need to differentiate themselves from the competition and vie for market share. By bringing its innovation initiatives in-house, ICBA will continue to support these efforts, including identifying robust, cuttingedge solutions to solve community bank pain points and meet evolving customer needs. 4. An increase in embedded payment. Embedded finance is expected to increase exponentially over the next few years, opening up new markets and enhancing customer experiences. According to Plaid, a financial services company, embedded financial services will produce $320 billion in revenues in 2025 — a 10-fold increase over the $22.5 billion in 2020 revenues. Expect increased demands from business customers and new revenue-generating opportunities for community banks. 5. The emergence of chief innovation officers or digital strategists. With growing talent demands and the pace of innovation, expect to see the emergence of in-house community bank chief innovation officers and digital strategists. Community banks are investing in these new skill sets, bringing in top talent from other industries, so we expect to see an uptick in this trend in the year ahead. In 2023, community banks must remain agile and focused on making change to secure their place as their customers’ preferred financial partner. As the new year unfolds, we would do well to remember Stevens’ mantra, "If nothing changes, nothing changes." Charles Potts (charles.potts@icba.org) is ICBA executive vice president and chief innovation officer. 7 ISSUE 1 | 2023
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