Webinars
Webinars
Webinars, offered through Western Bankers Association, are an extensive suite of online webinar training that enable bankers to enjoy flexible and cost-effective education across all critical areas of banking. Webinar topics such as payments, retail banking, compliance, finance, lending, technology, HR, M&A, compensation, directors issues and more, are covered in a comprehensive, and easily accessible format.
Benefits of Webinars
Educational webinars address timely issues facing independent bank professionals. From the convenience of your desk, these 60-minute webinars provide you with a cost-effective way to stay abreast of industry information and trends affecting banks, as well as provide the bank with a low-cost option to effectively train and educate their directors.
2018/2019 Playback Library
Click here to access our 2019 playback library and here to access our 2018 playback library.
Webinar Program Coordinator
Montana Townsend
(916) 438-4427
mtownsend@westernbankers.com
Determining When to Term Out a Line of Credit
A line of credit (LOC) is a valuable lending tool for a borrower that needs working capital. However, if a client’s situation changes and long term repayment will be affected, the bank needs to assess when and how to term out their loan. This session will provide guidance on what to do–before the line goes bad and after the borrower has defaulted. The emphasis will be on the former because if the problem can be identified beforehand, mitigating the risk can be done by terminating the line and terming the balance out.
Who Should Attend: Credit Analysts, Credit Specialists, Junior & Senior Lenders, Underwriters, Relationship Managers, Business Bankers, Commercial Lenders, Business Development Officers
Leading by Example: Effective Board Evaluation Programs in a Disruptive Business Environment
In an era of disruptive technology, economic uncertainty and evolving and expanding operational risk, bank regulators and investors are increasingly focused on board composition, as well as board refreshment mechanisms. In this webinar, explore the business case for periodic board evaluations and review the tools to assist organizations in developing, conducting and monitoring an effective board evaluation program. An effective board evaluation program serves as a valuable tool to help ensure the board’s composition and strengths align with the organization’s strategy, business objectives and risk profile.
Who Should Attend: Chief Operating Officer, Director, Risk Officer
Advanced Tax Return Analysis
This webinar will provide attendees several advanced tax return concepts and related analyses to help effectively work with business customers. The webinar will begin with a brief review of analyzing a business owner’s personal “1040” tax return and the return of an LLC, S corporation, and C corporation including Schedules M-1 and M-2, Schedule K-1, pass-through transactions, and other deductions.
Who Should Attend: Chief Financial Officer, Controller, Finance Officer, Finance Specialist, Commercial Loan Officer, Consumer Loan Officer, Junior Loan Officer
Emerging Cybersecurity Threats
As cyber-criminals continue to develop new attack vectors, banks must be ready to defend against attacks such as mobile malware, fake mobile banking applications, web skimming, and crypto-jacking in order to keep data and customers safe. This session will review not only the threat these attacks pose, but how to effectively select and implement the best prevention and mitigation strategy possible for each of these vectors. Learn to implement effective mitigation strategies to thwart attack vectors and establish a proactive approach to cybersecurity.
Who Should Attend: Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Risk Officer, IT Director, Chief of Technology
Understanding Behavior
Communication is key in any situation; understanding our own behavior and recognizing the behavior styles of others serves to open-up communication at a deeper level to serve others both inside and outside of the organization. In this session, identify your preferred communication style and how to relate and work with others who have a style different from your own. In a service-driven business, it is important to recognize how someone needs to be communicated with in order to establish trust, care, and help them achieve their goals.
Who Should Attend: HR Manager, HR Analyst, VP of HR, Customer Service Manager, Sales and Service Manager
Banking Large Block Depositors – Collateral Mechanisms
For community-focused financial institutions, attracting large-block depositors can be a challenge when they require or request securitization of their deposits in excess of FDIC /NCUA insured limits. However, there are a number of securitization options available to financial institutions. In this session, attendees will learn to understand the complexities of each securitization method and how they may vary by the type of depositor, which is key for a financial institution to successfully execute their larger block funding strategy.
Who Should Attend: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Director
CECL Approach & Preparedness for Community Banks
With the implementation of CECL still being a fairly new concept for banks, having the opportunity to see how other banks have implemented this approach can serve as a valuable tool for implementation. This session will offer a walkthrough of a bank’s excel templates, dashboards, and other technical documentation. Attendees will get a front row seat to one bank’s white paper on their CECL methodology. Learn how they have implanted their model and manage data to produce a timely CECL allowance.
