Blog Archives
‘BOLD AND BORING’ INNOVATION: FED CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER SUNAYNA TUTEJA
The first appointee to lead the Federal Reserve’s innovation office is focused on modernizing the technology of the central bank itself. Her goal is to bring the agency into the 21st century, and to keep it up-to-date as change accelerates.
IIF’S JESSICA RENIER ON CRYPTO WINTER, CBDCS AND REGULATORY OVERHAULS
Renier, a veteran of both the Treasury and the Fed and now managing director of digital finance at the Institute of International Finance, speaks with Jo Ann about the recent correction in the crypto markets and the need for regulators to hone new digital tools to get ahead of the curve.
JACK HENRY’S CEO ON HOW COMMUNITY BANKS CAN MAKE DIGITAL LEAP
David Foss runs one of three core processors that small financial institutions rely on for tech services. He and Jo Ann discuss community banks’ tough times, how cores can help clients compete and the need for small banks to “plug in” to vendors.
INNOVATOR SPOTLIGHT: THE MSRB’S BRIAN ANTHONY AND ADAM CUSSON ON MODERNIZING REGULATION OF MUNICIPAL SECURITIES
Today’s show is required listening for our regulator audience, and is also packed with practical advice for ANY organization, public or private, that has to transition from the analog to the digital age. The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, or MSRB, is a small US regulatory body that’s doing outsized work in technology innovation. Our guests are Chief Data Officer Brian Anthony and CTO Adam Cusson, and they are leading the way in one of the most exciting regulatory technology projects I’ve seen anywhere.
INSIGHTS FROM FORMER FEDERAL RESERVE VICE CHAIRMAN RANDAL QUARLES
My guest today is Randal Quarles, Chairman of the Cynosure Group and previously the Federal Reserve Board’s Vice Chair for Supervision, a role in which he also chaired the US Financial Stability Board. He left the Fed at the end of last year, which makes this the perfect time to chat with him – I think it’s always extra-interesting to talk with government officials shortly after they leave office. In this conversation, he shares candid and thoughtful insights drawn from his tenure, including some advice for other policymakers. His thoughts are especially interesting because he served through the crisis of the COVID pandemic.
INNOVATOR SPOTLIGHT: DAYLIGHT CEO ROB CURTIS ON SERVING LGBTQ CUSTOMERS
We had hoped to post this episode during Pride Month and didn’t quite make it, but, of course, the topic is timeless. My guest is Rob Curtis, CEO and Cofounder of Daylight, a fintech startup that focuses on serving LGBTQ customers.
FORCE OF NATURE: RIBBIT CAPITAL’S SIGAL MANDELKER ON HOW TO MODERNIZE GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY
Today’s show is different. My guest, Sigal Mandelker, is the former U.S. Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, and she talks to us with exceptional reflection and, frankly, frustration, about why and how we need our government to work better. That’s not a novel theme, of course – the world is noisy with critiques of government. Sigal’s message is distinct, though, and desperately needs to be heard, because it’s about technology. Now a General Partner at Ribbit Capital, she’s on the cutting edge of understanding the technology gap in financial regulation, specifically in the fight against terrorism and financial crime but also more broadly, because both the public and private sectors are using technology that is several generations out of date.
NEW IN NEW YORK: TALKING INNOVATION AND CRYPTO WITH KAITLIN ASROW AND PETER MARTON OF NEW YORK DFS
Given New York’s unique role in global finance, the state always has top notch regulators and is normally at the forefront in addressing market change. It’s not surprising, then, that the state is focused today on the technology transformation underway in finance, including crypto. My two guests today are both leaders at the New York state Department of Financial Services – DFS. Kaitlin Asrow is Executive Deputy Superintendent of Research and Innovation. Peter Marton is Deputy Superintendent of Virtual Currency.
SAVING MINORITY DEPOSITORY INSTITUTIONS: NICOLE ELAM AND ROBERT JAMES
My guests today are Nicole Elam, CEO of the National Bankers Association, and Robert James II, who chairs the NBA’s board of directors and is also president of Carver Financial Corporation in Savannah, Georgia. The NBA is the trade association for Minority Depository Institutions, or MDIs. It was founded nearly a century ago, in 1927, to build on the work being done by a group of Black-owned banks that were chartered shortly after the US Civil War, because white-owned banks were not serving the needs of Black communities.
