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Directors
Institute on Alaska Cruise completed and very successful. WIB plans for
additional educational cruises.
Nancy E. Sheppard, WIB President & CEO
I just returned from a 7-day cruise to Alaska
with 27 bankers and directors. This was the first WIB-sponsored cruise and I
consider it a great success. Registrants had the option of attending 12 hours of
workshops and 3 hours of peer sessions or just attending the peer
sessions.
John Oliver, WIB’s
principal bank director workshop instructor, did an excellent job of providing
the educational program. One director who registered for the cruise months ago,
Con Hewitt, North Bay Bancorp, decided to go even after he took a position on
August 18 as the chief accountant for the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Con, a former director of the California Financial Institutions Department, summed up the workshops with the
following: "This program is a MUST
for every bank director, regardless of the size of the bank." John
Oliver will present a portion of the Institute in a webcast on Directors
& Planning on November 7. He will also repeat the entire 2-day Institute
on November 15-16 in Southern California.
WIB is currently
investigating options for future educational cruises for directors. I’d like
to know of your interest in getting your future education needs met via a
cruise. Please email nancy@wib.org or click
here and take our mini survey.
General
Interest
Concentration
Risk Management: It’s About More than Real Estate
By S.
Scott MacDonald, Southwestern
Graduate School
of Banking
Most of our business
decisions have impacts across the institution and can be magnified by external
events. The timing of our increased
concentrations in real estate lending, for example, is being negatively affected
by external events such as increased interest costs, a flat yield curve, a
greater use of variable rate loans, and higher energy costs. <read
more>
Strategic
Issues
Strategy 101,
Part III
By Cass Bettinger, Cass Bettinger & Associates
Based on the deposit premium being paid these
days it is clear that deposits have
never been so precious. This is, of
course, putting significant pressure on the interest expense/average asset ratio
for most banks. Strategy 101 Part
III will focus on some of the most effective strategies for managing this
extremely important ROA driver. <read more>
Mergers
and Acquisitions Review: First Half of 2006
By Curtis
Carpenter, Sheshunoff Management Services
Western
financial institutions saw a 44% increase in bank merger and acquisition
activity in the second quarter of 2006 and realized exceptional pricing levels. <read more>
Technology
Purchasing
Cards - Help Reengineer Your Customers Business By
Ken Sebastian, ViTEX
Most
banks are missing a significant revenue opportunity from the sales of purchasing
cards to larger commercial and government customers. If you already have a
credit card operation and a cash management sales team, then the purchasing card
is a logical product to add to your suite of cash management services. It
provides a recurring fee income source that you can expect to consistently grow
over time. It also leverages your existing credit card expertise. And it
solidifies relationships with your largest deposit and loan customers.
<read
more> KEY
COMMITTEES
The
Compensation Committee: 2007 Will Be A Busy Year
By John Stuart ,
Reitner, Stuart & Moore
Just when you thought that Sarbanes-Oxley and
corporate governance were fading away, the SEC has completed the first rewrite
of its executive and director compensation regulations in 14 years. The new
regulation is going to keep your compensation committee busy both thinking and
writing about the bank’s compensation philosophy.
<read more>
CORPORATE
GOVERNANCE
Happy
Birthday Ralph!
You’re 90 Years Old; Don’t You Think It’s About Time You Retired As A
Director?
By
Stephen A. Enna, John Parry & Alexander
I find the topic of director aging and mandatory retirement both interesting and
important for the shareholders of organizations whether they are public or
private. One can debate the pluses
and minuses of mandatory retirement but there is not much debate around the fact
that directors of community banks have as one of their duties is a
responsibility to replenish the board on an ongoing basis with new thinking,
ideas and talent. This is a responsibility that directly affects shareholders.
<read more>
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