Who Should Attend: Chief Financial Officer, Controller, Chief Credit Officer, Chief Banking Officer, Compliance Officer, Auditor
The GAAP Gap: What Recent Changes in US GAAP Accounting Mean for Borrowers and Lenders
Much of the change in GAAP in recent years is the result of collaboration between the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to bring US and international accounting principles closer together. At some point, both groups decided they were as close as they would be likely to get on several key concepts—revenue recognition, lease capitalization, and CECL. This session will explain these new concepts and how they affect borrowers and how lenders should incorporate these changes into their own analyses and underwriting of borrowers.
Who Should Attend: Director of Finance, Lending Professionals, Accounting Professionals
Avoiding Surprises in Mortgage Servicing
As banks face competitive challenges and increased regulatory and investor scrutiny, establishing internal monitoring systems to provide ongoing feedback on critical servicing components should be an integral part of the management structure for all loan servicers. Preventing surprises that can result in significant operational, regulatory, reputational, and financial burdens, if not detected on a timely basis is just as critical. In this webinar, attendees will learn about the challenges servicers have had managing and implementing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules, especially related to servicing transfers. In addition to implementing the rules, regulatory and investor quality control requirements for the ongoing monitoring of servicing activities will be addressed.
Who Should Attend: Mortgage Loan Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Loan Administrator, Credit Officer, Underwriter, Loan Processor, Risk Officer, Compliance Professionals
Bank Application Security
A web page is a modern-day necessity that draws not only business, but hackers. Most banks offer web and mobile banking, which can create unique attack vectors that will not be spotted in a typical network penetration test. It is crucial that banks implement regular testing on their website and mobile applications to combat potential cyber-attacks. In this webinar, learn about the possible vulnerabilities in your web and mobile banking applications and how to know when they need to be tested.
Who Should Attend: Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, Data Integrity Manager, IT Manager, Database Manager
Industry and Management Evaluation for Lenders
Before an institution reviews a borrower’s financials, an evaluation of the industry and management structure needs to be conducted to ensure long term repayment success. This webinar will show how various industries tend to create an economic bubble within and how their management is tasked with strategizing growth and being profitable. Even in troubled industries, there are always a few firms, e.g., Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue in the airline industry, who have been successful. This session will show how to analyze the borrower’s industry and its impact on management’s ability to repay.
Who Should Attend: Chief Risk Officer, Chief Lending Officer, Credit & Lending Professionals, Risk Professionals
The 45-Minute Deposit Study
Key model assumptions for non-maturity deposits (beta and decay) often represent a major ALM modeling weakness at community banks. In this session, learn how to support these model assumptions using straightforward, transparent, and accepted methods. Implementing these methods will not only improve your exam and validation experience but will result in cleaner and more effective modeling. It’s much easier than you may expect.
Who Should Attend:
Director, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, ALCO Member, Controller, Senior Financial Specialist, Risk Officer,
Spotting Issues in the Most Important Due Diligence Documents
Properly reviewing vendor due diligence is necessary for vendor management success. During this session, we will demystify the structure and terminology of three of the most informative and important due diligence documents you should be getting from your vendors: SOC reports, financial statements, and business continuity plans. Receive tips on how you can review these documents and develop techniques for explaining results to your management.
Who Should Attend:
Compliance Officer, Risk Officer, Vendor Management Officer, Operations Director, Chief Operations Officer, Senior Vice President, Vice President
Five Proven Ways to Jump-Start Core Deposit Growth in 2020
Generating low-cost core deposits is an urgent strategic priority for financial institutions nationwide. In this highly-competitive, rising-rate environment, demand for core funding is high, and many community institutions are scrambling to keep pace. The challenge: old strategies to attract core deposits are no longer relevant to today’s consumers and the conventional wisdom that financial institutions have relied on in the past, no longer works. The solution: coaching financial executives to profitably grow core deposits, expand their branch networks, and successfully serve their broader communities. Join this webinar to learn how embracing and deploying a new strategy that rejects conventional wisdom and successfully resonates with consumers can revive your organizations bottom line.
Who Should Attend: Operations Officers, Information & Technology Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Vendor Management
Balance Sheet Strategy: What Board Members & Senior Management Should Know in Any Environment
Given the challenging rate environment and mounting competitive pressures, banks must have a firm understanding of all the on- and off-balance sheet tactics that can protect earnings and capital while creating franchise value. Explore ways your bank can identify your exposure to interest rates, structurally higher funding costs, regulatory changes, capital considerations, and accounting implications. Additionally, this webinar will discuss how management teams can evaluate and communicate strategies that will address these exposures.