CASTLES AND SANDBOXES: GATES FOUNDATION DEPUTY DIRECTOR KONSTANTIN PERIC
Jo Ann’s guest today is Kosta Peric, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Deputy Director of Financial Services for the Poor. In this episode, he talks to us about the art of how to do the uniquely difficult type of problem solving required to achieve full financial inclusion in the world’s emerging markets.
TAKING REGULATORY INNOVATION TO A NEW LEVEL: RAJESH BANSAL, CEO OF THE RESERVE BANK OF INDIA INNOVATION HUB
My guest today is one of the world’s leading innovators in this effort. Rajesh Bansal is the CEO of the Reserve Bank of India’s Innovation Hub. In April, AIR worked with the RBIH and other partners on the Swanari TechSprint, named for the Hindi word meaning “self-reliant woman.” I’m excited to have Rajesh on the show today to share a perspective that is fascinating on so many dimensions. It’s a story of a bold new innovation strategy invented by a major central bank. It’s a story about taking TechSprints to a whole new level as a method of regulatory innovation
OCC’s MICHAEL HSU ON CRYPTO POLICY: ‘WE WANT TO GET IT RIGHT’
My guest today is Michael Hsu, the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, and we are talking all things– and only things – crypto. Financial regulators everywhere have escalated this issue in 2022, as the volumes of activity and flows of capital in crypto markets have skyrocketed. Until recently, US regulators have tended to emphasize crypto’s risks, but that framing shifted in March when President Biden issued an executive order on the topic. It calls on multiple agencies to develop strategies that will aim for a balance, seeking to reap the potential benefits of this new technology while also minimizing its dangers. More and more agencies and officials are weighing in.
CHALLENGER BANKER: STARLING BANK CEO ANNE BODEN
There are a lot of very rare things about my guest today, Anne Boden. She is one of a very small group of people who have founded what the U.K. calls challenger banks – banks that were chartered after the financial crisis as part of regulators’ newly minted mandate to foster competition in the financial sector. She is one of the very small group of bank CEOs, worldwide, who are women – which makes her a great guest for an episode that we recorded at the end of March – which was Women’s History Month. She is the CEO of a startup that turns a profit. Many don’t. She is one of a very small group of bank CEOs whose roots are in technology, not banking. Her university degree was in chemistry and computer science.
A CALL TO ACTION FOR UKRAINE REFUGEES – STUART WATKINS, CEO OF ZENOO
This is a special emergency episode of Barefoot Innovation with a call to action for helping to protect Ukrainian refugees from being preyed upon by human traffickers. Featuring Stuart Watkins and Jo Ann Barefoot.
REGTECH COMES OF AGE: ING BANK’S IAN HOLLOWBREAD
I began doing regulatory compliance work many decades ago. During that span of time, regulatory requirements have grown and grown. Compliance expertise evolved into an entire profession. Bank compliance spending skyrocketed – today the industry spends hundreds of billions of dollars every year on compliance work. And yet, the outcomes achieved through all this effort are mixed at best. We know money laundering compliance produces a 99% failure rate in finding crime. We know many consumers are insufficiently protected from unfair practices. We know systemic bias persists, especially unintentionally.
FINANCIAL FRONTIERS: MATT VAN BUSKIRK, CO-CEO OF HUMMINGBIRD REGTECH
I started the Barefoot Innovation show in 2015. My guest today is the person who suggested I create a podcast. He is Matt Van Buskirk, Co-CEO of Hummingbird Regtech and also, among many things, a member of AIR’s Advisory Council.
LOOK UP! MY 2022 ADVICE FOR BANKS, FINTECHS, ADVOCATES AND REGULATORS
This is a special episode of Barefoot Innovation because I have no guest – it’s just me. As we go into 2022, I want to share the advice I have on my mind for everyone (including myself). And I’m also going to share a quick overview of what we’re doing at AIR. We are a small organization doing very big work, in the US and worldwide. I’m going to describe the highlights, partly to encourage you to engage with us if we have points of connection.
