What Does the Community Bank of the Future Look Like?

Since my conversation with Joe Berry at KBW, one question has stuck with me: what does a community bank look like ten years from now?The headlines say it slowly disappears — consolidation, fintech disruption, the long fade. I don't buy it. I think the community bank of the future is stronger than today's. Just different. And the banks that get there won't be the ones that held on longest. They'll be the ones that moved first.

What does a community bank of the future look like?

Five things I believe will be true:

Premise #1:

Commoditization of banking services…any banks who chose to invest in and adopt today’s widely available technology will be equipped to offer similar loan, deposit, and payment solutions at similar costs to the customer…banking solutions themselves no longer will represent competitive advantage, but rather will be perceived as utilities

Premise #2:

Inefficient banks do not survive…in a world of commoditized services, all friction and expense must be removed from the back-office; especially ambitious banks are even building their own basic core systems, to rein in costs and gain better access to their data

Premise #3:

Community is no longer geographically constrained…customers are just as likely to access marketplaces, as they are branches; no longer requiring customers to walk into the Main Street branch, allows for casting a wide net

Premise #4:

Banks become media commerce companies…lifestyle services and advertising revenue derived from a bank’s knowledge of customers become a bank’s primary revenue sources; local relationships become a tool through which to enact actionable insights

Premise #5:

Charters still matter…customers still value safety, soundness, security, as evidenced by fintechs applying for bank charters

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Where this leaves us: speed to thrive.

So where does this leave the community bank? Better positioned than almost anyone realizes — including, at times, community bankers themselves.

The prevailing story casts community banks as playing defense against faster, shinier fintechs. I'd argue it's closer to the opposite. Fintechs are spending fortunes to acquire what community banks already have: a charter, deep customer history, trusted relationships, real data. None of that can be raised in a funding round.

What community banks have lacked isn't the assets. It's the speed. And speed is a choice.

The future of community banking won't belong to the biggest institutions, or the oldest, or the most cautious. It'll belong to the ones willing to move.

That's where I've landed, at least for now. I'd genuinely like to know where you come out — especially if you see it differently.