Pub. 10 2020 Issue 4

6 www.azbankers.org Banking 2020: Expect the Unexpected By Jim Edwards CHAIRMAN’S VIEW W HETHER IT’S CORONAVIRUS, MASS PROTESTS, DESTRUCTIVE wildfires or even “murder hornets,” one thing we’ve learned in 2020 is to expect the unexpected. There’s no one webinar we can take to help us sift through the virus’s confusing effects. There’s no BankExec simulation for civil unrest. Responding well to crises starts long before the moment of crisis. It comes in how our teams and we are formed. To respond well, we dive deep into leadership training. We build management teams of diverse strengths. We communicate clearly and listen carefully. There’s no magic formula, but we can recognize common patterns because crises are part of our experience as bankers. They come more frequently than you might think. Looking back on the year, leading a bank through the pandemic onset as we delivered the Paycheck Protection Program funds to our Georgia communities is a highlight of my career. Our team showed up for small businesses — often not in person, but from a kitchen table late on a Sunday night — delivering in the heat of the moment. Our whole industry can be very proud. An ABA analysis shows banks were responsible for 94% of the 51 million jobs supported by the PPP. Meanwhile, we saw years of digital transformation accelerated into a few weeks. We were fortunate at United Bank to have made time - ly investments in technology, such as our deployment of interactive teller machines, which helped us serve customers beyond bank lob - bies. With more than four in 10 consumers saying they will reduce branch visits even after stay-at-home orders are withdrawn, many of these changes are here to stay. In 2020, we also saw another crisis: our country’s painful examina - tion of conscience around race. We need to be part of this essential national conversation because banks are central to solving problems in the communities we serve. The good news is that ABA was already moving to respond to these challenges long before the protests we saw this summer. While we have room for improvement, we also have much to be proud of as an industry.