For those about to rock, we salute you.

4+ years ago, when I was still toiling away at the Smith school, I found myself captivated by an "Executive Mastery Session" class entitled Communications & Presentations.  Since returning to Bank Director 18 months ago, I've pulled my notes from that session quite a few times.  Why?  In part because our visiting professor shared her opening techniques when speaking publicly that I've incorporated into my presentations:

• Relate the topic to the audience;
• State the importance of the topic;
• Startle the audience;
• Arouse the curiosity of the audience;
• Use rhetorical questions;
• Begin with a quotation; and/or
• Tell a story

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• Banknotes By Kelsey -- authored by Kelsey Weaver, Bank Director's Associate Publisher and the inspiration for today's Mutt & Jeff comic.

• The Beat on the Banks by Patrick McCarthy, recently a member of the asset management team of the $200 billion Capital Purchase Program within the Office of Financial Stability in the U.S. Treasury (I think he needed 2 business cards to get that title spelled out).  Patrick joined us last month as our Director of Client Relations.

Both are up & comers in the banking community, and while age isn't always relevant to an author's credibilty, I did want to point out both are < 30.  For in an industry some deem the provence of "stuffy old men," pretty cool to read their take on what's timely and relevant in the community today, especially when Back to the Future references and artfully drawn cartoons prove more the norm than the exception.

If you're interested in more than just their weekly thoughts, follow Kelsey & Patrick on Twitter -- and find out more about their backgrounds with LinkedIn.  Kelsey is en route from sunny San Diego to live and work in D.C. (why anyone would want to leave southern Cal is beyond me)... and Patrick has to be stoked to be working a mere two blocks from his high school (Gonzaga).  I think you'll enjoy their wit and style.

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In my next few posts, I'll share some of the key takeaways from various presentations made at last week's Acquire or Be Acquired (AOBA) conference.  As you may have read, I had the pleasure of introducing a number of our speakers over the three day event -- a culmination of a year's worth of effort for the Bank Director team.  Leading up to the conference, I spoke with many of the participants as they framed their information and insight for an audience of 550+ bank CEOs, CFOs, Chairmen and board members from banks that ranged from a few hundred million in assets to nearly $17Bn in size.  Up first: a workshop presented by our friends at Griffin Financial entitled "How Do You Make Your Bank Relevant in Today’s Consolidating Industry?"

Fortunately, this year's intro went far smoother than last -- much needed, in fact, as it was Mark leading this year's workshop. So "taking a bailout" was not an option as we opened AOBA with his presentation on staying relevant to potential merger partners and/or investors who provide growth capital.  With a 80+ page deck, let me share some of the more salient points of Mark's presentation (IMHO):

• Over the past 10 Years, large banks have typically out-earned smaller banks due to both size & scale + an ability to leverage operating expenses.
• Returns for community banks will continue to suffer, with margin compression due to increased competition and flatter yield curves, higher capital requirements under Dodd-Frank and Basel III and more severe risk weighting.
• As recently as 5 years ago, a moderately performing community bank could gain access to public capital sources. This has largely dried up in recent quarters.

To the merger-side of his talk, many are on record that banks < $1 Billion in assets should seriously consider selling their bank (or tying up with a similar sized institution).  While I know quite a few CEOs under this threshold who have absolutely no interest in selling, Mark did share stats like these:

• About 2% of small banks (<$250 million) have sold each year since 2008, and represent about 67-81% of total M&A volume each year, despite being only 66% of the total number of financial institutions
• The median relative size of seller assets has shifted upward from 13% in 2005 to 18.5% in 2011 – according to Mark, this implies lower premiums are allowing banks the opportunity to grow more quickly when they do transact a deal and a greater willingness to pursue a merger of equals

While many factors ultimately impact “relevance” for banks today, Mark ultimately believes it comes down to generating the best returns for shareholders when taken in light of attracting investor or acquirer interest.  Agree or disagree?  Feel free to weigh in below.

##

*If you attended the conference, you can access all of Mark's slides using the "on demand" feature on BankDirector.com (under the past conference tab on the site).

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Joining me on stage this year were Steve Hovde, the President & Chief Executive Officer @ the Hovde Group, Ron Janis, a partner at the law firm of Day Pitney, Doug McClintock a Partner at Alston & Bird and Michael Mayes, Managing Director, Raymond James.  A tip of my cap to each of them; all four did a tremendous job sharing their thoughts within the 2 minute window with relevant stats, anecdotes and outlooks that benefited the audience.

