Roundtable: Community-minded Travis Bailey, Regional Executive & Senior Vice President, First Bank Laura Bunn, Triangle Market President, First Horizon Lee Fite, Regional President - Mid Atlantic, Fifth Third Bank Taylor Vaughn, Market President, United Bank

®oundtable:

Community-minded

Leading community and regional banking leaders provide their perspective on the challenges ahead and advantages they offer clients.

Travis Bailey

Regional Executive & Senior Vice President First Bank

How important is the Triangle region in your overall North Carolina operations? Over the last three years, First Bank has focused on growing intentionally and organically in the Triangle. For example, since 2019, we’ve seen a 100% increase in assets held here. Through the pandemic, we’ve continued that growth by another 40%, which is significant. With the opening of our new regional headquarters on Six Forks Road, Raleigh is now the largest branch in the First Bank network. That reflects First Bank’s commitment to this area.

As a community bank, what steps have you taken to provide for small businesses throughout the pandemic? Our main concern was to help our clients get through whatever might be thrown at them throughout the pandemic. Our goal is and was to give our customers continued confidence by providing the support and tools they need. This parallels the support First Bank has given to employees across the bank’s footprint—that the bank was going to be there with them and their families throughout this difficult and uncertain time.

What is your outlook for the banking sector in the Triangle region? We’re going to exceed expectations. We have a strong pipeline for loans and deposits and there’s a lot of appetite in the market for what First Bank has to offer—a personal touch, customized and flexible options, competitive rates and, as cheesy as it might sound, someone who actually cares about each business customer they serve. That looks like the boutique, private banking-type model that we can bring to the Triangle market.

Laura Bunn

Triangle Market President First Horizon

What are the benefits of your merger with IBERIABANK and the acquisition of the SunTrust branches? These two developments help us in two ways. One, with a strong delivery system in the Triangle market and, second, the merger with IBERIABANK will bolster the ability to invest in solutions to support our customers.

Acquisition of the branches improves our ability to serve customers and the community throughout the Triangle. From our perspective, these acquisitions accelerated the growth plans that we have for the Triangle. As the Triangle grows, businesses and residents will prosper. First Horizon has the opportunity to acquire new customers and support the community as part of this growth.

How did First Horizon deal with the onslaught of PPP loans in the Triangle market? First, we repurposed our Triangle team, with each team member having a clearly defined role in the PPP process. Many of our team members worked around the clock to secure much needed funding for the businesses in our community. The total PPP loans for the mid-Atlantic region in the first round totaled $336 million. The Triangle closed over 1,200 applications in the first round of funding. Reflecting on what we accomplished through the PPP process, it gave businesses the resources to manage the pandemic-related uncertainty as many people did not know what to expect. Second, it demonstrated that financial institutions can adapt quickly, as banks repurposed teams to serve as the conduit between the borrowers and the Small Business Administration on a large scale.

Lee Fite

Regional President, Mid Atlantic Fifth Third Bank

What is the role of the Triangle market in Fifth Third’s overall North Carolina strategy? The Triangle region is one of the fastest-growing and diverse areas in the country, with tremendous community support for innovation, access to intellectual capital and business growth. Additionally, it is a fantastic place to live and work due to the climate, culinary scene and appeal to families. Those are just a few of the reasons that make the Triangle an attractive place to invest. We’ve been a part of the Triangle for nearly two decades now and have continued to make deliberate and significant investments to support and grow our presence in the community.

Our team in the Triangle is composed of talented bankers who choose to live and work in that area. We are consistently looking for opportunities to partner with local business owners to find ways to help them achieve their objectives and thrive. We believe that our purpose is to assist in providing opportunities for everyone in the community to find success and prosperity. One way we will do that is by expanding our service through significant retail expansion.

