With banks, their customers and their employees facing unprecedented challenges associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic, ABA today published a suite of new resources for bankers to help them navigate this ever-changing situation.
Resources include:
- A comprehensive set of frequently asked questions covering a range of topics, including regulatory concerns, workforce health and safety and branch operations. This FAQ will be updated regularly.
- A list of common practices—compiled based on feedback from ABA members nationwide—for banks forced to alter operations in response to the coronavirus.
- A coronavirus communications toolkit for bankers that includes sample talking points, frequently asked questions for frontline staff and a sample correspondence with customers if needed.
Two recent coronavirus webinars, both hosted by ABA, are now available for members to download. The first webinar addressed the operational challenges posted by the pandemic, provides an updated on the current situation and highlights business continuity planning practices for banks. Presenters on the webinar included Accenture’s Valerie Abend, a former Treasury official who oversaw a 2007 pandemic planning exercise; University of Maryland School of Medicine’s David Marcozzi, a medical doctor with expertise in public health and epidemiology; and ABA SVP Paul Benda.
The second webinar focused on managing the operational risk posed by the pandemic, department by department. In this webinar, Benda and Michael Berman, president and CEO of Ncontracts—a company that specializes in enterprise risk management—broke down coronavirus-related risks by department. They also addressed forecasting changes in banking behavior and customer needs, business continuity planning and how to conduct a pandemic risk assessment, among other things.
In addition, this week’s ABA Banking Journal Podcast featured CenterState Bank Chief Strategy Officer Chris Nichols, who addressed credit risk, balance sheet management and loan portfolio strategies for community banks as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
As the pandemic continues to spread in the United States, with effects both on individuals’ health and the U.S. economy, ABA has launched a dedicated webpage on aba.com to help publicize the actions banks are taking to support their retail and business clients, protect their employees and support the economy.
This webpage is intended to help educate both the public and policymakers about how banks are helping customers affected by the coronavirus. ABA is calling on all banks to share information about their institution’s response to the pandemic by emailing CoronavirusResponse@aba.com or filling out this survey.
Bankers can all available ABA resources, plus the latest developments from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the banking agencies and others by visiting aba.com/coronavirus.