Let me share the takeaways from this 50-minute session.  While my first statement -- that the primary obstacle to increased M&A activity in 2012 will the unrealistic price expectations of sellers -- split the room vote, things started to get interesting with point #2.  Yup, the vote trended towards a "disagree" position when I said "banks that are thinking about selling would be better off waiting until 2013 when valuations will be higher than they are likely to be in 2012."  

By statement #3 -- "Increased bank and accounting regulation will be a driving factor in why many community banks consider selling" -- the vibe in the crowd began to trend toward more disagreement than agreement from the crowd.  But nothing like the 4th point -- one that had the crowd voting in mass against my statement that M&A will be the only way to grow in 2012.  Almost 90% took the side of the cons.  So while we wait for the seemingly inevitable wave of consolidation, it seems to me that this year sets up nicely for all those companies looking to help banks explore organic means to grow their franchises.

(*Here's how this session works: two attorneys and two investment bankers have 2 minutes per statement to argue their position.  After that, I open things up to the audience to decide if they agree or disagree with the statement, weighing in via an automated response device that tabulate 500+ votes in near-real time.)

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Last June, as part of the Bank Director / Grant Thornton Bank Executive Survey, our team asked CEOs, CFOs and audit committee members for their outlook on the U.S. economy. Slightly more than half of respondents (52%) believed the economy would remain the same over the next six months.  Another 39% believed it would improve and only 9% believed it would get worse. Gotta love the optimists among us!

With these figures in place, my favorite editor, Jack Milligan, and the head of Grant Thornton's financial institutions group, Nichole Jordan, just wrapped up an interesting & interactive session here at our Acquire or Be Acquired conference.  The two posed some pretty interesting questions to a very full room.  For instance, where else can you ask Chairmen, CEOs and CFOs what they feel the top risk is currently facing their bank -- and get near real-time answers?  Unfortunately, I didn't capture the percentages, but answers involved credit risk, liquidity risk, IT risk or compliance risk due to uncertain regulatory developments.  

With this particular event focused on M&A and growth issues, it was not surprising that Nichole posed another question that got the crowd buzzing.  Specifically, what is the top way your bank plans to grow over the next year?  Answers included:

• Organic loan origination;
• Purchase of loan pools; 
• M&A;
• Lease finance;
• Non-lending investment activities; and
• Using more advantageous tax strategies and structures

While Nichole & her team at Grant Thornto are seeing healthy M&A activity in the industry, she was quick to note activity has yet to return to pre-recession levels.  In her words, many banks are viewing mergers as a viable way to grow in today’s environment and others are pursuing mergers as a way of dealing with increased regulatory demands. 

She also cautioned that an area that needs to be better thoroughly addressed is post-integration activities.  I'm paraphrasing, but her take is banks, their advisers and accounting firms do exhaustive work preparing the books, but the key to a successful merger is largely what happens after the transaction. Perhaps most importantly, how will you blend the two cultures of both institutions? Communication and leadership are essential in making sure the acquisition is a success.  So some really intereting discussions taking place on a Monday -- this being one I had a few minutes to write up.  More to come...

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Not a tremendously long post today.  I guess you could say that I'm saving up for for our Acquire or Be Acquired conference (that you can follow using #AOBA12 and/or @bankdirector) that kicks off this Sunday.

Recently, I've had a lot to celebrate -- a new baby boy, the Patriots advancing to the Super Bowl and an unbelievably awesome experience of ringing the closing bell at the NASDAQ MarketSite in NYC in December.  As we did last year, we will again assemble a dynamic group of industry leaders to examine the board's role in lending.  Yup, we are all set to do so again in Times Square in early December.  So, as we spin up our marketing machine, I'll do my best to provide insight on how we decide to use different tools and techniques to promote our second go-round at the MarketSite.  Want a sneak peek of the kinds of messaging we're putting together?  Here's a 30-second video we will begin to share this weekend:

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A fun Friday observation: where there is a strong bank & board, we regularly find a Chairman or a CEO determined to make his or her institution better.  Anecdotal?  Perhaps... but one gleaned from a number of conversations me and my colleagues have had over the past seventeen months. In fact, this executive interest in making a real commitment to the education of ones board prompted Bank Director to develop DirectorCorps.  Here's a quick look (with yours truly providing the narrative) at this educational program:

Pop quiz: Did you watch this one minute video?  I'm curious, as we find that people are more likely to watch a presentation such as this if it follows six lines or less of text.  Now I know I've been playing a cheerleading role for Bank Director here on DCSpring21 for the past few posts.  So let me put my pom poms down and tie the above video into today's post.

