January 8, 2021

Arecord number of attendees tuned in for the 10th Annual UBA Bank Executive Winter Conference, Dec. 3-4, 2020, this year held jointly with the Washington Bankers Association. Bank executives from across the states of Utah and Washington attended this two-day virtual event, which kicked off with a postelection panel discussion featuring James Ballentine, ABA; Geoff Greay, FHLB of De Moines; Brian Smith, Wells Fargo and moderated by Glen Simeck, Washington Bankers Association and Howard Headlee, Utah Bankers Association. The panel provided some interesting perspectives on the recent election, including the uncertainty of leadership control and the industry’s political ramification.

KeyBank
KeyBank Named Leading Disability Employer
For the fourth year, KeyBank was recognized by the National Organization on Disability (NOD) as a Leading Disability Employer. The recognition honors companies that demonstrate exemplary employment practices for people with disabilities and is designed to encourage other companies to tap into the many benefits of hiring talent with disabilities.

Bank of Utah’s Vice Chairman of the Board Ben Browning has graduated from Pacific Coast Banking School of Seattle and received a leadership certificate from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Browning, who holds a B.S. from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Utah State University, has worked for Bank of Utah for nearly 14 years.

For most of my professional career, pundits have predicted the end of cash and checks. We entered this new decade with both forms of payment alive but in gradual decline. It appeared that we would see only the slow, very gradual death of both paper payment options. And then COVID happened.

Graduates of the eighth class of the UBA Executive Development Program were honored at the UBA 10th Annual Bank Executive Winter Conference on December 4th.

The 2020 EBL Conference marked another successful year for the Emerging Bank Leaders. Over 260 bankers from across the state of Utah attended the virtual “Igniting Leadership” Emerging Bank Leaders Conference on November 17th, making this our biggest one to date!

This year’s 2020 Virtual Compliance Conference is one for the books! With over 250 registrants, it was our biggest yet.

Liquidity management is always important for bankers, but especially during times like these. In addition to that, the government stimulus has created a situation where financial institutions are suddenly flush with liquidity. Yet, this is likely only for the short-term, as circumstances start to change. As such, it is imperative to stress-test your liquidity risk. You may be comfortable with liquidity risk, but it could still be helpful to review these reminders as you move forward.

This year has presented bank management teams with a multitude of issues to juggle, many of which seemingly pull in opposing directions and most of which were not firmly on the radar to start the year. Such is life in 2020. Some banks’ primary concerns stem from the fact that the industry has seen a shift in liquidity. Balance sheets are awash with deposits relative to recent periods, while securities holdings have come down relative to assets. The build-in balance sheet liquidity has come in the form of cash, with an unusually high 7.6% of assets held in cash and equivalents as of June 30.

Today, I am going to ask you to do the impossible. Then, I will equip you to do the impossible.