DISCUSSING COMMUNITY BANKS and BANKERS HELPING BANKERS WITH MATTHEW SMITH Matthew Smith is the Director of Innovation Initiatives at the Independent Bankers Association of Texas (IBAT). He was a community banker for 18 years and worked indirectly with IBAT for 12 years. Now, he reports directly to Christopher Willison, IBAT’s CEO. Matthew has a B.S. in Business Administration and an MBA from Wayland Baptist University. Please tell us about IBAT and the role it plays in Texas. We help small banks with compliance, advocacy, education and much more. We also go to Austin and Washington, D.C., as advocates to ensure legislation supports community banks. Finally, we identify vendors that associate members have endorsed so that when community banks reach out to us, we can provide them with a vetted list. We are involved in Bankers Helping Bankers, which supports community bankers throughout the U.S. There are currently 30 state associations signed up to help community banks. Bankers Helping Bankers is a safe place because there is no vendor involvement. Bankers can access data that shows the short list of what technologies are integrated with the core and has 7 Pub. 12 2023 Issue 1
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