It will come as no surprise that a traditional publishing model has been eclipsed by a new, digital hybrid one.  Consequently, as our business evolves, we are often confronted with the infamous build vs buy decision.  Yes, the classic IT dilemma strikes home for even companies of 20 or so employees.  Now, we believe our long-term success is tied to being at the center of where our "consumer" is.  So that means providing information in multiple formats that can be quickly and easily reviewed and shared.  Of course, providing information -- be it in print, online or even in person -- comes at real cost; hence, the decision(s) to outsource projects or add internal resources.

For the online videos we've begun to produce, we are lucky to have a great shop close to our Nashville headquarters -- Snapshot Interactive.  With the help of Mark, Craig and Ben, we've boosted our capabilities without adding to overhead.  Having initially pushed to build our own in-house team, I'm not afraid to admit that our decision to buy rather than build has proven the better of the two options.

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For the past 21 years, we've been the leading information resource for officers and directors of financial institutions. Chairmen, CEOs, CFOs, General Counsel, Presidents and members of the boards at institutions of all sizes rely on us to keep pace with an ever-changing financial landscape.  A more powerful & influential audience base simply does not exist at any other banking organization in the United States.

So yes, I'm pretty proud to write about this hugely influential organization of which I'm a part.  Since re-joining the firm in September of '10, I've shared some behind-the-scenes information relative to ways we've improved the quality and frequency of the board-level information we share. From our digital channels to research reports to publications, I do my best to give an insider's look at how a small business like ours operates on a national scale.  So its our conference groups turn for its day in the sun; specifically, the "granddaddy" of all our conferences, Acquire or Be Acquired (shortened to AOBA which is pronounced A-O-Bah) that kicks off in Arizona later this month.

Long recognized as the premier M&A and growth event, this 3-day conference addresses the most important trends in the merger and acquisition landscape and other growth options.  Right now, we are at 639 attendees -- and I expect we will break 650.  Easily our best turn out in the 18 years  we've been hosting this particular event.  I just saw the demographics and thought to share:

Who is coming (by title)

• 46% = CEO/President
• 13% = Chairman
• 11% = CFO
• 23% = Outside Directors
• 7% = Other senior executives of financial institutions

Are they public or private?

• 25% = Public
• 75% = Private

This is a pretty good ratio when you consider of the 7800+ banks in the U.S., approximately 500 are publicly held...

Where are they (regionally) joining us from?

• 5% = West
• 61% = Central
• 18% = Northeast
• 16% = Southeast

If you're coming out to one of my all-time favorite hotels (the Arizona Biltmore) from January 29 - 31, please let me know.  With many predicting a massive wave of consolidation in the coming years, this should be an interesting & spirited three days together!

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One of the fun responsibilities I have working for a company like ours is knowing when to challenge the status quo -- or take a sledgehammer to something that once worked but might need massive change.  As a design thinker, I tend to think in terms of creating an "addictive" on-line, in-person or in-print customer experience.  A challenge, to be sure... as in our massively networked day and age, how quickly we leap from story to story, new to newer in search of the next big client, conversation or company!

So how to engage one's attention long enough that they don't bounce from us to someone else?  One of the areas I'm most bullish on has thrown our team for the biggest curveball: the monetization of online videos. Now, I know I'm not the only one who's trying to figure out how to create a sustainable business.  In fact, TechCrunch shared a piece "The State of Online Video: Getting Paid for Content" that addresses many of the business challenges we have as we move to a more digital state of sharing.  I'll let you hop over to read the piece in full.  Just know the cynical line that caught my eye was this: Old media and video: Those who can won’t, those who want can’t.

Fortunately for us, we've been moving in this direction for almost a year -- driven in large part by an entrepreneurial chairman and exceptionally talented VP of Digital Strategy.  While we haven't figured it totally out, let me share a recent example of a video our team produced and just posted to BankDirector.com (it features John Duffy, the Vice Chairman of Keefe, Bruyette and Woods -- one of the most knowledgeable and plugged in investment bankers when it comes to financial services companies) 

If you don't have time to view this, John shares his perspectives on the good, the bad and the ugly state of the financial services industry.  In short order, he touches on bank profitability forecasts, improving bank valuations and jump starting M&A activity.  All tremendously valuable and timely information that benefits the officers & directors we count as core to our business.

