retail banking. Driving this change will be the continued digitalization across the entire economy, combined with the integration of millennials into the world of work, mortgages and parenthood at an accelerating rate. We occasionally refer to millennials as “digital natives” since they grew up on video games, cell phones and the Internet, and banks will have to provide a robust digital option if they want to keep them as customers. The bank branch isn’t dead, but I see it becoming increasingly less important over the next decade.

Disruption
The long-term future of the website lenders is unclear to me since they rely primarily on private equity investors and the capital markets for their funding, which is much less reliable over the course of an entire economic cycle than bank deposits. The question for them is whether they can take an economic punch in a recession. The payments competitors are here to stay because what they really want isn’t a banking relationship with customers so much as access to their data, including their financial data, because it enables them to bombard those customers with highly differentiated and customized offers on merchandise. And much of the technology of web site lenders and payments competitors will eventually be adopted by the banking industry. This is certainly true in the mobile space, but also in areas like commercial loan underwriting, which remains a laborious, people-intensive process. In this sense, the future of traditional banking is fintech.

Economy
This is probably one of the safer predictions that I made: There will be at least one recession between now and 2026. We are now in the seventh year of an economic expansion which, believe it or not, is the fourth longest going back to 1945. Nothing in this world lasts forever, and the current expansion won’t either.

Consolidation
This is probably my boldest (or craziest) prediction: There will be 4,558 banks as of December 30, 2026. Here’s how I got to that number. The annual consolidation rate over the last couple of years has been approximately 3 percent. There are a little over 6,000 banks today, and if you assume the industry will continue to consolidate at that rate for the rest of the decade, you get close to that 4,558 number. However, I factored in one more variable—one year in which a recession resulted in a consolidation rate closer to 5 percent to account for a spike on bank failures, assisted transactions through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and relatively healthy banks hedging their bets by pairing up with a stronger merger partner. I’m sure I will be wrong about the exact number for banks in 2026, but there’s no question that there will be significantly fewer of them.

Demographics
By 2026, the last of the baby boomers will be heading towards retirement, most of the banks will have Gen X CEOs (the oldest of whom will be in their late 50s to very early 60s) and millennials will be moving into senior management positions. Gen X’ers and millennials are much more intuitive when it comes to digitalization issues generally, and I expect that their ascendance will only accelerate the digitalization of banking and personal finance. And of course, millennials will also be the single largest consumer demographic by 2026, so they will be eating their own cooking when it comes to digital banking.

Finally, I anticipate that something no one expects to occur (and therefore won’t predict) will end up having a huge impact on the industry. We had already seen the emergence of smart phones in 2006, but the ubiquitous iPhone wouldn’t be introduced until 2007, and 10 years ago how many people expected the mobile phone to revolutionize banking?

What do you think the next big thing will be?

Do Executives Want Equity?

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Compensation_WhitePaperCover_tb.pngAre equity awards still effective tools that tie the interests of executive management to those of a bank’s shareholders?

Equity is an important piece of the compensation pie for many banks, particularly those that are publicly traded, according to the 262 directors, CEOs, human resources officers and other senior executives responding to Bank Director’s 2016 Compensation Survey, sponsored by Compensation Advisors, a member of Meyer-Chatfield Group. Forty percent say that their institution allocates equity grants to executives annually. Boards and shareholders like equity because, in theory, it ties the interests of the executive to the long-term success of the company. For executives, it’s a reward that, hopefully, grows along with the value of the bank.

The survey also finds many banks preparing for the next generation of bank CEOs, but there remains a lot of work to do in this area. Almost one-third anticipate the retirement of the bank’s CEO within the next five years, and responding CEOs indicate differing desires, based on age, when it comes to their compensation packages. Can banks weather the transition from a baby boomer CEO to someone who is younger—maybe even a millennial? Twelve percent of bank CEOs are now between the ages of 32 and 46, so the dawn of the millennial CEO isn’t that far off. But more than one-third of respondents indicate that attracting talented millennial employees is a challenge for their bank, and they cite two factors: Millennials aren’t interested in working for a bank, and their bank’s culture is too traditional.

