Meet Your Chairman Greg Shupe President and CEO of Pioneer Community Bank FALL 2026
Contents ©2026 West Virginia Bankers Association (WVBA) | MBR Connect™. All rights reserved. West Virginia Banker is published four times per year and is the official publication for this association. The information contained in this publication is intended to provide general information for review, consideration and education. The contents do not constitute legal advice and should not be relied on as such. If you need legal advice or assistance, it is strongly recommended that you contact an attorney as to your circumstances. The statements and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of WVBA, its board of directors or the publisher. Likewise, the appearance of advertisements within this publication does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation of any product or service advertised. West Virginia Banker is a collective work, and as such, some articles are submitted by authors who are independent of WVBA. While a first-print policy is encouraged, in cases where this is not possible, every effort has been made to comply with any known reprint guidelines or restrictions. Content may not be reproduced or reprinted without prior written permission. For further information, please contact the publisher at (801) 676-9722. 8 20 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 4 Advocacy by Association By Mark Mangano, President & CEO, WVBankers 5 Meet Your Chairman Greg Shupe President and CEO of Pioneer Community Bank 8 Working for West Virginia’s Future How WVBankers Advocates for Economic Growth in the Statehouse and Beyond By Bryce Himelrick, Government Affairs Strategist, WVBankers 9 Thank You to Our 2026 Convention Sponsors 10 The Housing Act’s New Reciprocal Deposit Legislation What It Means for U.S. Banks By Joe Hooker, Chief Sales Officer, IntraFi 12 Handling Religious Accommodation Requests A Cautionary Tale for West Virginia Employers By J. Tyler Mayhew, Esq., Partner, Bowles Rice 14 Fraud Warning Signs and How Heeding Them Prevents Larger Losses By Pankaj Sarda, SVP of Product Management, Enterprise Core Banking Solutions, CSI 16 Keeping Growth Close to Home How the West Virginia First Small Business Growth Program Protects Banking Relationships By A. Garner Marks, Member, Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC WASHINGTON UPDATE 18 It’s Time to Talk Tokenization By Rob Nichols, President and CEO, American Bankers Association 20 Navigating Revised Estimates Under TRID When Lenders Can Reset Closing Cost Tolerances — And When They Cannot By Renea Rush, CRCM, CCBIA, Virtual Compliance Officer, Compliance Alliance 2 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
As stablecoins move into the regulated financial mainstream, banks must consider implications that extend well beyond payments—from deposit flows and liquidity to technology investments and long-term competitive strategy. The GENIUS Act creates a new federal framework for payment stablecoins, bringing new regulatory requirements, new market entrants, and new strategic decisions for banks and financial services companies. Bowles Rice can help you navigate what comes next. From evaluating the Act’s regulatory requirements and issuer pathways to assessing stablecoin strategies, tokenized deposits, reserve expectations, custody considerations, and emerging payment infrastructure, our attorneys help financial institutions understand both the risks and the opportunities ahead. The future of banking is taking shape now. Make sure your strategy is ready for it. CHARLESTON, WV • MARTINSBURG, WV • MORGANTOWN, WV • PARKERSBURG, WV • SOUTHPOINTE, PA • WINCHESTER, VA 600 Quarrier Street • Charleston, WV 25301 Responsible Attorney: Marc Monteleone bowlesrice.com The GENIUS Act is Law. What’s Your Next Move? Amy Tawney | 304.347.1123 atawney@bowlesrice.com Floyd Boone | 304.347.1733 fboone@bowlesrice.com Ben Thomas | 304.347.1121 bthomas@bowlesrice.com Drew Proudfoot | 304.285.2566 dproudfoot@bowlesrice.com
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Advocacy by Association MARK MANGANO President & CEO, WVBankers It is often easy to take the existence and value of banking associations for granted; the work we do day in and day out to defend and advance the industry is rarely glamorous. But occasionally, an issue arises that demonstrates that collective banker efforts, channeled and focused through associations guided by volunteer bank leaders, remain the most effective way to defend our industry. The congressional debate surrounding the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or CLARITY Act, is one such issue. In 2025, Congress passed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, creating a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. The GENIUS Act prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying interest on payment stablecoins. The CLARITY Act is intended to create a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for digital assets, including payment stablecoins. At issue for the banking industry is whether the CLARITY Act will clearly prohibit the crypto industry from paying interest or rewards on payment stablecoin assets. If the crypto industry is allowed to skirt the GENIUS Act prohibition regarding paying interest on stablecoins and directly competing against bank deposits (without similar consumer protections or compliance regulations), it is estimated that up to $6.6 trillion in bank deposits could be at risk (up to $2.2 billion in West Virginia alone). The crypto industry is estimated to have spent between $189 million and $200 million lobbying for CLARITY. Banking associations, including the ABA, WVBA and others, have been unified in supporting the CLARITY Act while forcefully opposing loopholes that would permit interest or reward payments on payment stablecoins, all with fewer financial resources than the crypto industry. The CLARITY Act is a large and complex bill with many parts subject to negotiation. However, concerns from the banking industry have been widely cited as key reasons why the CLARITY Act has not secured sufficient votes in the U.S. Senate for passage as of September 2026. It is important to remember why opposition to the interest and reward loophole in banking is significant for legislators. Banking associations have helped ensure our concerns remain politically relevant by coordinating our collective resources in ways few banks could achieve individually. Some of our strongest advocacy