So as we continue to consider how companies that want to gain access to this group might sign on to sponsor video series (think TED) or produce for their own marketing purposes (to take advantage of significant cost savings), I'm excited to keep sharing great information like this.  And yes, I very much welcome thoughts for how we might improve/enhance this experience for viewers and potential sponsors alike.  Feel free to share an idea below.

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Today, I'm taking a different tack as I draft my next post about a performance scorecard we shared in our Q3 issue. While consistency, strong management, a deep understanding of one’s core market and careful risk characterized some of our most successful financial institutions, I can't miss this chance to post a more personal question:

What does it take to be great?  

Both personally and as part of an organization, I know the answer differs from person-to-person.  Still, what better time than New Year's Day to put that question out there as I formulate my next few posts.  If you're game, drop me a line and let me know what you think it really takes to make one great.

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During the real dogs days of summer here in D.C., I had the chance to cool off in a meeting with several attorneys from one of the country's leading corporate law firms.  The guys I was sitting with run the firm's Banking & Financial Services group -- and combined expertise in capital markets, debt trading, derivatives and financial product structuring & restructuring.  Walking in, I'll admit I started to second-guess my decision to get an MBA over a JD a few years ago.  

Fortunately, the senior-most member of the team put me at ease right off the bat by complimenting our exceptionally talented editor, Jack Milligan.  Jack had just written a piece about Capital One's announced acquisition of the U.S. credit card business of HSBC Holdings PLC for approximately $2.6 billion.  This was one of the first "big" stories that ran on our just-launched BankDirector.com, and while we track impressions, visits, etc., I was thrilled to hear from folks in-the-know that his piece resonated.

Specific to today's post, several of the partners praised the juxtaposition of an article Jack wrote in 2006 about Capital One's strategy of diversification with his "What is Rick Fairbank’s Endgame?" piece.  In their view, his ability to draw on such experience and perspective separates him from many other journalists offering quick judgements while appearing casually indifferent to the past.

To the story itself, the timing of the Capital One deal was, shall we say, interesting.  Global equity markets were panicking over the combination of S&P’s historic downgrading of the United States’ credit rating, deep concerns about the wobbly financial state of major European countries like Italy and France and the distinct possibility that the U.S. economy might be slipping back into another recession.  So placing a bet as big as this?  Definitely a wow moment that Jack neatly summarized:

Capital One Corp. CEO Rich Fairbank is a smart guy, but I think he needs to work on his timing. I mean really, who announces a major credit card portfolio acquisition on the same day that the Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 519.83 point – or 4.62 percent – for an 11-month low, particularly when big banks like Citigroup, Bank of America Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. led the way down?... 

...Of course, Capital One had been working on the HSBC deal for months – so the exact timing of the August 10 announcement wasn’t something that Fairbank had much control over. But if you know anything about Rich Fairbank you know he’s a fearless strategist who won’t hesitate to pull the trigger on an acquisition if he believes it’s the smart thing to do.

While the market responds to acquisitions like this early, time will tell if the deal returns sufficient value to Capital One's shareholders.  Nonetheless, as I look back on 2011 -- and think ahead to 2012 -- it strikes me that we need more "fearless strategists" like this.  Men and women who combine a strong vision with clear strategy, an appropriate appetite for risk and commitment to execution.  While we've run a number of strategy-focused or deal-oriented stories on BankDirector.com since Jack's article, this one sticks out based on the happy combination of peer recognition, the launch of our new site and focus on growth strategies during some of the darkest days of consumer + investor confidence.

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When we re-open our offices next week, I'm going to put a motion in front of our team to designate 2011 as the "Year of the CEO's iPad."  From our Acquire or Be Acquired conference last January --where maybe 15% of the audience were geeked out -- through our most recent Boardroom Forum on Lending -- with iPads and iPhones dueling for space in front of attendees -- CEOs, Chairmen and members of the boards of banks must have driven Apple's impressive sales numbers.  For a so-called tech-wary bunch, I saw a whole heckuva lot of Apples at our events.  Where laptops dominated the conference scene in 2010, 2011 wraps up with tablets galore.

