2017 Fed/CSBS Community Banking Research Conference to be Webcast Live Oct. 4-5

ST. LOUIS ― Community bankers, academics, policymakers and bank supervisors from around the country will meet Oct. 4-5 at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for the fifth annual Community Banking in the 21st Century research and policy conference  hosted by the Federal Reserve System and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS).  The conference features the latest in community banking research and will be webcast live throughout both days.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will give opening remarks, along with CSBS Chairman and Wyoming Division of Banking Commissioner Albert Forkner and St. Louis Fed Supervision Executive Vice President Julie Stackhouse. CSBS President John Ryan will give the closing remarks on the second day of the conference.

The webcast can be viewed starting Oct. 4 at 2 p.m. CT via the conference site at https://www.communitybanking.org.

Keynote Speakers

Cynthia Blankenship, vice president, chief financial officer and corporate president of Grapevine, Texas-based Bank of the West, will give the evening keynote on Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. CT.  Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams will give the morning keynote on Oct. 5 at 8:15 a.m. CT.

Research Paper Sessions, Moderators and Discussants

A total of 10 academic papers were chosen from this year's call for papers by the conference research committee.  Authors of the selected papers will present their papers during one of three moderated panels being held throughout the conference. The panel sessions are divided into three topic areas, with each panel including a community banker discussant and an academic moderator.

• The first research session and panel will focus on the topic of “Supervision, Regulation and Bank Risk.” The moderator will be Robert DeYoung, Capital Federal distinguished professor in financial markets and institutions at the University of Kansas School of Business. The community banker discussant will be Martin Birmingham, president and chief executive officer, Five Star Bank, Rochester, N.Y.

• The second session and panel, on the topic of “Factors Influencing Bank Behavior and Performance,” will be moderated by Allen Berger, the H. Montague Osteen, Jr., professor of banking and finance with the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. The community banker discussant will be Kevin Riley, president and chief executive officer, First Interstate Bank, Billings, Mont.

• The third session and panel, on the topic of “Real Effects of Government Policies,” will be moderated by Tim Yeager, the Arkansas Bankers Association chair in banking at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas. The community banker discussant will be Peter Schork, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Ann Arbor State Bank, Ann Arbor, Mich.

National Survey Release and Panel Discussion

As part of the final session of the conference, Fed and CSBS officials will present and discuss the results of the 2017 National Survey of Community Banks and state roundtables conducted by state bank commissioners across the country this spring and summer.

The results will then be discussed as part of a panel moderated by David Hanrahan, founding president and chief executive officer of Capital Bank of New Jersey, Vineland, N.J. The panelists will include:

• Brian Graham, chief executive officer, Alliance Partners
• Ron Green, chief information security officer and group executive, MasterCard
• Steven Streit, founder, president and chief executive officer, Green Dot Corp.

CSBS Community Bank Case Study Winners

This year's conference will also feature a presentation from students from the University of Akron, the winners of the 2017 CSBS Community Bank Case Study Competition.

For the complete agenda or more information about the conference, see the conference website or get updates via Twitter at https://twitter.com/CB21Research.