CRYSTAL BALL 2030: SILA CEO SHAMIR KARKAL ON THE FUTURE OF FINANCE
Happy New Year everyone! As we enter 2022 and hope it turns out better than its two predecessors, one of my goals for the year is to invite you on a journey with me to explore the frontiers of change in finance, and of course therefore, financial regulation. We’re going to look at Web 3.0, DeFi, crypto, blockchains, tokenization, DAOs, embedded finance, and the whole universe of mold-breaking innovation flooding into the financial sector. To kick it off, I’ve invited our second-ever four-time guest onto the show. In our final episode of 2021, I featured our first four-time guest on Barefoot Innovation – Chris Giancarlo, talking about his great new book, CryptoDad. Today, we’re talking for the fourth time with Shamir Karkal – and for very good reason.
CRYPTO DAD CHRIS GIANCARLO
This show sets a Barefoot Innovation record — it’s the first time we’ve had a guest come back for a fourth conversation (you’ll note that I say in the recording that this is his third appearance, but I actually undercounted). We did two shows with Christopher Giancarlo while he was Chairman of the USCommodity Futures Trading Commission, and then another after he returned to the private sector and co-founded the Digital Dollar Project with Daniel Gorfine. We’ll link to all of those in the show notes.
ACTIVISM AND ALGORITHMS: LISA RICE AND KAREEM SALEH ON HOW TO MAKE LENDING MORE FAIR
My guests today are Lisa Rice, CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance, and Kareem Saleh, founder and CEO of Fairplay. Lisa is a civil rights activist. Kareem is a tech guy who founded a startup that uses AI analytics to deliver what he calls Fairness as a Service. They come from two different worlds, but they have teamed up to work on the problem of unfair lending.
IS CONSUMER PROTECTION WORKING? A BOLD ALTERNATIVE FROM COREY STONE AND TODD BAKER
A half century ago, the US government embarked on an effort to protect financial consumers through proactive regulation. Starting with the Truth In Lending Act in 1968, Congress enacted an ever-growing set of laws, and regulators and industry undertook an ever-growing effort to implement them. So, how’s it going, 53 years later? Are consumers now well-protected? Is it a rarity for consumers to be harmed in the financial system, like it’s a rarity for planes to crash, or drinking water to make people sick. Do we have a situation where failures shock us and make news? Most of us — certainly I — would say no.. But, think also about this: we really have no idea how well we’re doing.
DIVERSIFYING TECH: CLEVE MESIDOR, FOUNDER OF WOMEN OF COLOR IN BLOCKCHAIN
Today I have something different for you. Last spring, I recorded a conversation for the virtual South by Southwest conference with Cleve Mesidor. Cleve founded the National Policy Network of Women of Color in Blockchain, among other roles. SX had us to talk about the lack of diversity in the tech sector, and what to do about it. We had a great conversation, and we got permission to share it with you as a podcast.
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: GOLDMAN SACHS’ STEPHANIE COHEN
My guest today is one of the most high-ranking women in the world of banking. Stephanie Cohen is Global Co-Head of Consumer and Wealth Management, Goldman Sachs. In that role, she co-leads Goldman’s digital bank, Marcus. We have talked on the show before — and we do so again today — about the uniqueness of Marcus. It’s a rare hybrid: a wholly new financial company, created by an old one — in this case, by one that is 152 years old.
EMPIRICAL POLICYMAKING: FINREGLAB CEO MELISSA KOIDE
The single most critical factor in meeting this challenge is to equip regulators with really sound, empirical, trustable information about how these technologies will affect the public. And that’s why I’m excited to welcome today’s guest. Melissa Koide is CEO of FinRegLab, and she joins me to talk about how she and her colleagues are meeting this need.
CRYPTO AND CLIMATE: ENERGY WEB CEO JESSE MORRIS
Last spring, AIR launched an initiative called the Crypto Climate Accord, a voluntary effort to make the crypto sector carbon neutral by 2030. Our partners in this project are two other nonprofit organizations — the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Energy Web Foundation. My guest today is Jesse Morris, Energy Web’s CEO and one of the most visionary innovators in the climate space. In this conversation, we talk about the Accord — what we’re doing and who is joining in. The group includes crypto miners, crypto exchanges, renewable energy providers, and financial services firms offering crypto options. Please note that all kinds of entities that work with crypto are invited to participate.