This change in how our attendees consume and share information mirrors the quick changes that banks are facing with their customer base.  For example, ever-less-loyal, mobilely-enabled customers are going online in droves to shop for the most favorable rates, highest returns and superior mobile banking experiences.  This is putting additional stress on bank executives and their boards already under considerable pressures to grow a franchise, increase profitability and raise capital.

Against this bleak backdrop, private equity firms like TPG Capital, Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic have made their mark as banks seek capital for growth.  With relatively few in a position to successfully tapping the equity markets, let me offer up a story from our 3rd quarter issue that looks at private equity’s elevated interest in the financial community (is it good news for banks?).  The hook to 2012: private equity funds might play an increasingly important role in re-capitalizing the U.S. banking industry:

On the surface, it seems like a no-brainer: banks need capital to bolster loss-battered balance sheets, meet stiffer regulatory capital requirements or... take advantage of expansion opportunities.

Regardless of its motivations, PE has been there when more traditional forms have been absent. “The industry needs capital anyway it can get it,” says Ralph “Chip” McDonald III, a securities law partner at Jones Day in Atlanta. “For many banks—especially those that lack an active public following—private equity is often the best, if not only, solution.”

Beyond the money, PE firms often bring a little something extra to the party: Merger-and-acquisition prowess, mortgage servicing efficiencies or simply the wisdom of experienced bankers who have been through previous tough cycles or hold other investments, and understand what it takes to succeed.

However, the field of private equity funds focusing on banks has shrunk, creating a more competitive landscape.  While private equity industry leaders have a brighter outlook for their year ahead (according to KPMG’s 2011 Private Equity Executive Survey), few have the same sunny optimism for the financial community.  Financial institutions are getting hit with increased regulatory costs and rules that lower fee income -- at a time when interest rates are already low.  Banks must keep higher levels of capital and better quality capital on their books in the midst of a low-growth environment, while earning less in fees for everything from debit cards to overdraft.  Not exactly the recipe for attracting new investment.

Looking ahead, the pressure to raise capital will become even more intense and consolidation throughout the industry will happen (when merits its own column).  To be sure, banks with proven business models and established brands will find fresh capital -- albeit at depressed prices.  So what PE firms are willing to take a chance on banks -- and when they do, what do they want in return?  Questions I expect we will discuss and address rather regularly in the new year.

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(*Yes, that is me making a few remarks beginning at 3:21 point)

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Certainly a major highlight in my professional career to-date... closing the market yesterday afternoon.  A few pictures courtesty of NASDAQ's team at their Times Square MarketSite.

So how did this all happen?  The closing bell ceremony capped our Boardroom Forum on Lending, a new conference we (ahem, Bank Director) hosted in partnership with NASDAQ OMX.  With 90% of publicly listed banks trading on the exchange, we felt it was a natural partnership between our two companies.  We designed the one-day forum to address many of those pressing questions that bankers and bank directors have about one of their most critical problems; specifically, how to grow lending, and thereby revenues, during tough times.  In honor of the occasion Bill King, Chairman of our company, and me (as the Managing Director & Executive Vice President of Bank Director), were invited to ring The NASDAQ Stock Market Closing Bell yesterday afternoon.  An invitation we quickly accepted!

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I'll be posting a few thoughts over the next several days... here's a clue where I'll be.

Bank_Director's_Boardroom_Forum_on_Lending_Brochure.pdf Download this file

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A lot has happened in the last year.  In addition to adding a new family member (a healthy little boy), I've seen Bank Director grow by leaps and bounds.  Already influential with members of the boards of financial institutions when I re-joined, our team has put into practice a number of ideas that bode well for the CEOs, CFOs, Chairmen and Directors that rely on us as their go-to information resource.  Let me share some of my favorites:

• We began to redesign the look and feel of the company's brand -- beginning with our efforts to prove one fish eating another really is a cool cover;
• We've taken social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and grown pretty impressive communities around each;
• Released new apps for your iPad, iPhone and Android-powered mobile devices so you can read our quarterly magazine wherever and whenever you please;
• Invested big time in our data sets to become a truly data-driven organization;
• Moved into the cloud to manage client relationships and communications of our dispersed work force;
• Put together new conferences for CEOs and their boards -- and had them sell out;
• Established new business relationships with a number of prominent service and advisory firms keen to reach bank executives online, in-print and in-person;
• Met with CEOs of banks whose asset size & market share make me shake my head in positive amazement;
• Built BankBusiness.com -- the most extensive directory of qualified companies currently serving the financial community;
• Produced three-to-five minute videos that feature some of the bigger banks in the U.S.; and
• Created a new Analyst Forum to share macro-level trends with directors & officers of publicly-held banks.

