Washington, D.C. – Five student teams advanced to the finals this week in the 2025 CSBS Community Bank Case Study Competition, emerging from a second round of 15 teams.

This is the eleventh year of the competition, which is open to undergraduate students nationwide in all fields of study as an opportunity to gain valuable first-hand knowledge of the banking industry. This year, the teams partnered with local community banks to explore the impact of interest rates and inflation on the business of banking, with a focus on planning for the future through branch strategy, technology, and managing regulatory burden. 

A total of 35 student teams representing 27 colleges and universities entered the competition, this year. The final five teams are:

• Illinois State University
• Mercer University - Team 4
• Southeast Missouri State University
• University of Arkansas
• University of Tennessee at Martin

The top three teams will be announced on July 14.

In addition to being invited to present at the annual Community Banking Research Conference, each student member and faculty advisor of the first-place winning team will receive a $1,000 scholarship. Their work will be published in the annual Journal of Community Bank Studies. Teams that place second and third will also receive scholarships and have their work published in the journal. 

Learn more at www.csbs.org/bankcasestudy.

Contact: Susanna Barnett, 202-407-7156, [email protected]

X: @CSBSNews

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) is the national organization of financial regulators from all 50 states, American Samoa, District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands. State regulators supervise roughly three-quarters of all U.S. banks and a variety of non-depository financial services. CSBS, on behalf of state regulators, also operates the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System to license and register non-depository financial service providers in the mortgage, money services businesses, consumer finance, and debt industries.