Independent Correspondent Bankers’ Bank (ICBB), a correspondent bank serving community banks in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, has launched a digital content source for community bankers called The Correspondent. Hosted on their website, The Correspondent consists of blog and podcast content on community banking topics. The first podcast episode was released on January 2, commemorating the institution’s
35th anniversary.

The Correspondent originally began in 1995 as a print newsletter. Derek Hetherington, current CEO and President of ICBB, ran the publication and converted it to a digital format, from 2014 to 2019. Its new presence, Hetherington feels, is more suited to today’s audience.

“The migration of The Correspondent from its traditional printed newsletter format to a podcast will provide total freedom in how we distribute information to our community banking partners,” Hetherington said. “The Correspondent podcast not only aligns with the growing preference for on-demand audio access, but it also brings a more personal nature that will allow us to build a relationship with our listeners. It is very exciting to think about how this will evolve, and I look forward to experimenting with the form and the format.”

The Correspondent podcast, currently available exclusively on YouTube, will feature interviews with notable community bank leaders, ICBB staff members, and banking thought leaders on topics such as credit and lending, operations, marketing, and more. The revamped blog boasts contributors such as Dev Strischek, principal at Devon Risk Advisory Group, LLC; Kyle Herschberger, President at Cross Financial and Instructor at the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Maggie Abney, Director of the Banking and Financial Services program at Eastern Kentucky University; and Dan Caputo, Vice President of Global Payment Solutions at AscendantFX Capital, Inc.

“The Correspondent is an extension of our mission to protect, promote, and support the community banking model,” said Madison Caplinger, Marketing Associate for ICBB and host of the podcast. “We hope the content we provide will be a valuable resource for community bankers that will help them learn best practices from their peers, from our staff, and from trusted voices in the community banking space.”

All content from The Correspondent can be accessed online at https://icbb.bank/the-correspondent/icbb.bank/the-correspondent/, and podcast episodes can be found on ICBB’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/@icbankersbank.