tools include: • Building long-term trusted relationships with legislators and legislative staff. • Marshaling banking industry consensus. • Clearly articulating why banking industry concerns matter to a legislator’s constituents. • Carefully analyzing and monitoring legislative language and emerging proposals. • Being present in the room where industry negotiations take place. • Conducting and publishing research that translates complex legislative language into clear impacts on people and communities. • Coordinating coalition partners that share the industry’s concerns for businesses and consumers. • Educating and motivating grassroots and grasstops advocates. • Creating tools to encourage and facilitate individual banker contact with legislators. • Speaking, publishing and advertising to educate stakeholders and legislators on how our positions impact Main Street and Wall Street. The CLARITY Act will eventually be enacted in some form, but success in fully addressing our concerns over interest and rewards on payment stablecoins is far from guaranteed. What is guaranteed is that without the sophisticated and coordinated efforts of banking industry associations, other interested parties would more easily undercut our business model for their gain while harming the communities we serve. 4 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
Meet Your Chairman Greg Shupe President and CEO of Pioneer Community Bank Greg Shupe’s banking career began with an unexpected conversation on a golf course. Thirty-one years later, the southern West Virginia native remains passionate about community banking, the relationships he has built and the value of learning every part of the business. As chairman of the West Virginia Bankers Association, he looks forward to supporting the organization’s education and advocacy efforts while continuing to learn from his fellow bankers. We recently spoke with Greg about his career, his advice for emerging leaders and what keeps him busy outside the bank. The following are excerpts from our conversation. HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START IN BANKING? It’s kind of a funny story. I graduated from Concord University with a degree in finance and was having a hard time finding a job, like a lot of people in the early ‘90s. There weren’t many opportunities in southern West Virginia, especially around Beckley, where I lived and wanted to stay. I was on the golf course playing with a guy I barely knew, and he mentioned that his bank was looking for a commercial loan collection manager. He asked whether I might be interested, and I said, “Absolutely!” Before I knew it, I had the start of a career. I was willing to do whatever it took to learn more about the industry. I worked my way through several positions, which allowed me to explore more opportunities. I then made an employer change, which resulted in my moving to Mercer County, where I continued to expand my career for the next 10 years before returning to the Beckley area. I’ve been with Pioneer Community Bank since 2014. WHAT IS THE BEST PROFESSIONAL ADVICE YOU HAVE RECEIVED? Someone once told me, “Adversity does not build character; it reveals it.” I didn’t fully understand that until I experienced it. We’ve faced adversity during my time at the bank, and that advice has stayed with me. I keep that quote on the bulletin board in my office. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE EMERGING LEADERS IN BANKING? Be patient. When you’re young in your career, you may want to run a bank within a couple of years, but that’s not always how it works. If you show a strong work ethic and stay the course, good opportunities will present themselves. You have to remain patient as you prepare for them. Learn as much as you can. Pay attention to the leaders in your organization and learn from their habits. People will notice your effort over time. WHAT WOULD YOU TELL SOMEONE CONSIDERING A CAREER IN BANKING? Community banking is a passion of mine, and it’s where I’ve spent my entire career. One of the things I appreciate most is the opportunity to learn how the whole bank works. You learn about products and how those products affect the organization. Whatever bank you choose, look for ways to learn all its different facets so you can become a well-rounded banker. If you understand the financials, you can better understand the impact you’re making on your company, your clients and your community. That’s how you make a career of it: You learn as much as you can. That’s what I’ve tried to do, and I’m still learning. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR BANKING OVER THE NEXT FIVE TO 10 YEARS? I think the biggest opportunity is also the biggest challenge: artificial intelligence. Community banks are going to face challenges keeping up with AI as larger institutions incorporate it into their 5 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
platforms. The opportunity is figuring out how we can use it in our day-to-day operations. Community banks may also have the flexibility to work with multiple vendors rather than relying on a single platform. At the same time, we have to consider cybersecurity. What new risks might AI create? How could it affect cyberattacks? There are still questions we need to work through. We’ve started exploring how to use AI internally at our bank, with an emphasis on keeping our information protected and controlling access. It will be interesting to see how that develops. WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST REWARDING PART OF YOUR CAREER? Without a doubt, it’s the people I’ve met over the past 31 years — coworkers, clients, peers and vendors. Some of those people have become dear friends. When I look back at the end of my banking career, I think that will be what matters most: the relationships built through the trials, tribulations and successes. HOW DID YOU BECOME INVOLVED WITH THE WEST VIRGINIA BANKERS ASSOCIATION? My involvement began when I attended the West Virginia Bankers Association School of Banking in 2000 and 2001. Since then, I’ve attended many conferences and other association events, and I eventually became a member of the board. The association has been part of my career for a long time, and my involvement has continued to grow. WHY IS ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP IMPORTANT? The association provides a lot of things that can sometimes be taken for granted. The networking opportunities are excellent. You get to meet your peers, learn ways to advance