THE COURAGE TO STEP FORWARD: KENYA CENTRAL BANK DEPUTY GOVERNOR SHEILA M’MBIJJEWE
Kenya is the birthplace of mobile money. In 2007, long before most of the world had even imagined mobile electronic payments, Safaricom introduced M-Pesa, enabling Kenyans to load money into their phones and use the phone to pay for things. The rest is history. Spreading quickly throughout Kenya and far beyond, this innovation sparked a worldwide shift toward instant, mobile, affordable movement of money. And it helped inspire a whole generation of fintech innovators, who saw that cell phones were reaching nearly everyone in the world and could become, in effect, banking infrastructure. The phones were already in people’s hands. People already knew how to use them. The phone could carry additional services at incredibly low marginal costs. People who had little money, people for whom traditional banks were never going to build and staff a traditional branch, suddenly didn’t need one anymore. The world had changed.
THE REGULATORY ENGINEER: FDIC CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER SULTAN MEGHJI
I get the opportunity to work with regulators all over the world who are building a new, better regulatory model for the digital age. It makes me a good judge — I know when something is exciting. And something exciting is happening now at the FDIC. (For listeners outside the United State, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is, among other things, our primary US regulator for small banks.) We’ve had the FDIC chairman, Jelena McWilliams, on the show twice. She is a remarkable leader who is driving an agenda of transformational change to modernize both bank technology and regulatory technology, at the same time. In 2019 she announced the creation of an innovation unit, FDiTech, and embarked on a search for a Chief Innovation Officer. This spring — more than two years later, after an extremely diligent search — she found him. Sultan Meghji has set out to change how bank regulation is done.
THE REGULATOR’S JOURNEY: AMY FRIEND ON THE UK FINANCIAL CONDUCT AUTHORITY
In 2014, two countries, on opposite sides of the world, embarked on a path to make themselves global centers of fintech. One was Singapore, where the Monetary Authority of Singapore, MAS, began building a uniquely creative and powerful innovation ecosystem. The other was the UK, where the Financial Conduct Authority kicked off an innovation program, often in collaboration with the Bank of England. In short order, both countries recognized that the same technologies that drive fintech also have to drive financial regulation. The whole system must transition to the digital age.
A FINANCIAL HEALTH MOON SHOT: PAYPAL’S DAN SCHULMAN
What stands in the way of full financial inclusion and financial health? No CEO of a major financial company has thought as deeply about this challenge as today’s guest, PayPal’s Dan Schulman. More than anyone I can think of, Dan has been speaking on these themes for years and calling on us all to find innovations that can help. Today, he seems optimistic — or at least determined. As nearly all our guests are doing, he points to the year of COVID as a turning point, both in breaking through to rapid new technology adoption and in galvanizing a real will to do better following the killing of George Floyd. Dan sees progress ahead.
NETWORKED SUPERVISION: CSBS CEO JOHN RYAN
My guest today, John Ryan, is the man of the hour. He is CEO of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, and CSBS is at the vortex of most of the currents of change swirling around the US financial system. What’s the future of banking charters? What’s the future for fintechs that want to operate nationwide? What’s the future for community banks? How will regulators keep up with the technology that’s transforming the markets they oversee? What’s the future of bank regulation itself? CSBS plays a key role in all of it.
AROUND THE WORLD: HONG KONG UNIVERSITY’S DOUGLAS ARNER
Every now and then I do a podcast where I feel like I hit a vein of gold. This is one of them. It’s one of our shows where I think you’ll want to listen several times and take notes, or print out the transcript and mark it up. My guest is Douglas Arner, who is the Kerry Holdings Professor in Law at Hong Kong University, and the Director and Cofounder of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law.
COMMUNITY BANKS IN THE DIGITAL AGE: ABA CEO ROB NICHOLS
America has about 5,000 banks — more than any other country. My guest today leads their national trade group. He is Rob Nichols, CEO of the American Bankers Association. He joined me for a conversation about how technology is changing banking, and especially community banks. While total banking volume is disproportionately done by large institutions, small community banks play a critical role in both our financial system, and in the life of the nation.