How has the recovery process unfolded in the Triangle? Broadly speaking, we’re seeing substantial recovery for midsize and larger businesses. We believe that the second half of 2021 will be a period of growth for the Triangle as we’re already seeing that with a number of our Triangle-based customers. The challenge with recovery is that, like the challenges presented by the pandemic, it is not uniform. While some are seeing growth and great wealth, there are persistently high numbers of people who continue to need assistance with basic essentials. How do Raleigh and the surrounding area fit into United Bank’s strategy? We are a vehicle for growth. United has been trying to get into the Carolinas for a long time now. We were founded in West Virginia and moved over to the D.C. market in the early 1990s and we have very strong penetration in those markets. The next logical step was to move into the Carolinas. I would say Raleigh and Charlotte are the target markets for United’s growth in our regional footprint. From a pure economic and job growth perspective, there are a lot of people moving here. We came into the market through the purchase of CresCom Bank, which has a strong presence on the coast and was headquartered in Charleston. Right now, it is about building the brand and letting people know how we do business. That can be very difficult in banking, especially if you’re an outsider, and I think a lot of that feeling comes from the number of mergers taking place in banking. United has been independent for 182 years and we have a remarkable track record. We plan to be here for the long haul and grow alongside local businesses.

What is your branch strategy? In the Triangle, this does not change much as we have a limited footprint. We have two commercial lending offices and two full-service branches in a market of 1.2 million people, which is not enough of a physical presence in my opinion. We are a lean operation and we operate very efficiently but I think, looking at the data, the Triangle may be the one market where everyone is trying to build their branch presence rather than cutting it back. I think we will be following that trend.

Taylor Vaughn

Market President United Bank

Sophia Wajnert

Head of Credit Suisse Raleigh – Credit Suisse

We’re excited and optimistic about the outlook for RaleighDurham. There are a lot of great things happening here, with various corporate projects starting in the area. That comes with a ton of opportunity and growth. It’s exciting and refreshing to see that project activity has not wavered at all, even over the past year. The extent to which the Triangle continues to grow and support businesses is really promising. Talent attraction, retention and development remains critical. This is one area where we will continue to dedicate our time and resources, in terms of thinking about attracting top talent to the region, to the benefit of all the great local organizations that have decided to commit to the Triangle. There is definitely more opportunity to grow the talent pipeline.

( ) with remote work, raised concerns over increases in fraud and cyberattacks, prompting financial regulators to enact new rules around transparency and data protection.

Deloitte posits that the banking and finance industry’s regulatory framework is shifting toward stronger oversight of digital transformation and technological innovation; governance; anti-money laundering compliance; consumer protection, and control of dynamic data environments. For example, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued the “Architecture, Infrastructure, and Operations” booklet on June 30, 2021. It provides expanded guidance to assist examiners of financial institutions in their assessment of the risk profile and adequacy of their information technology architecture, infrastructure and operations. The booklet rescinds and replaces the operations booklet of the FFIEC Information Technology Examination Handbook issued in July 2004.

In parallel, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an enforcement compliance bulletin and policy guidance relating to consumer reporting of rental information, applicable from July 7, 2021. The bulletin was enacted in light of the heightened risks to renters associated with inaccurate consumer reporting information. As pandemic-related government interventions, which sought to protect renters, begin to expire, the CFPB will be laser-focused on the compliance of Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) and furnishers’ compliance with their accuracy and dispute obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Regulation V with respect to rental information, holding them accountable should they fail to comply.

Transparency will be center stage going forward, especially considering the federal government is intent on confirming the $800 billion directed at the PPP loans and other financial aid as provisioned by the CARES Act is accounted for, up to the last cent. The first subpoenas from U.S. attorneys have already dropped and it is likely that more will follow. Banks will need to adopt a proactive approach to face these inquiries by auditing each and every PPP loan they were able to get for their clients.

Moreover, ever since the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced in July 2018 that it would begin accepting special purpose national bank charter applications from fintech companies that receive deposits, pay checks or lend money, fintechs are virtually on a level playing field to start competing with banks. Traditional banks that fail to adapt to this trend risk falling behind.

Tech revolution In April 2021, Goldman Sachs announced it had reached a technological breakthrough to harness quantum computing for its financial operations, a major innovation leap that could be within the institution’s reach in the next five to 10 years. This landmark is an echo of the digital transformation that COVID-19 accelerated in the financial landscape.

Quantum computing players will find a strategic business haven within the Triangle’s strong fintech and entrepreneurial ecosystem, as showcased by ( )