your career and hear about what other banks are doing that might be useful in your own organization. There are also many educational opportunities. Those programs can help someone who is just starting out and wants to learn more. They are also a valuable refresher for someone like me who has been in banking for a long time. Advocacy at the state and national levels is extremely important, too. We need to stay aware of legislative and regulatory developments and understand what may be coming. It is important to know that without these advocacy efforts by the association, banks can lose their voice on the industry’s “needs and wants” when it comes to legislation. Membership can be extremely rewarding, especially when you get involved. AS CHAIRMAN, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO MOST? I’m looking forward to continuing to meet people and learn about different aspects of the business. I try to learn something new every day. I also look forward to supporting the association’s work, including legislative engagement and educational opportunities. I serve on the products and services groups, and one goal is to help enhance profitability for the association through that work. Above all, I want to provide continued support to the association’s team. WHAT IS HAPPENING AT PIONEER COMMUNITY BANK THAT YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT? We’re in the process of opening two new locations. We’re planning for one to open later this fall and hope to open the second in the first quarter of 2027. That’s keeping me busy. There’s a lot going on, and it’s an interesting time for the bank. TELL US ABOUT YOUR LIFE OUTSIDE OF WORK. My wife, Kara, was a middle school math teacher for the bulk of her career and is now an elementary school principal in Beckley. Our daughter, Allison, graduated from West Virginia University and is now a registered nurse at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown. Allison is now continuing her education, working toward a master’s degree in nursing and a Family Nurse Practitioner certification. We spend a lot of time in Morgantown visiting her and going to football games. When I’m home, you can usually find me playing golf. That’s my main hobby. I also serve as a volunteer board member for the YMCA of Southern West Virginia, chairman of the board of the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center and a member of the executive committee of Region One Workforce West Virginia. WHAT MIGHT SURPRISE YOUR FELLOW BANKERS ABOUT YOU? I’m a lawn snob! My lawn is my sanctuary. I spend a lot of time taking care of it, and it has to be perfect. 6 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
Working for West Virginia’s Future How WVBankers Advocates for Economic Growth in the Statehouse and Beyond BRYCE HIMELRICK Government Affairs Strategist, WVBankers Economic development and the creation of a prosperous future for West Virginia will not occur in a vacuum. It requires cooperation from business leaders and policymakers to ensure that the right policies are implemented — and the wrong ones are defeated — to create an environment where every West Virginian can live, learn, work and prosper. Banks sit at an integral juncture in economic development. From helping a small business get off the ground to financing projects that employ hundreds or thousands of West Virginians, our industry fosters economic growth and job creation. The West Virginia Bankers Association understands this, which is why electing pro-growth legislators and advocating for pro-growth policies are key to our advocacy and political engagement efforts. The West Virginia Bankers Association PAC (WVBankPAC) plays a crucial role in fostering a pro-growth climate. Our mission is to support legislative candidates who prioritize pro-growth policy. These policies can range from supporting efforts to streamline regulations to encouraging building growth to ensuring that requisite educational opportunities exist so students can acquire the training and skills necessary to enter the workforce. Sometimes, these policies pertain to banking, but often they improve the fundamentals of the business climate in which banks and their customers operate. Supporting growth includes opposing policies that hinder it, such as laws that unfairly burden banks and other businesses with unnecessary regulatory requirements or excessive exposure to litigation risk. WVBankPAC is proud to have supported many legislative leaders who have both advocated for positive pro-growth changes — from permitting and occupational licensing reform to broadband expansion — and stood strong in the face of legislation adverse to banks and businesses. The West Virginia Bankers Association also advocates pro-growth changes during the Legislative Session. We have worked with legislative leaders to pass policies that ensure banks compete on an even regulatory and legal playing field. For instance, in 2025, we supported legislation that created a fairness hearing process at the state level, allowing stock-based mergers and acquisitions without SEC registration, eliminating red tape and allowing banks to respond more quickly to market conditions. We have also supported measures that reform and improve the litigation environment for banks. Finally, we have successfully opposed legislation that would put banks in legal or regulatory peril, working with legislators and business coalitions in the most recent session to ensure no such legislation became law. Our support of growth is not limited to legislation or PAC giving. We also participate in a wide range of business groups, enabling us to provide feedback and expertise on key pro-growth legislation. Increasingly, we are called upon to provide industry-specific guidance on a broad range of proposals. By ensuring banking has a seat at the table where policy is crafted, we amplify our industry’s voice. Growing West Virginia’s economy and creating more jobs is crucial for our state and our industry, now more than ever. The West Virginia Bankers Association is proud to support legislators who encourage growth and advocate for policies that will enable banks and the businesses they serve to create jobs and prosperity in the Mountain State. We look forward to continuing this work in both the upcoming General Election and the Legislative Session. 8 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
Thank You to Our 2026 Convention Sponsors TITANIUM GOLD SILVER BRONZE DIAMOND FRIENDS OF CONVENTION ICI Consulting Jackson Kelly PLLC Suttle & Stalnaker PLLC 9 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