Who Should Attend: Chief Financial Officers, Accountants, Controllers, Financial Analysts, Treasury Management Officers
Credit Policy: Keeping Up Is Hard to Do
Right or wrong, credit policy is the organization’s rule book for its credit risk management strategy, and it also reflects the organization’s credit culture.. Both the market and the regulatory agencies expect the credit policy to be accurate, current, and succinct so that both line and credit have unambiguous and clear direction on how to identify, evaluate, underwrite, approve, book and monitor creditworthy clients. In this webinar, participants will learn how to diagnose their own credit policies to identify any gaps, and if so, how to write practical and understandable policies that meet regulatory expectations for content.
Who Should Attend: Lending Professionals, Risk Professionals
Vendor Management: Aligning Risk Management Practices & Business Objectives to Ensure Successful Outcomes
Banks are looking to increase efficiencies by partnering with fintech companies or using new technology to streamline processes, but don’t let flashy product demonstrations leave you with a false sense of optimism! Such goals can only be achieved with sufficient vetting before the contract is signed. In this session, learn how you can increase the likelihood for successful outcomes when outsourcing to third-party vendors to satisfy regulatory expectations while also achieving strategic business objectives. Learn from real-life case studies to develop concrete business requirements to form an effective RFP, properly leverage product demonstrations to assess the solution against those requirements and determine metrics to measure success.
Who Should Attend:
Chief Technology Officer, IT Director, Chief Operating Officer, Branch Operations Leader, Chief Financial Officer
Moving Your Bank Into the Digital World
Technology isn’t slowing down, nor are customer expectations for seamless experiences, so banks must be diligent in their deploying a digital-first strategy that keeps pace with both. This session will highlight the increasing trend toward the digital banking solutions that your customers expect and the technology that makes it all happen. Come hear success stories, strategies, and the latest trends that will move your institution forward into the digital age.
Who Should Attend: Chief Marketing Officer, Marketing Analyst, Digital Marketing Manager, Channel Marketing Manager, IT Manager, Database Manager
Think Straight to Decide Right: Introduction to Critical Thinking
In this webinar, learn how to prioritize issues and problems, resolve an issue or solve a problem logically and mitigate possible biases that sometimes make it hard to think straight. Every day people deal with issues and hope to resolve them correctly, quickly, and cheaply. To do so means one needs to be able to sort the immediate and important issues from the less urgent and less critical problems. This means the problem needs to be identified, information and data needs to be gathered, solutions need to be explored, and then implementation happens. But analysis, evaluations, and decision processes can be distorted by various cognitive biases. Attendees will leave this session equipped to be able to tackle any issue their organization may face.
Who Should Attend: HR Business Partner, HR Analyst, Operations Manager, Branch Manager, Retail Branch Staff
ERM for the Boardroom: How to Report in a Way They’ll Understand
Many risk professionals can find it challenging to report the results of their enterprise risk management program to the board. In this session, learn how to speak to the different personality types around that ERM table in ways that bolster confidence in risk management leadership and program results. Success in the reporting has less to do with which report is chosen to present and more to do with better understanding the audience and how they consume data.
Who Should Attend: Chief Risk Officer, Compliance Officer, Credit Administration
Mental Health & Wellness in the Workplace
Workplace wellness is a relatively new concept that companies are still adopting into their culture. An engaged workforce translates to happy and satisfied employees. A positive work environment also results in increased productivity and loyalty. In this session, learn how to evaluate your workplace, decide where to focus your resources, and create some big wins for you employees!
Who Should Attend: HR Manager, HR Analyst, HR Business Partner, People Operations Manager
How to Handle What You Don’t Know in ERM
When asking risk professionals what keeps them up at night, it used to be a litany of specific concerns. Today, that has shifted to “unknown, unknown” that is causing sleeplessness. In this session, attendees will find answers to the ERM questions that keep them up at night. This informative session will address the unknown areas within ERM and clearly identify the techniques and benchmarking behind ERM. Attendees will take away a better understanding into this broad topic.
Who Should Attend: Chief Risk Officers, Operations Officers, Compliance Officers, Credit Administration
Dancing with Fintech in Risk Shoes
Risk and compliance professionals have always been charged with creating a culture that made it possible for their organization to quickly adapt to regulatory changes, changing oversight trends, and evolving customer expectations. In this session, learn how the advent of fintech innovations in the delivery of banking products and services are creating heightened customer expectations around speed, ease of access, efficiency, and automation. This webinar will evaluate the risks banks should consider when undertaking a new fintech collaboration and how to successfully overlay compliance culture into a new venture.