POWER OF ONE: MOJALOOP FOUNDATION’S PAULA HUNTER AND LESLEY-ANN VAUGHAN
The Swahili word for “one” is mojaloop, and it inspired the name of the organization that is led by today’s guests. They are Paula Hunter and Lesley-Ann Vaughan of the Mojaloop Foundation. The open-source Mojaloop software was first developed in 2017 to support the financial inclusion work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, premised on the realization that reaching financially underserved people with digital financial services will require the financial system to use open and interoperable solutions. Just four years later, more than 400 developers are collaborating to create Mojaloop software that is helping service providers open markets and accelerate progress in emerging markets.
WORLDWIDE FINANCIAL INCLUSION: SHARMISTA APPAYA AND IVO JENIK
My guests today are leaders in the drive to bring the world’s poor into the formal financial system. They are Sharmista Appaya, Financial Sector Specialist at the World Bank Group, and Ivo Jenik, Financial Sector Specialist at CGAP. CGAP stands for the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor and sits within the World Bank as essentially a financial inclusion think tank. I first met Sharmista years ago in London when she headed the Bank of England’s Fintech Accelerator, and I’ve been running into Ivo in interesting places around the world for years, but they are now both based where I am, in Washington DC.
EMBRACE THE HERETIC – HONG KONG’S PINDAR WONG
We are introducing some thematic series into Barefoot Innovation this year. One series will stretch our collective thinking out into the future and try to envision how technology will change financial services, not for the next few years, but over the next decade or two. My working title for this theme is, the Thinkers. And so we’re starting with Pindar Wong.
TRANSFORMING CREDIT ACCESS WITH MACHINE LEARNING – MIKE DE VERE AND TEDDY FLO OF ZEST AI
My guests today are Mike de Vere, CEO of Zest AI, and Teddy Flo, the company’s general counsel. Zest is seeking to revolutionize credit underwriting by leveraging more information and analyzing it through machine learning. They started out as a lender, but have pivoted to selling tools to banks and other lenders, to equip them to make better lending decisions.
HOW TO PARTNER — ADVICE FOR BANKS AND FINTECHS FROM PARTNERSHIP FUND FOR NEW YORK CEO MARIA GOTSCH
Everyone is going to love today’s show, but if you are a fintech or regtech startup trying to sell services to a big bank — this is absolutely must listening. And the same is true if you’re a bank wanting to work with tech startups. My guest is Maria Gotsch, CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City. The fund’s goal is to make New York City a technology innovation hub like Silicon Valley but focused on finance, leveraging New York’s role as global financial capital.
OPEN BANKING: BBVA’S SUSAN FRENCH
Is the future of banking, open? And will open banking reshape the world of finance? My guest today has the answers. She is Susan French, head of Products at BBVA’s Open Platform. BBVA, the global bank headquartered in Spain, has long been ahead of the curve in technology innovation in general, and in open banking specifically.
BANKERS’ CORE CHALLENGE: MANTL CEO NATHANIEL HARLEY
A lot of people, including me, care about community banks. They are much more than providers of financial services. They are the backbone of their communities. That matters now more than ever, as many of these communities are struggling, especially in the pandemic. These banks know their markets deeply, which both inspires them, and enables them, to serve their consumers and businesses in unique ways.
A NEW KIND OF MONEY: DIGITAL DOLLAR PROJECT COFOUNDERS CHRISTOPHER GIANCARLO AND DANIEL GORFINE
My guests are Christopher Giancarlo, former Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Daniel Gorfine, who previously led the CFTC’s innovation program, LabCFTC. When they left the commission, they teamed up to found the Digital Dollar Project, advocating for why and how the United States needs to join the 80-plus other countries that are planning to issue Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC.
HOW TO INNOVATE: INTUIT FOUNDER SCOTT COOK
This is our final show of 2020 and I predict it will be an all-time favorite. It is already a favorite of mine. That’s because of who my guest is — Scott Cook, the legendary founder of Intuit — and also because of what he says. In this conversation, Scott takes us with him in thinking about the roots of innovation, the wellsprings of creativity. Where does innovation come from? How do you turn a good idea into a great company? What values should drive the effort? Scott shares his thinking on all this, he does it mainly by telling us stories drawn from his own experience.