With just a few exceptions, the 2016 Compensation Survey finds that few banks have millennials serving on their board. But bank boards are also aging, and 90 percent of respondents indicate their board will see at least one director retire within the next five years. Almost half expect to lose more than three directors to retirement. As they seek new directors to fill these slots, 63 percent indicate that their board seeks to foster more diversity among its members.

For more on these considerations, read the white paper.

To view the full results to the survey, click here.

Investing in Formal Leadership Development and Succession Planning

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succession-6-14-16.pngAs the baby-boomer exodus from the workplace grows in the coming years, many banks will find themselves with a groundswell of leadership positions to fill. Yet a 2015 Crowe Horwath LLP survey of banks found that only about 23 percent of respondents have established a formal leadership program. Without a well designed internal development and succession plan, banks will be forced to scramble.

Building Versus Buying Talent
With banks facing consolidation, regulatory expectations, and similar challenges, leadership planning hasn’t been a priority for many institutions. Twenty-one percent of respondents to Bank Director’s 2016 Compensation Survey say they have no long-term succession plan in place for the CEO, and another 16 percent say they have no plan for the other senior executives.

Some banks have been content to simply buy talent as needed, hiring experienced executives from outside of the organization, rather than take the time to build talent from within. It might seem like a luxury to put an individual in a management position as a development opportunity—better to keep experienced, productive people in their positions as long as possible and then look outside for equal experience when the time comes.

While understandable, this perspective is short-sighted. Promoting from within is far less costly and eliminates business continuity risk. Internal development also helps a bank maintain and reinforce its unique culture and makes it easier to retain high performers and those employees with high potential.

Of course, the board of directors also can present an obstacle to pursuing formal development and succession processes. Boards at banks frequently are populated by members of the traditionalist generation that precedes the baby boomers. They tend to believe that “the cream rises to the top” or in so-called “survival of the fittest”— in other words, those that deserve leadership positions will find their way to them without formal programs nurturing them. But regulators have begun impressing on bank boards the importance of approaching things like succession planning in a more formal way than has been done in the past.

The Role of Generational Differences
Attracting talent and planning for succession is more challenging than ever. Banks that long have depended on the wisdom and work ethic of their senior teams now must attract, develop, and retain millennials (generally, those born after 1980), while engaging their Generation X employees (born 1965-1980), and adapting to the accelerating loss of boomers.

Banks might realize that the exit of boomers will produce a rash of leadership openings, but some don’t seem to grasp that a one-size-fits-all approach to recruiting, retention and leadership development is doomed to fail due to generational differences. For example, millennials have different expectations for their employers and careers than their boomer and Generation X colleagues. They often express a desire for jobs that allow them to help society and maintain a healthy work-life balance. To attract such workers, banks might need to emphasize their community involvement efforts, which could be of less interest to older employees.

Leadership development and succession planning processes also must recognize and reflect generational differences. Millennials, for instance, can be very open to receiving mentoring from their boomer colleagues because they’ve largely had close, positive relationships with their parents. Generation Xers, on the other hand, might have had rockier parental relationships. Gen X workers also came into the job market at a time of downsizing and outsourcing. As a result of these experiences, they can be more resistant to authority figures.

While research has found some distinct generational differences, similarities certainly exist, too. Strong management and leadership appeal to all generations. The good news is that these skills can be effectively taught, mentored and modeled with the assistance of formal processes.

Act Now
A wave of leadership openings is on the horizon, and banks can’t afford to take a reactive stance—they need to plan for the transition to the next generation of leaders. Forming a succession plan and building a pipeline of talent requires time, so institutions should take the first steps now.

This article first appeared in the Bank Director digital magazine.

A Better Way To Sell To Your Customers

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Helping consumers meet the milestones in their lives could generate more revenue and loyalty for your institution. Tom White of iQuantifi explains why goal-based selling is a better way to connect your customer to the right product.

