CSBS 2023 Survey of Community Banks
On Oct. 4, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) released its Community 2023 Annual Survey of Community Banks.
This is the 10th year of the survey, which canvassed 462 community banks with less than $10 billion in total assets. The survey captures community bankers’ views on key risks, compliance costs, technology, competition, and liquidity and funding, among other areas. The findings have implications for researchers, regulators, bankers, and policymakers.
Net interest margins, cost of funds and core deposits rated as the highest external concerns for community bankers. More than 86% of respondents named the cost of funds as either extremely or very important, up from the 48% who said so last year. Core deposits were also a concern, with 83% of respondents naming core deposit growth extremely or very important, up from 38% a year ago. Three-quarters viewed these challenges as manageable.
Community bankers ranked cybersecurity threats as their top internal concern once again. 83% of respondents cited liquidity concerns as extremely or very important compared to 35% a year ago. Nearly all banks surveyed identified adopting new or emerging technologies as important but cited costs and implementation as the largest impediments, followed by core service provider limitations.
CSBS released the survey at the Community Banking Research Conference, co-sponsored by CSBS, the Federal Reserve System and the FDIC, in St. Louis.