CREDIT DATA IN THE COVID CRISIS: EXPERIAN’S ALEX LINTNER
Today’s guest is Alex Lintner, Group President of Experian Consumer Information Services, which provides credit reporting services to lenders throughout the world. This is Alex’s second time on Barefoot Innovation. The last time, we were talking with LendUp’s Sasha Orloff about credit scoring innovation. In today’s show, we’re talking about credit scoring transformation.
SAVING SMALL BUSINESSES THROUGH TECHNOLOGY WITH ROSS BUHRDORF AND LAMINE ZARRAD OF ZENBUSINESS
As the 2020 pandemic continues to threaten America’s small businesses, it makes sense to talk with people who are saving them, by serving them through technology. My guests today do just that. They are Ross Buhrdorf, CEO & Founder of ZenBusiness, and his colleague Lamine Zarrad. Lamine, who is SVP of Financial Services, was a guest on Barefoot Innovation last year, when he was CEO of Joust. Joust was acquired by ZenBusiness earlier this year.
THE FUTURE OF PAYMENTS WITH MASTERCARD EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIR ANN CAIRNS
Today’s guest has her finger on the pulse of global change in the world of payments, including how the COVID pandemic is changing the world. She is Ann Cairns, Executive Vice Chair of Mastercard. I first met Ann at the Paris Fintech Forum last January, just before the virus turned our world upside down. It’s fitting, then, that we started our discussion with the pandemic, and specifically with how it is affecting women. By the time we finished, we had traveled far into the future of payments.
ALWAYS INNOVATING: UPGRADE CEO RENAUD LAPLANCHE
In late January, just a few short weeks before COVID shut down the world, I was in Paris (which now seems like a lifetime ago). As I was helping myself to a coffee in the speaker lounge of the Paris Fintech Forum, I ran into Renaud Laplanche. Renaud was one of our earliest guests on Barefoot Innovation when he was CEO of Lending Club, and I’m so happy to have him back today in his new role as CEO and co-founder of Upgrade. I wanted to talk with him about Upgrade, and also to get his thoughts about how the fintech sector has evolved since those days.
A COMBINATORIAL EXPLOSION, CIRCLE CEO JEREMY ALLAIRE
When I started my senior fellowship at Harvard in 2015, I moved into the Boston “Innovation District,” an old neighborhood where rough brick streets slope down to Boston Harbor. A few blocks from my apartment was one of Boston’s most exciting young fintechs, Circle. Today’s guest, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, was a guest on my podcast show back then. Today, he’s back. And what a world of change has transpired in these five years.
REGULATING IN THE AGE OF COVID: NEW YORK DFS SUPERINTENDENT LINDA LACEWELL
Today’s show is a special one because it includes breaking news. My guest is Linda Lacewell, the New York State Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services, and she will not only share her program for innovating in the midst of a pandemic, but will also announce an exciting initiative: the DFS is working with us at AIR to host New York’s first-ever regulatory tech sprint, in partnership with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS).
SMALL BUSINESS LENDING IN THE AGE OF COVID: FUNDATION CEO SAM GRAZIANO
In this episode, Sam tells us about Fundation’s journey, starting with his own very usual mix of skills and then the company’s launch as a direct line-of-credit lender to small businesses. He describes their epiphany, a few years back, in realizing that the technology platform they built was exactly what banks need in order to automate their own small business lending. Fundation had developed automated risk models that enable banks to say yes to business customers that, under traditional standards, would be rejected. Today, the company has a 50/50 split between direct lending and bank partnerships.
INVESTING IN FINANCIAL HEALTH: SARAH WILLIS ERTUR AND ALLIE BURNS
I’m delighted to say that my guests today are Allie Burns, the CEO of Village Capital, and Sarah Willis, Head of Financial Health Work at JPMChase and former Director at the MetLife Foundation.
FAST-FORWARD ON COMMUNITY BANK TECHNOLOGY: ICBA CEO REBECA ROMERO RAINEY
Our regular listeners know I have a long history of working with community banks, including in small towns and rural communities across the country. So it’s a special treat to have today’s guest on the show. She is Rebeca Romero Rainey, President and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America.