Who Should Attend: Risk Professionals, Chief Technology Officer, Bank Director, Chief Compliance Officer, Compliance Professionals
Asset Based Lending: Easier Said Than Done – Policy and Underwriting Guidance for ABL Receivables and Inventory
Asset-based lending (ABL) is a form of commercial lending designed to finance safely the working capital needs of a borrower whose cash flow may not support debt repayment. Like other commercial loans, cash flow is the primary repayment source for an asset-based loan but with stronger reliance on the company’s assets as collateral and firmer control over the receipts of the collateral’s liquidation. Monitoring and controlling collateral are critical to the asset-based lender to mitigate repayment risk. Collateral evaluation begins with a comprehensive field examination to determine value, followed by a continuing program of periodic examinations. The collateral and loan values are monitored continuously (daily/weekly/monthly) to ensure that the realizable value of the collateral is always enough to repay outstanding. This session will explain how the ABL policy and process must work to ensure the bank is repaid on time, in full, and as agreed
Who Should Attend: Credit Officer, Lending Officer, Risk Officer, Commercial Lending Officer
HR as a Center of Excellence: Making Your Department the Hub of Culture & Engagement
The American workforce has more than 100 million full-time employees. One-third of those employees are engaged at work. They love their jobs and make their organization better every day. At the other end, 16% of employees are actively disengaged — they are miserable in the workplace and destroy what the most engaged employees build. The remaining 51% of employees are not engaged — they’re just there. How do you transform your workplace culture into a culture of engaged employees? This session will explore culture, engagement, and HR as a center of excellence for driving positive change.
Who Should Attend: MR Director, HR Manager, HR Business Partner
Banking Cryptocurrency: BSA and Risk Considerations
With consumer and industry interest in cryptocurrencies rising, banks need to understand the risk and compliance considerations when looking to enter the cryptocurrency marketplace. In this session, learn what cryptocurrencies are, who the different cryptocurrency consumers are that might approach a financial institution for services, and the risk and compliance considerations a bank should consider when opening and maintaining accounts for cryptocurrency consumers. Build a base of knowledge on the considerations regarding cryptocurrency consumers and be ready when your bank is approached for services.
Who Should Attend: Chief Risk Officer, Compliance Officer, QA Analyst, Risk Officer, IT Director
AB 1482: Everything You Need To Know About California’s New Rent Control Law December 12, 2019
Earlier this year, Governor Newsom signed into law controversial statewide rent control provision. In this webinar, explore the new law’s restrictions on both evictions and annual rent increases. Anyone who owns, intends to purchase, or is considering making a loan on rental property must understand the new law and how it will impact them moving forward as a homeowner or landlord.
Who Should Attend: Chief Credit Officer, Compliance Officer, Commercial Loan Officer, Consumer Loan Officer
They’re Back – Problem Loans – Know When to Hold Them and Fold Them
As the economy slows and starts to expose weaknesses with some bank borrowers, banks are starting to experience some credit problems. Now is the time when smart bankers seize the opportunity to prune their portfolio either by forcing potential problem borrowers to address weaknesses in their businesses or encouraging them to find other lenders. The 10-year expansion means that bankers with less than 10 years’ experience have not had much exposure to problem loans, so their ability to identify them, evaluate them, and manage them is probably very limited. This webinar is designed for line lenders with some basic commercial lending experience and credit personnel who are responsible for identifying potential problem loans, who take the first steps to protect the bank’s position, and who begin the processes to resolve the problem.
Who Should Attend: Credit Officer, Lending Officer, Risk Officer, Commercial Lending Officer
Capitalizing on the Green Rush: Effectively Banking MRBs
In this session, learn how a bank can effectively enter the MRB space with policies, procedures, and the use of specific technologies to meet regulatory compliance requirements. This session will be led by a seasoned federal and state law banking attorney who will shine insights into policies, procedures, risk assessments, regulator communications, fee schedules for taking the risk, and the speaker’s personal experiences in establishing a program in 2014 at a commercial bank that is still banking MRB’s with its regulators’ knowledge and oversight.
Who Should Attend:
Business Banking Officer, Retail Banking Leaders, Risk Professionals, Operations Professionals, Legal and Regulatory Compliance Professionals