The Housing Act’s New Reciprocal Deposit Legislation What It Means for U.S. Banks By JOE HOOKER, Chief Sales Officer, IntraFi The recently enacted 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act marks a significant shift in how U.S. banks can use reciprocal deposits — an established but increasingly important tool for deposit growth and local lending. WHAT THE LAW CHANGES The new law amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to expand the amount of a bank’s reciprocal deposits that can be classified as “nonbrokered,” a designation that generally reflects more stable, relationship-based funding. Under the previous framework, reciprocal deposits counted as nonbrokered were capped at the lesser of 20% of a bank’s total liabilities or $5 billion. This one-size-fits-all limit often constrained banks’ ability to fully leverage reciprocal deposits, even when those funds were tied to long-term customer relationships. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act replaces that flat cap with a cumulative, tiered model based on the amount of a bank’s liabilities. Under the new formula, reciprocal deposits can be excluded from brokered deposit treatment up to: • 50% of the first $1 billion in liabilities, plus • 40% of liabilities between $1 billion and $10 billion, plus • 30% of liabilities over $10 billion. The total amount that can be counted as nonbrokered is now capped at $30 billion. 10 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
For example, under the previous law, a bank with $1.5 billion in liabilities could count $300 million of reciprocal deposits as nonbrokered. The new law increases that number to $700 million. For a bank with $18 billion in liabilities, the amount of reciprocal deposits considered nonbrokered increases from $3.6 billion under the previous law to $6.5 billion. Use IntraFi’s new reciprocal deposit calculator tool to determine your bank’s new numbers by scanning the QR code. https://hub.intrafi.com/reciprocal-legislation-2026 WHY RECIPROCAL DEPOSITS MATTER Ever since IntraFi invented reciprocal deposits 25 years ago, these deposits have enabled banks to offer customers access to aggregate FDIC insurance on large balances while maintaining a single banking relationship. When reciprocal deposits are placed across a network of participating banks in increments below the standard $250,000 insurance limit, the placing bank receives matching deposits back. For customers, this structure provides enhanced safety without operational complexity. For banks, it helps attract more large, stable deposits from businesses, municipalities, nonprofits, and high-net-worth individuals. Reciprocal deposits are particularly valuable because, as nonbrokered deposits, they behave more like “core” funding — sticky and relationship-driven — rather than rate-sensitive brokered deposits. Policymakers and industry groups have increasingly recognized this distinction, especially after the bank failures of 2023 highlighted the risks associated with uninsured deposits. IMPACT ON BANKS AND COMMUNITIES By expanding the reciprocal deposit limit, the new law gives banks greater flexibility to strengthen their balance sheets and retain high-value customer relationships. In practical terms, a bank can now hold substantially larger volumes of nonbrokered reciprocal deposits. This has direct implications for local economies. Reciprocal deposits are widely understood to help keep funds within the communities where they originate, supporting lending to small businesses, homeowners and local organizations. Lawmakers have emphasized that the goal of the legislation is to keep deposits local. The new law spurs banks — particularly community and regional institutions — to grow local depositor relationships and deploy more capital within their markets rather than passing on large deposits and losing them to larger institutions or alternative cash management solutions. A SHIFT TOWARD FLEXIBILITY AND RESILIENCE The move to a tiered system reflects a broader regulatory shift toward aligning deposit rules with the realities of modern banking. The prior cap was set at the same limit for all banks regardless of size, while the new framework scales with institutions’ balance sheets. As a result, banks can now use reciprocal deposits at a scale proportionate to their total liabilities, protecting more customers’ large cash balances, improving their competitiveness and aiding liquidity management. The law also extends eligibility to a wider range of well-capitalized banks, further broadening access to this funding source. THE BOTTOM LINE The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is a considerable step forward in deposit regulation. By expanding the amount of reciprocal deposits that can be treated as nonbrokered, the law strengthens banks’ ability, in greater volume than before, to: • Attract and retain large, safety-conscious depositors • Enhance funding stability • Support increased lending in local communities At a time when deposit competition remains intense and customers are increasingly focused on safety, reciprocal deposit services have become a critical tool for banks. This legislation ensures they can use that tool more fully — unlocking greater flexibility, stronger relationships and more capital directed toward local economic growth. As the inventor and largest provider of reciprocal deposits, and with the highest per-depositor and per-bank capacity, IntraFi stands ready to help banks of all sizes use reciprocal deposits to strengthen their balance sheet and grow local, loyal customer relationships. Deposit placement through ICS and CDARS is subject to the terms, conditions and disclosures in applicable agreements. IntraFi is not an FDIC-insured bank, and deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. A list identifying IntraFi network banks appears at intrafi.com/network-banks. Certain conditions must be satisfied for “pass-through” FDIC deposit insurance coverage to apply. Joe Hooker is chief sales officer at IntraFi. He has been involved in banking and financial services for over 15 years, working with financial institutions on asset and liability management and liquidity management. Joe earned his degree in economics from the College of William and Mary and joined IntraFi in 2005. 11 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