  • Why Goal-Based Selling Is an Effective Approach
  • Advantages for the Bank
  • Meeting the Needs of Millennials
  • Partnering With Fintech Firms

Commercial Customers Want Fintech Innovation Too

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fintech-6-3-16.pngOnline banking, electronic bill pay, and mobile deposits are no longer seen as innovative offerings by consumers. They’re simply check boxes—a bare minimum set of tools and services that they expect their bank to offer. Despite the fact that this technology is considered table stakes in the battle to win consumers, business customers at most banks are still waiting their turn to benefit from this technology. And as the workforce skews younger and gets even more tech savvy, they’re going to get frustrated from waiting for comparable services—if they haven’t already.

Just last year, millennials surpassed Gen Xers as the largest generation in the U.S. labor force. This is the first digitally native generation that grew up with computers in their homes and came into adulthood with near ubiquitous access to the Internet, social networking, and mobile phones. As they take over the workforce, they’re going to want—and expect—the same conveniences they’ve become accustomed to in their personal lives. But when it comes to banking technology, they’re not getting it.

The stark difference between bill payment processes of accounting professionals at home and at work is just one example of how a lack of adequate technology is holding them back. A study last year by MineralTree found that 81 percent of respondents use paper checks frequently or exclusively at work, whereas almost half (48 percent) said they rarely use checks in their personal lives and 7 percent said they never use them at all.

If banks don’t start providing business customers with innovative tools to do their jobs more efficiently, they’re going to start looking elsewhere for the technology they want. As JP Morgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon now famously noted in his 2015 annual shareholder letter, “Silicon Valley is coming.”

The Path to Business Banking Innovation
It’s not surprising that business customers have found themselves in this position. It makes sense that technology on the consumer side has paved the way for innovation in banking because it’s so much less complex to build and implement.

Take mobile deposits for example. Being able to take a picture of a check with a mobile phone and deposit it via a banking app is a significant advancement in mobile banking. But it’s much more realistic for a personal account holder to use this technology than it is for a business. For a company that might deposit hundreds of checks every day, taking photos of each of them with a mobile phone is simply not practical or efficient. Not to mention adding the complexities of a business’s need for increased security features like role-based permissions for different users, or integration with other enterprise systems.

Bill pay faces similar hurdles. On the consumer side, banks have proven capable of creating directories that include most of the vendors their customers regularly pay—companies like electric, cable TV or mortgage providers. But it would be nearly impossible for a single bank to create such a directory for all business payments because the size and scope of such a network is just too vast. And then there are complexities like supporting approval workflows, role-based permissions, and integrations.

Integration with other core enterprise systems is a major issue for business customers. Being able to seamlessly connect a bank’s bill pay technology with a company’s financial system of record—their accounting/ERP system—is a must have. But again, it’s a complex task that takes a high level of technical knowledge and expertise to achieve.

Innovations in consumer banking technology have made significant strides in moving the industry forward, but now commercial customers want their share of fintech innovation too. We’re at a tipping point where business banking technology needs to catch up, and the burden is on the banks to make it happen. They can either build the technology on their own or partner with companies who can. But if they don’t, they risk being left behind.

Preparing for the Great Wealth Transfer

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wealth-transfer.png

The net worth of millennials is slated to more than double by 2020, with estimates ranging from $19 to $24 trillion, according to a report released by Deloitte Consulting. This, combined with the fact that more than two-thirds of wealth managers’ current clients are over the age of 60, means that wealth managers should be preparing for a massive wealth transfer.

In anticipation of the great wealth transfer, it is important to recognize the expectations of this younger generation. Millennials, a group that has grown accustomed to instant search results and access to on-demand advice, expect to be treated as unique individuals and value the ability to make data-driven decisions. Yet, as much as this generation embraces digital technology and on-demand services, when it comes to finances, they also want a personalized approach.

Consequently, it is no longer sufficient to place a client in a generic portfolio model, especially when the client can pay next to nothing for a similar portfolio allocation through an automated investment service online. The quality and level of service that this new generation of clients demands is higher, as they want to be involved in making informed decisions about their money and now have cheaper options for managing their wealth.

And wealth managers cannot rely on millennials to just “inherit” their services from parents or grandparents. Fifty-seven percent of millennials would change their bank relationship for a better technology platform solution, according to the Deloitte study. In order to remain profitable as client demographics shift, and to meet the demands of millennials, wealth managers should leverage technology and data analytics tools to successfully engage their clients and maximize the value of service provided.

