Banking

In today’s connected world, security breaches are inevitable. Especially for organizations that handle sensitive data like PII, it’s vital to be prepared. Looking at your business with a hacker mentality and putting a cybersecurity strategy in place are your best ways to ensure that when your day comes, you can bounce back without any major interruptions to your business or harm to your brand and reputation. 

As the 2016 Presidential debates begin in earnest, scrutiny is intensifying around a number of issues that will have a significant impact on banks. One of these is the possible repeal of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (aka Dodd-Frank).

It seems that community banks are under siege. From new and more stringent regulations to the presence of fintech startups to widening demographics that demand more personalization than ever before, it’s gotten harder and harder to stay relevant and compete. Innovation has to take into account the hard trends shaping our marketplace and set aside the space to anticipate and build foresight.  

Consumer banks and their customers have a new reason to be extra vigilant. Cyberthieves have begun using new malicious software (“malware”) programs to steal credentials from customers of large banks who enter their accounts via Apple iOS and Android based apps. Malware programs like Acecard and GM Bot are proving so pernicious because they can morph into customized overlays to imitate 50 financial-services apps. That feature is attracting the attention of cyber-thieves, mobile phone companies, cybersecurity, and bank regulators.

You have gotten your degree and settled in your career, now what? For many young adults, starting a family could be on the top of their priority list. So it’s pretty safe to assume that finding a house is on the list as well. As is the case with the job market and economy as a whole, Millennials are the largest – and potentially the most lucrative – segment in the housing market. In fact, this group has a collective spending power that exceeds a trillion dollars.[1]

By nature, business owners are goal setters and innovators. They embrace the challenge to turn vision into reality. As your business grows locally, you might begin to think about expanding to another state as the next step. Whether that move is imminent or is part of a long-term goal, preparing for it requires that you think back and reassess the steps you took when you first started your business.

On July 1, 2016, the FDIC updated its Information Technology Risk Management Program (IT-RMP) with the Information Technology Risk Examination (InTREx) Program. Applicable to all FDIC-supervised institutions, regardless of size, InTREx is intended as a more efficient approach to its information technology and operations risk procedures. It enhances cybersecurity preparedness efforts and puts greater focus on identifying, assessing, and validating IT to ensure that management is able to effectively address institutional risk.

“Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians… And diversity is probably a competitive differentiator that shifts market share toward more diverse companies over time.”[1]

Business and economics are at an inflection point. Hard trends like technology, globalization, and access to information have continued to evolve at such an accelerating rate that decisions about increasingly complex scenarios are being made faster than ever.

“Business and government face significant challenges to keep pace with a dizzying array of rapidly emerging and evolving risks. The internal audit profession is in an ideal position to help them, but we must have the right talent at our disposal to provide that assistance.”

One of the largest financial cybercrime events in history happened in early 2016. Hackers successfully breached Bangladesh Bank’s systems and attempted to steal nearly $1 billion from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. By the time it was uncovered, the heist had netted hackers more than $80 million.

Regardless of the economic climate, most people consider ways to improve their retirement savings, whether through individual investments or a retirement plan provided by their employer. In a climate challenged by talent shortages and economic uncertainties such as we’ve seen over the past few years, many employers also look for ways to attract, retain, and motivate quality people.

In 1965, Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel and Fairchild Semiconductor, predicted the amount of transistors in a dense integrated circuit would double every two years. He theorized that processing technology power, bandwidth and storage capacity would progress at the same rate. By 2015, that pace of advancement had slowed only slightly to closer about two and a half years, but his predictions largely have held true.  We are in an age where technology is increasing so rapidly, it is no longer just changing. It is transforming.