Handling Religious Accommodation Requests A Cautionary Tale for West Virginia Employers By J. TYLER MAYHEW, ESQ., Partner, Bowles Rice One of the most fundamental rights enjoyed by every American is freedom of religion. Enshrined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, all Americans are guaranteed the individual right to freely practice their religious beliefs without interference from the government. This right is so important to our society that, through Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Congress extended certain religious protections in the workplace by prohibiting employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of religion. As part of prohibiting religious discrimination, Title VII requires employers to reasonably accommodate an employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs, practices or observances unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. For many decades, however, an employee’s right to a religious accommodation at work was severely limited by how the courts interpreted Title VII’s “undue hardship” exception. Unlike in the context of disability-related accommodations, historically, employers only needed to demonstrate a “de minimis cost,” meaning a very minor financial expense or slight operational burden, to prove an undue hardship and thereby deny a religious accommodation request. This changed in 2023. In Groff v. DeJoy, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that employers must grant a requested religious accommodation unless they can show that doing so would result in “substantial” increased cost or burden on the operation of their business. In other words, to prove “undue hardship” and deny a religious accommodation request post-Groff, an employer must now show that the burden of granting the request rises to an “excessive” or “unjustifiable” level. Before reaching the question of undue burden, however, an employee must first request an accommodation and establish that the accommodation relates to a belief that is both “sincerely held” and “religious in nature.” On Aug. 31, 2026, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appeals court covering West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, provided a cautionary tale on how such requests should be viewed and handled under today’s legal landscape. Wilkins-Bailey v. Essity Professional Hygiene North America, LLC is a case about mandatory vaccination policies in the workplace. Such policies became commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic once effective vaccines became available to the public in 2021. And those workplace policies generated considerable controversy on political and, at times, religious grounds. In Wilkins-Bailey, the employee sought a religious-based exemption from her employer’s mandatory vaccination policy, articulating various religious 12 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
objections to vaccination as well as her belief that her body is a temple and that vaccines are unethical. Her employer denied the request, concluding that her objections to vaccination were “secular concerns” rather than religious, and further rejected her rationale for accommodation regarding the use of stem cells in vaccine development as factually inaccurate. Concluding that granting the request would create an “undue hardship,” the employer denied it and later terminated the employee after she confirmed she would not obtain the required vaccinations. The employee sued, among other reasons, for failing to accommodate her religious beliefs. The facts of the case revealed that the employee belonged to certain religious groups that discouraged vaccination, and that she had generally refrained from vaccination throughout her life on the belief that it “is God’s law” that “I have to be protective of my temple.” However, the facts also revealed, through the employee’s own sworn testimony, that her religious denomination did not outright prohibit vaccination or require her to reject it, and that the ultimate decision to be vaccinated was a personal one. Based on this testimony, the trial court dismissed her case without reaching the question of undue hardship, finding that her vaccine-related beliefs, while sincerely held, were not in fact “religious in nature” because they did not “go to an essential part of a religious faith.” The Court of Appeals reversed. The Court concluded that an employee’s sincerely held belief is religious in nature for purposes of an employer’s duty to accommodate under Title VII if it is “an essential part of her religion in her own scheme of things.” The Court further observed that “beliefs can be religious even if they are illogical and internally inconsistent.” And although the employee’s rationale for refusing vaccination was at times inconsistent and included secular concerns about the safety of vaccines and discriminatory practices in medicine, she nonetheless consistently connected her refusal to her religious belief that it “is God’s law” that she must “be protective of her temple.” The Court therefore found that a jury would need to decide whether the employee’s accommodation request related to a sincerely held religious belief, and if so, whether the request presented an undue hardship under the standards outlined in Groff. So, what are the takeaways from this case, and what should an employer do when faced with an accommodation request based on an employee’s professed religious preferences? Each accommodation request, religious or otherwise, must be evaluated on its individual facts, the specifics of the request and the employer’s ability to grant it. However, these general tips can help you navigate them like a pro: • Employees must request an accommodation before an employer has a duty to accommodate. However, an employee’s request does not require any “magic words,” so long as the employer knows that the requested accommodation is for a religious reason. • Assume that the stated beliefs to be accommodated are sincerely held by the employee, unless you have very strong proof to the contrary. It is almost always the right decision to assume the sincerity of the expressed beliefs. • Assume that the accommodation is religious in nature, so long as the employee can articulate some subjective connection between their religion and the request. As demonstrated by the Wilkins-Bailey case, employers should assume that the request is religious in nature, even if the employee offers a secular rationale or contradictory information to justify it. • In addition to allowing employees to engage in religious expression at