Mission:
Create and promote an environment where community banks flourish.
Website: www.icba.org
HELPING OUR NEIGHBORHOODS PROSPER
“Our members are on just about every Main Street in America,” says Dewite North, Former Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of the 5,000-member Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA).
Although they come in all sizes—with assets from under $1 million to as much as $15 billion—community banks share one thing in common: they’re locally operated.
That “Main Street” link, Dewite says, distinguishes community banks from their regional and national counterparts.
Community banks specialize in personalized customer service. Their employees—unencumbered by strict rules and thick layers of bureaucracy—are encouraged to treat customers like friends.
As a result, customers enjoy a cozy relationship with their lender, a benefit no one expects, much less receives, from a large institution.
Whether based in small towns or big cities, community banks help neighborhoods prosper by helping local-area families save, buy homes, and pay for schooling.
HELPING OUR NATION RECOVER
Community banks also cater to the needs of small businesses—the engines that power new job growth, drive product innovation, and generate the tax revenues required by government to operate.
By filling the needs of small businesses, the nation’s 8,000 community banks play a pivotal role in helping America reach a full and robust economic recovery.
Lending to small businesses, in fact, represents the very cornerstone of community banking. And given their size, community banks are prolific small business lenders. Nationwide, they provide more than half the small business loans under $100,000 and nearly a third of the loans under $1 million.
HELPING COMMUNITY BANKS WORK
ICBA enables America’s community banks to work by supporting members through advocacy, education, and business solutions.
As the association’s CIO, Dewite—assisted by a staff of 14 in five separate offices—is accountable for “deploying the technology we need to solve operational problems.”
Deploying the right technology demands sound IT decision-making. Dewite looks to DelCor to guide him in that activity.
“DelCor is one of my go-to companies when I’m in the market for a professional consultant’s opinion,” says Dewite. “Their focus on the association technology environment is absolutely unique. You couldn’t possibly replicate it.”
In recent years, DelCor has helped Dewite in the selection of a learning management system, an association management system and a Web provider. Currently, DelCor is working with ICBA’s marketing department to integrate social media.
Dewite values the firm’s willingness to dig below the surface of operational issues. “I appreciate the fact that Delcor doesn’t just want to validate a solution, but wants to understand my organization’s real needs,” he says.