By harnessing the availability of data analytics, wealth managers can adequately get to know their clients and identify the distinct human capital factors in their clients’ lives, enabling them to provide truly tailored financial advice and investment recommendations.

Rather than simply assessing a client’s age and income, existing technology allows wealth managers to consider other aspects such as, geography, work sector, health, family, real estate, balance sheet and time until retirement. Taking a more holistic approach to wealth management makes it possible to customize a client’s investment portfolio, designed to fit each client’s unique risks and financial situation. This approach also delivers a more interactive, consultative wealth management process for both the wealth manager and the client.

To illustrate the value of this method, consider a petroleum engineer in her thirties living in Houston, where the oil industry drives property prices. An automated investment service or a conventional approach to wealth management would likely propose a wealth portfolio that is based largely on her age and income; however, this would fail to identify the concentration in oil within her career, property and subsequently, her portfolio.

Furthermore, changing market conditions can also be challenging for even the most experienced wealth managers, but today’s technology can help wealth managers mitigate risk and market fluctuations for their clients. Digital platforms and data analytics can adjust the risk exposure of the portfolio and compare performance over various market scenarios, enabling wealth managers to propose targeted solutions in an engaging, diagnostic context.

Ultimately, wealth managers must focus on understanding the needs of their new clientele to remain profitable in an increasingly competitive market. In fact, a recent PwC survey revealed attrition rates of more than 50 percent in intergenerational transfers of wealth, highlighting the fact that the next generation relies very little on the services of their parents’ wealth manager. This means that banks and their wealth managers must expand their technological capabilities and digital offerings, while gaining a deeper understanding of their clients to successfully build a sustainable business in today’s evolving market.

The industry should recognize that this group of clients has incorporated technology into almost every aspect of their lives and they expect nothing less of the businesses and financial advisers they interact with. As the industry quickly approaches the transfer of wealth to millennials, wealth managers will have to satisfy the demands of a new generation, and technology will play a critical role in engaging those who are accustomed to the benefits and polished user experience associated with digital tools and devices.

Hot “Banking” Jobs: As Banking Changes, So Are the Job Titles

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banking-jobs-5-16-16.pngBanks today must adapt to a world where “digital”, “cyber risk” and “fintech” are the new business lexicon. As the bulk of the workforce shifts from baby boomer to millennial, there is an increased need to attract talent from outside traditional financial services. Below we highlight some changing and emerging roles and a few strategies banks can use to attract top talent.

Emerging Skills and Roles

Chief Technology Officer/Chief Digital Officer
Banks today are pressured to enhance mobile capabilities and compete with fintech companies such as Lending Club, Square and Circle. These new competitors have disrupted traditional financial services offerings, which is forcing banks to adapt their product offering and service platforms to remain competitive. This new competition and technology focus have also led banks to reach outside their typical talent pool to attract candidates with new skills.

Chief Risk Officer/Chief Compliance Officer
Since the financial crisis, regulators have significantly increased the requirements for banks to manage and mitigate risk practices. Add to that the increased threats of cyber risk and it is clear that risk and compliance officers are critical members of the senior leadership team.

Chief People Officer/Chief Culture Officer
As a service related industry, people are a critical asset. And as more millennials enter the workforce, traditional banking environments may need to change. Talent development, succession planning and even culture will be differentiators and expand the traditional role of human resources.

Chief Strategy Officer/Chief Innovation Officer
Part of the transition in the banking industry involves shifts in customer profile, competitors and new products. As banks emerge from the financial crisis and focus on growth and profitability, many are turning to innovators from outside the banking industry to help find creative M&A opportunities, new products and a new customer base.

Do’s and Don’ts

Attracting and retaining non-traditional banking talent can create both challenges and opportunities.