work, accommodations can take many forms, such as flexible scheduling, voluntary shift substitutions or swaps, job reassignments and modifications to workplace policies or practices. And accommodations can change over time. • Undue hardship to deny a requested accommodation requires proof that the burden of granting the accommodation is substantial in the overall context of the employer’s business, taking into account all relevant factors. These factors are necessarily specific to the employer, the employer’s business and the practical impact of the accommodation in light of the employer’s nature, size and operating costs. An accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to unwillingly do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work. • Coworker objections based on hostility to religion, customer fears or prejudices are not undue hardships. • If an employer cannot grant the specific accommodation requested due to undue hardship, the employer should continue to engage with the employee to determine if there are other alternative accommodations that might satisfy both the employee’s need for an accommodation and the employer’s undue hardship concerns. As always, given the fact-intensive nature of accommodation requests and the ever-changing laws governing their handling, it is a good idea to involve competent legal counsel early in the process to avoid pitfalls that can lead to lawsuits, such as the Wilkins-Bailey case. Tyler Mayhew is a partner in the Martinsburg, West Virginia, office of Bowles Rice LLP. He is licensed to practice law in Virginia and West Virginia and focuses his practice on employment law, commercial litigation and appellate litigation. Email Tyler at tmayhew@bowlesrice.com. 13 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
Fraud rarely announces itself with one obvious event. It could start with a small, unfamiliar debit card charge or an urgent wire request. Those warnings may reach different teams or even a vendor. Without holistic visibility, that separation gives fraud room to grow into a more serious attack. To successfully battle these attacks, community banks need one connected response across cards, payments, cybersecurity, operations and frontline teams. Uncovering the underlying pattern behind the losses helps financial institutions prevent future attacks. A card test, a phishing email and a payment request can appear in different systems while belonging to the same attack. Teams need a way to connect those signals before individual small tests turn into a significantly larger loss. The sooner the silos between teams break down, the better their chance of stopping the activity before the fraud web gets too tangled. DON’T IGNORE SMALL FRAUD ATTEMPTS — THEY’RE A TEST Small fraud attempts are often written off as mistakes, but overlooking them can give cybercriminals a green light for bolder actions. These small-dollar charges are known as card testing, when the holder of stolen card info makes small purchases — often $1 or less — to verify which cards still work. However, victims don’t need to have their card info deliberately stolen as a one-off hacking attempt to fall prey. These smaller amounts add up quickly across thousands of accounts. Alloy’s 2026 State of Fraud Report found that 22% of financial institutions and fintechs lost over $5 million to fraud in 2025. Another 45% reported losses between $1.5 million and $5 million. Together, these numbers become significant. Once the pattern appears, there are four steps to take in response: 1. Slow the attempts. Apply velocity checks and rate limits. 2. Confirm the pattern. Look for spikes in declines, low-dollar attempts and repeated BIN activity. 3. Contain the range. Temporarily limit affected BINs while investigating. 4. Reduce future risk. Review cardnumber patterns and establish clear escalation and reporting processes. Visa recommends velocity controls and other measures to disrupt automated testing, with alerts shared across fraud monitoring teams. DRAFT PLANS BEFORE A CYBERATTACK BECOMES A PAYMENT CRISIS A cyberattack doesn’t stay confined to a specific system for long. Ransomware and phishing can expose credentials and pressure employees into approving fraudulent activity. MAKE RANSOMWARE DECISIONS IN ADVANCE Ransomware locks up systems, blocking access to or encrypting data, often followed by a hefty payment demand. You don’t want to make those critical decisions under pressure. Be ready before an incident occurs by preparing your response in these four stages: 1. Prevent and detect. Patch systems, train employees, require multifactor authentication, limit access and monitor for threats. 2. Protect recovery. Maintain offline, encrypted backups and regularly test restoration processes, as recommended by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). 3. Make decisions early. Establish roles, payment authority and legal and OFAC sanctions review before an incident occurs. 4. Report on time. Banks generally have 36 hours to notify their primary federal regulator, while federally insured credit unions generally have up to 72 hours. SPOT SPEAR PHISHING WHEN IT’S BUILT TO LOOK LEGITIMATE Phishing messages try to persuade someone to share information or take an unsafe action. Spear phishing is more targeted. It may reference a real executive, vendor, payment process Fraud Warning Signs and How Heeding Them Prevents Larger Losses By PANKAJ SARDA, SVP of Product Management, Enterprise Core Banking Solutions, CSI 14 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