Next week, we will introduce even more to our digital arsenal -- beginning with a live webcast from NASDAQ's MarketSite.  We will quickly follow that up with something I'm personally excited to do: "ring" the NASDAQ Closing Bell on Tuesday, December 6th.  I'll be doing so with our chairman, Bill King, to close our one-day conference.  While that will be really cool, I do wish we could have the whole Bank Director team up with me... so many talented people are working really hard to make 2012, 2013 and beyond spectacular years!

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I'm not sure if you read yesterday's WSJ article about mobile banking ("Banks Stumble Along Tech Frontier"); the piece looks at the various technologies that banks have invested in -- and rolled out -- without success.  One of my big takeaways?  The lack of integrated marketing strategies to promote these new services and product offerings once they are available.  For anyone who has worked in a technology company, you know how difficult it can be to translate tech jargon and silly acronyms into something consumer-friendly.  But dong so is essential -- and banks haven't totally grasped this in recent years.

Ironically, I wrote a piece on mobile banking for BankDirector.com that went up yesterday morning too.  In it, I talk with one of First Data's product development VPs to get his take on banks using mobile tecnologies to acquire new customers.  He made the point that going mobile as simply an extension of a financial services company's Internet banking experience miss the bigger picture.  Mobile is not necessarily risky, it’s almost a must-have.  Now, this is the fifth time I've written about mobile banking as viewed by the CEO and board of a financial institution for BankDirector.com; if you have time and are curious to see my latest column, take a look.  I'd be interested in your take.  Oh, and unlike the WSJ, payment not required to read it.

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AOBA (ay-oh-bah): shorthand for the financial industry’s premier M&A and growth event since 1995. 

Its hard for me to believe, but in less than three months, more than 700 leaders from the financial community will gather at the Arizona Biltmore for Bank Director’s annual Acquire or Be Acquired conference.  Already, we are tracking more than 75 attendees ahead of last year’s record turnout.  The agenda is set, speakers have been confirmed, and our conference team has already reached out to set up speaker calls.  In addition to M&A, this event provides bank officers and directors with best practices and invaluable first-hand information on strategy, capital formation, deposit growth, dealing with criticized assets and alternatives for liquidity.  Why the shameless plug for this event? How else to "justify" posting this new promotional video?

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• While the balance sheet crisis has passed for most banks, market valuations remain a challenge.
• Although there have been recent signs of economic stability, analysts and investors alike continue to proceed with cautious optimism (and in some cases, skepticism) in relation to bank valuations.
• Investors are beginning to look ahead to bank earnings and growth while remaining mindful of the continued importance of tangible common equity and tangible book value per share.

Of course, banks have underperformed the general market over the last 8 years.  So what to look for in the coming months?  According to Stifel's Executive Vice President & Vice Chairman, banks that have the ability to profit off of relatively low levels of growth while maintaining a clean balance sheet.  Yup, the earnings and growth outlook will drive strategic outcomes as we enter the "new normal."  For those of you that haven't read the latest issue of Bank Director, a cheat sheet of sorts with respect to a bank's characteristics in this new normal:

• Low growth (e.g. weak consumer loan demand)
• Increased revenue pressures (thanks a lot "operation twist")
• Higher regulatory compliance costs
• Decreases in credit costs / reserve releases
• Higher capital ratios

Unfortunately, overcapacity in a slow growth environment increases the number of banks not earning their cost of capital.  Of course, measuring this is proving a challenge, which is even more problematic in that you can't manage what you can't measure.

So some food for thought post-Chicago.  If you're left scratching your head, take a look at Stifel's analyst reports and our Analyst Forum.  Both offer strategic outlooks for banks in terms far clearer than I could hope to write!

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The most recent issue of our magazine mails out today (meaning its now up on BankDirector.com too).  A very thorough look at the U.S. banking industry as it undergoes its greatest change in a generation.  The underlying message throughout this issue?  "Winners" will be those banks that accept the New Normal as the new reality.  Charlie Sheen they ain't.  So who might they be -- and what do they have to do?  Take a look... 

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