Bank Director’s Most Popular Articles of 2024 Show Concern for Risk

The year 2024 was marked by a reversal: The Federal Reserve, in September, began cutting the federal funds rate for the first time in nearly four years. Funding costs began to stabilize for the industry, and loan growth was weak.

The number of bank mergers and acquisitions in 2024 also marked a shift. There were 114 deals recorded as of Dec. 3, an increase from 2023, when only 98 bank acquisitions were announced. Still, the number of deals remain below pre-pandemic levels.

In an environment marked by uncertainty and caution, Bank Director’s audience seemed to gravitate to stories about risk management. We know that because we compiled a list of the most popular articles written by the editorial department, ranked by the number of pageviews in 2024.

Here they are:

1. 2024 RankingBanking Report: Small Players Dominate the Best Banks List
Topping views in 2024 was Bank Director’s annual RankingBanking report, a ranking of the 300 largest publicly traded banks by performance. The most profitable banks tended to be conservatively managed during uncertain times. Nineteen of the top 25 banks overall had assets of less than $10 billion, which proved the community bank business model is far from dead.

2. Where Have All the Buyers Gone?
In an environment with few deals, contributor John Engen explored in this free article from Bank Director magazine why some sellers were getting little interest.

3. Boardroom Battle
In this free article from Bank Director magazine, Vice President of Editorial and Research Emily McCormick described the journey of the “greatest retail banker” — and the troubles that followed him — from Commerce Bancorp to Metro Bank to Republic First Bancorp. In April 2024, Republic First failed. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. later cited board and management dysfunction as a factor. The failure likely brought this older article to the attention of readers in 2024.

4. Brokered Deposits Rule Threatens to Upend Bank Balance Sheets
The FDIC proposed a rule in July 2024 that would reclassify potentially billions of dollars on bank balance sheets as brokered, wrote Banking and Fintech Editor Kiah Lau Haslett. Looking ahead, it’s unclear how the new presidential administration will impact the proposal inked under FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg’s leadership.

5. More Banks Are Reporting Slowing Loan Growth, Raising Risk Concerns for Directors
Loan growth slowed in 2024, either because customer demand was down, or banks were becoming more cautious in their lending. Directors, however, need to ask the right questions to manage the risks.

6. Will Community Banks Know When Their Credit Quality Cracks?
Director of Research Laura Alix helped directors understand how to keep track of credit trends at their banks.

7. Cybersecurity, CRE and Regulatory Risk: What Boards Face When Reviewing the Risk Appetite
Overseeing risk is one of the critical functions of bank boards. In this piece, Alix gave a rundown about how to oversee the bank’s risk appetite and review the risk scorecard.

8. Banks Are Struggling to Find Compliance Officers
As the regulatory environment became more demanding the last few years, banks struggled to fill jobs for compliance officers. It’s a challenging position: One compliance officer reportedly left for a job at a funeral home, thinking it would be less stressful.

9. Why Don’t Banks Hedge More?
Haslett explored why most banks tend to shy away from hedging and how some banks use hedging to manage interest rate risk.

10. Compensation & Talent Survey: Developing Leadership Potential
Bank Director’s annual survey tracked compensation and talent trends, including CEO and director pay, for the nation’s banks. Compensation costs overall rose a median of 7% in 2024.