or business relationship to make the request seem legitimate or routine. When someone reports a suspicious message, here are four steps to take: 1. Isolating and resetting. Disconnect affected devices and change potentially compromised passwords. 2. Assessing and containing. Determine what the person opened, shared or approved, and review security monitoring tools and logs for related activity. 3. Alerting the appropriate people. Notify IT and cybersecurity, then involve finance, legal, outside forensic specialists and the cyber insurer as needed. 4. Closing the gap. Fix the weakness, run targeted simulations, strengthen email filtering and authentication, and verify payment changes through a separate channel. Don’t investigate the message and the payment activity separately. A compromised email and an unusual transaction may be part of the same incident, so don’t overlook the signals. HELP ACCOUNT HOLDERS BREAK THE URGENCY CYCLE Technology alone can’t stop every scam. Social engineering uses fear and urgency to push account holders into acting before they verify a request. You can help your account holders by reinforcing these two simple habits: • Do not respond to unsolicited messages. Unexpected texts or investment pitches may be the start of a scam. Block the sender rather than respond. • Verify unexpected calls independently. If a caller claims to be from the financial institution, hang up and call the number on the back of the debit card. Offering clear guidance and education to account holders gives them a practical way to stop the attack before money leaves their account. BUILD RESILIENCE ACROSS EVERY CHANNEL We’ve seen how fraud can disregard the lines between payments, cybersecurity, operations, vendors and frontline teams. Be sure to craft your response so that it doesn’t depend on those lines either. Whether the first warning is a card test, phishing message or unavailable digital service, your team needs to know its next steps to protect your institution and its customers. Build confidence through tools that increase their visibility across channels and give clarity on what occurred, and how to contain and remediate the exposure quickly. No financial institution will catch every attempt. Being prepared in advance with clear ownership, practiced response steps and timely information will give teams a better chance to stop one incident before it spreads across systems or payment channels and becomes a much larger issue to contain. Pankaj Sarda is the SVP of product management for enterprise core banking solutions at CSI. Pankaj leads CSI’s product vision, strategy, and execution for financial and technology products, including payments, fraud, financial crimes and core banking solutions. To successfully battle these attacks, community banks need one connected response across cards, payments, cybersecurity, operations and frontline teams. 15 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
Keeping Growth Close to Home How the West Virginia First Small Business Growth Program Protects Banking Relationships By A. GARNER MARKS, Member, Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC Community bankers in West Virginia generally know more about a customer’s business than anyone outside the family who runs it. They often get the call when a manufacturer wants to add a production line, or when an employer’s next move could spur new jobs well beyond its current payroll. In my experience, that relationship is one of this state’s many economic advantages. But growth doesn’t always fit what a community bank can lend. A company can have a good plan and a strong banking relationship and still need a longer time horizon, more flexible terms, or a structure that doesn’t eat into working capital while it expands. Other times, a business has simply grown past the lending capacity of the bank that helped it get there. None of that has to mean the relationship gets left behind. Bring in a capital partner with the scale to write a bigger check and the patience to structure it right, and the local bank can stay exactly where it belongs — at the center of the relationship — while the company gets access to the kind of capital that used to mean going elsewhere. WHAT WVEDA ALREADY OFFERS — AND WHERE IT STOPS West Virginia already has real tools for this. Through its Business and Industrial Development Loan Program, the West Virginia Economic Development Authority (WVEDA) can finance up to 100% of a qualifying project’s cost for land, buildings and equipment; where the Authority lends less than the full amount, it looks to other sources — often a participating bank — to complete the project. The program draws on a revolving loan of up to $175 million from the Board of Treasury Investments, with a $15 million cap per project. The Authority’s revolving Insurance Fund is the risk-sharing piece; it can insure a bank’s loan to a company, including working-capital loans and, where they support job creation or expansion, certain refinancings. The WVEDA generally can’t make a working-capital loan itself — but it can stand behind the capital partner that does. For larger capital investments, the WVEDA can also issue revenue bonds and notes, the familiar industrial-revenue-bond route. And through its management of the Jobs Investment Trust, it reaches early-stage and higher-risk equity that a bank isn’t built to provide. Those tools cover a lot of ground, but each is built for a specific situation: a fixed-asset loan, a credit enhancement, a bond-eligible project or early-stage equity. The WVEDA is an important part of business development in West Virginia, but plenty of established businesses may fall outside those lines. They aren’t startups chasing venture money, and what they need isn’t just a fixed-asset loan. They’re financing an acquisition, buying out a retiring owner, or building the systems and staff needed to serve a larger market. A NEW TOOL THAT CLOSES THE GAP The West Virginia First Small Business Growth Program was built to close the gap. It’s designed to bring patient, flexible growth capital to established businesses across the state, giving companies another way to invest in what’s next without trading a hometown banking relationship for a bigger check. And Spilman Thomas & Battle was proud to work with the legislature to bring it into being. Advantage Capital, a leading small-business investing firm, is one of the partners helping to deliver that capital. As a firm with a national footprint, it brings the scale and access 16 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
