Digital Banking

ICBA Bancard launches guide to help community banks

September 15, 2020

ICBA Bancard, a payments services subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America, is launching an ICBA Bancard Digital Payments Strategy Guide — Small Business Edition designed in partnership with the Aite Group.

The guide aims to help community banks, which provide 60% of small business loans, determine the right strategy, product mix and technology needs of the small businesses community it serves, according to a press release.

It offers a comprehensive Q&A assessment questionnaire so community banks can refine their digital payments infrastructure in the following ways:

• Evaluate the market opportunities to determine potential product reach for digital payments.
• Assess existing offerings and identify gaps based on both current and planned digital payment offerings.
• Examine product development approaches and asses customer awareness and outreach tactics.
• Create a realistic roadmap using a model to identify where they fall on the digital payments development spectrum, with recommended steps to continue building a digital payments infrastructure.

"Digital payments are essential services for today's small business customers, many of whom are relying on timely payments and cash flow to weather the COVID-19 pandemic," ICBA Bancard Chairman Gregory Deckard, said in the release. "By developing a dynamic digital payments strategy — that responds to market pressures and shifting payment pressures — community banks can continue to be a funding lifeline to small businesses through the current crisis and beyond."