Do:

  • Think strategically: Assess the talent, skills and capabilities you need to execute your strategic plan (new regions, new products, new capabilities). What skill “gaps” need to be filled? Do you need to go outside or can you offer nontraditional career paths and transition current leadership into different roles? How should the leadership structure and team evolve? Create a leadership strategy that supports your business strategy.
  • Think outside the industry: Many of the roles discussed above are outside the norm for the traditional banking industry. Technology roles may be filled from start-ups or Silicon Valley firms and culture or innovation roles may be filled by ex-consultants or top talent from other industries. If you do recruit from outside of banking, you may need to access different sources of talent (e.g. recruiters) and different benchmark data than you typically use.
  • Be creative: If you fear you can’t “afford” talent from other industries, think beyond traditional compensation solutions. Compensation is only a part of a total rewards package and there are other important factors such as development and growth opportunities, as well as company culture and lifestyle. Be open to new work environments and career opportunities that will appeal to new (and current) staff.
  • Reward and retain: In the race to attract the “best” it can be tempting to offer large up-front compensation packages and buyouts of existing unvested awards to acknowledge that the executive is taking a risk to change jobs. While there are reasons to provide these usual pay components, if not designed right, they can be short-lived. A well-designed new hire package and ongoing compensation program should allow the bank to attract top talent, reward performance and create powerful retention.

Don’t:

  • Rely on compensation surveys: Many banks rely on established compensation surveys and/or peer group data to benchmark roles. However, such data for “hot jobs” is rare or far from perfect. Sample sizes may be small and data is often over a year old. Use multiple data perspectives/views and “triangulate” the information to determine fair and appropriate pay.
  • Over-focus on internal pay relationship: Respect and align with internal relationships but be flexible. In order to attract an executive in one of these “hot” areas, a bank may need to pay outside of the current compensation structure, but there should be a clear path to pay equity among the executive team over time.
  • Rush the process: It is important to undertake a thoughtful process when hiring a new executive, particularly those from other industries or non-traditional areas. The compensation committee should receive background information on the candidate(s) as well as detailed information on the compensation package, contractual arrangements and performance expectations.

Four Ideas to Engage Millennials as Bank Customers and Investors

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millennials-5-11-16.pngIn my work advising community banks on capital and liquidity issues, one of the more common concerns I encounter is how to deal with a changing shareholder base. As existing shareholders age or pass away, they are bequeathing their stock to children and grandchildren, many of whom have no connection to the bank or no longer live in the same community.

Engaging and retaining these younger shareholders has become a challenge—they might sell the shares at a discounted price or fail to support the bank or subsequent capital raises. After all, as all community banks know: A bank’s best shareholders are its customers. Fortunately, there are a number of things community banks can do now to foster better relationships with the younger generation, including millennials.

1. Embrace the Crowd

The recent adoption of Regulation A+, a provision under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, allows small companies to raise up to $50 million in crowdfunded offerings from non-accredited investors in any 12-month period. Millennials are natural crowdfunding investors. In fact, millennials’ craving for connection and desire to give back to their communities makes them more likely to participate in crowdfunding than more traditional capital raises.

That’s a benefit to community banks that are looking to raise capital under Reg A+. Already, several community banks have filed Reg A+ offerings to either issue shares in connection with a merger/acquisition or to redeem preferred stock issued from the Small Business Lending Fund, or SBLF, program. We’ll be keeping an eye on these offerings to see how they progress.

2. Get Tech Savvy

While most bank directors will remember a time before the Internet and mobile phones, today’s youth were weaned on smartphones. Millennials have seen technology transform and disrupt almost every aspect of their lives, from how they communicate, to how they consume entertainment, to how they bank.

In fact, according to a Viacom Media Networks’ survey, The Millennial Disruption Index, 68 percent of millennials believe that in five years, the way we access money will be totally different. Seventy percent believe that the way we pay for things will be completely different and 33 percent believe they won’t need a bank at all. Eek!

For community banks, that means investing in technology is critical. Online and mobile banking services are no longer optional, they are essential. Also, young and old alike are relying on web sites and electronic delivery of company reports and financial information so they can make investment decisions. To meet that demand, banks on our OTCQX market are providing news, quarterly and annual financial reports, which can be easily accessed via Yahoo! Finance and other financial portals.

Banks that don’t invest in their web presence to ensure their news travels risk being overlooked by millennials researching them online.