keeps doing what it does best — knowing the customer, understanding the local market and providing the debt that’s the backbone of most deals. A partner like Advantage Capital adds another layer: the reach of a national platform, applied through a structure built to work alongside the bank rather than replace it. For a bank, that’s a way to stay in a customer’s corner even after the customer has outgrown what the bank alone can lend, or when the plan is more complicated than a standard loan can handle. Instead of losing the account to a larger institution, the bank can help assemble a financing package that provides the customer with what it needs, while decisions are still made close to home. Every deal is different, and all of this remains subject to program requirements and underwriting. But it’s worth a conversation when a business is adding equipment or expanding a facility, pursuing an acquisition or a new market, financing an ownership transition or investing in what it takes to scale. WORTH A CONVERSATION West Virginia isn’t short on good businesses, good lenders or communities that understand what a strong employer means to a town. What’s needed is a way to connect those pieces to a wider set of capital tools. This program doesn’t ask banks to hand off a good customer — it gives them another way to keep one. For businesses, it’s a chance to grow without leaving the relationship that got them this far. Spilman, in conjunction with Advantage Capital, looks forward to working with community banks, WVEDA, and businesses across West Virginia to identify deals where growth capital and traditional lending align — keeping more of West Virginia’s growth and its benefits close to home. In the next issue of West Virginia Banker, we’ll take a closer look at the intricacies of the West Virginia First Small Business Growth Program. In the meantime, please reach out with any questions, or scan the QR code to learn more about the program. https://westvirginia.gov/the-west-virginia-first-smallbusiness-growth-program-sb-1/ A. Garner Marks is a partner at Spilman Thomas & Battle and the immediate past general counsel to the West Virginia Department of Commerce. He has significant public sector experience and a strong record of advancing major economic development initiatives across West Virginia. At Spilman, his law practice focuses on economic development, government relations, banking law, real estate and property law, and general corporate matters. He can be reached at gmarks@spilmanlaw.com or (304) 340-3858. to capital markets needed to fund expansion that a single community bank often can’t provide on its own. They pair that with a model built around working through, not around, the local relationships that already know the business: the bank, WVEDA and the company’s own management team. The firm has spent more than three decades investing in businesses that conventional capital tends to overlook, including many in rural and economically distressed markets. In its experience, the best deals come down to local knowledge, solid underwriting and people willing to stay in it for the long run. Getting this program on the books took real work from bankers, business owners and advocates across the state who saw the gap and pushed to close it. Advantage Capital was among that group, and it’s good to see the legislation turn into something companies can actually use. WHERE THE BANK STILL FITS Growth capital isn’t a substitute for a community bank. If anything, it can make that relationship stronger. The bank 17 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
WASHINGTON UPDATE It’s Time to Talk Tokenization For much of 2026, the conversation around digital assets has been dominated by stablecoins, as regulators worked to implement the Genius Act, the 2025 law governing stablecoins, and lawmakers debated the Clarity Act, a more comprehensive regulatory framework for all digital assets. To be clear, ABA supports establishing clear rules of the road for digital assets, but the version of the Clarity Act under consideration when the Senate recessed in August needs to be strengthened. With help from bankers, our state association partners and other business groups, we’re engaged in an all-out push to protect local lending and the economic growth it fuels by ensuring crypto companies aren’t allowed to incentivize deposit flight from banks by offering yield-like rewards on payment stablecoins. While we continue our work to improve the Clarity Act and ensure crypto firms seeking to compete with banks face the same rigorous rules as banks, it’s also time to bring the opportunities that digital assets present for our sector to the center of the conversation, including opportunities around tokenized money. Simply put, “tokenization” is the process of representing ownership of an asset on a blockchain and “tokenized money” refers to programmable digital tokens — like stablecoins, tokenized deposits and central bank digital currencies — that represent ownership of money on a blockchain. The first thing to understand about tokenization is that it’s happening right now. Capital markets are already shifting bonds, funds and collateral onto shared ledgers, so it follows that tokenized securities will need tokenized money to work efficiently. Whether in capital markets or treasury management and payments scenarios, customers are looking to take advantage of blockchain’s ability to support always-on tech, instant settlement and programmability. Bankers need to get up to speed on what’s happening — or risk getting left behind. ROB NICHOLS President and CEO, American Bankers Association Most bankers I speak to understand that tokenized money is important, but they aren’t sure what to do about it. That’s understandable, given the pain points currently standing in the way: many banks find that they don’t have the scale to act alone; there are unsolved issues related to convertibility, fungibility and liquidity; “know your customer” and anti-money laundering challenges and so on. But there are also potential advantages to things like tokenized deposits; they provide stable value, improve capital efficiency, offer regulatory certainty, are recorded as “deposits” on the liability side of the balance sheet and enable credit intermediation. Across the industry, work is underway to determine how tokenized money could support faster settlement, better liquidity management and new treasury services for customers. You’ve probably seen recent announcements about banks, consortia and others launching initiatives in this space. These are important developments, but the point is not that every bank needs to build its own solution. Rather, banks of all sizes need a path to participate safely and at scale, and ABA, as well as state bankers associations and other industry partners, are focused on helping chart that path. ABA’s Office of Innovation has been at the leading edge of efforts to better understand how tokenization can benefit the banking industry from a strategic perspective. You’ll be hearing much more from us in the coming days on our work to help ABA members chart a path forward, including at the 2026 ABA Annual Convention, Oct. 25-27 in Salt Lake City. I encourage you to join us in Salt Lake to stay a step ahead. America’s banks have always been pioneers in payments innovation — and we aren’t stopping now. Email Rob at nichols@aba.com. 18 WEST VIRGINIA BANKER
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