Banking

Ask any banker to name the thorns in their side, and chances are they’ll come up with a few usual suspects, like regulatory compliance and its increasing costs. Since the Great Recession, Other Real Estate Owned (OREO) has earned a spot among those familiar thorns.

I have fond memories of working as a bank teller in a small town during my college years, serving customers and hearing their stories. I’ll never forget my first Friday. It seemed like I’d cashed a thousand checks and it’s a miracle I balanced my drawer. But nothing was more satisfying than handing a smiling worker the cash they’d earned over a long, hard week.

Once considered a service exclusive to large banks, wealth management has become a growing source of non-interest income for community banks.

Berkeley, California in the 1960s was a radical place. The vibrant, politically active culture would inspire future generations to challenge the status quo and stand up for their beliefs. It was during this charged, forward thinking era that a Dutchman named Alfred Peet opened a small store in Berkeley selling coffee beans.