3. Invest in Education

Millennials grew up during the recession and are more frugal than the generation before. At the same time, they are more skeptical of traditional authority figures when it comes to managing their finances. All this has a resulted in a certain anxiety around finances. A recent study by Bank of America Corp. and USA Today found 41 percent of millennials are “chronically stressed” about money. Only one-third (34 percent) of millennials feel content about their finances, while many are anxious (2 percent) and overwhelmed (22 percent).

For community banks, that presents a tremendous opportunity for education. Chicago-area Liberty Bank for Savings has held free workshops on reducing student debt, even bringing in a debt specialist. Virginia Beach, Virginia’s Bank @tlantic holds regular “lunch and learn” sessions with guest speakers on everything from first-time home buying to cybersecurity for small businesses.

4. Think Outside the Box

Heads buried in their smartphones and tablets, millennials have gained a reputation that they care only about themselves. But that’s just not true. In truth, millennials care deeply about their local communities and the world around them. They want to know that what they do makes a difference. That presents a significant opportunity for community banks which are already deeply embedded in the communities they serve.

But it also means thinking about your community involvement differently. Instead of simply donating to local organizations, organize events where millennials can get involved. Liberty Bank for Savings partnered with a local news site to sponsor a Saturday night “taco crawl” to five local taco restaurants. Other banks have had success inviting their millennial customers to exclusive events they might not otherwise be able to attend like high-profile fashion shows and sporting events.

Think outside the box and you’ll find other ways to engage today’s youth as customers and shareholders.

2016 Compensation Survey: Where Are The Lenders?

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compensation-survey-5-10-16.pngThe demise of training programs at the nation’s biggest banks, coupled with an aging Baby Boomer population, is resulting in what could be a mini-crisis for the banking industry. There aren’t enough commercial lenders, according to the bank executives and directors responding to Bank Director’s 2016 Compensation Survey. Without skilled lenders, financial institutions will be hard-pressed to grow their revenue, since lending is still how many banks make most of their money.

Forty percent of survey respondents say that recruiting commercial lenders is a top challenge for 2016. When asked to describe their bank’s efforts to attract and retain commercial lenders, 43 percent say there aren’t enough talented commercial lenders. The same number say they’re willing to pay highly to fill these valuable roles within their organization.

Bank Director’s 2016 Compensation Survey is sponsored by Compensation Advisors, a Gulf Breeze, Florida-based member of Meyer-Chatfield Group. In March, Bank Director surveyed online 262 bank directors, chief executive officers, human resources officers and other senior executives. Fiscal year 2015 compensation data for CEOs and directors was also collected from the proxy statements of 105 publicly traded banks.

Twenty-three percent of respondents say that recruiting younger talent is a key challenge this year. Thirty-four percent say they’re actively seeking talented millennial employees, between the ages of 18 and 34 years, but have trouble attracting them. Of these, 60 percent say that millennials aren’t interested in working for a bank. Fifty-four percent consider their bank’s culture to be too traditional.

One-third have a satisfactory plan in place to attract millennials. The majority of these, at 71 percent, credit a culture that millennials feel comfortable in as the reason for their bank’s success, as well as a clear path for advancement (59 percent) and reputation (55 percent).

The remaining third say hiring millennials is not currently a focus for their institution.

Other key findings:

  • Tying compensation to performance remains the top challenge identified by respondents, at 46 percent.
  • Sixty percent expect the bank’s CEO and/or other senior executives to retire within the next five years. Forty-five percent have both a long-term and emergency succession plan in place for the CEO and all senior executives.
  • Respondent opinions are mixed on the value of equity. More than half of executives, at fifty-four percent, indicate that equity is highly valued as part of their own compensation package, but just 36 percent of all respondents say equity on its own, in the form of stock options or grants, is an effective tool to tie executive interests to that of shareholders. Fifty-three percent of CEOs received equity grants in 2015.
  • Forty-five percent of respondents indicate that their board most recently raised director pay in 2015 or 2016.
  • Almost half of respondents indicate that three or more board members will retire from their position in the next five years.
  • Sixty-seven percent indicate their bank has a plan in place to identify prospective new directors.
  • Sixty-three percent say their bank will actively seek to create a more diverse board in the next two years.

To view the full results to the survey, click here.