Washington, D.C. - The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) today named a student team from the University of Tennessee-Martin as winner of the 2023 Community Bank Case Study Competition.

Teams from Iowa State University and Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pa., placed second and third, respectively.

“The work of these three teams was top rate, and we are pleased to see such in-depth findings. The University of Tennessee-Martin’s case study earned top honors due to its particularly rich insight and detail, as well as its excellent executive summary,” said CSBS Executive Vice President for Policy & Supervision Karen Lawson.

The annual competition is open to undergraduate students in all fields of study as an opportunity to gain valuable first-hand knowledge of the banking industry. This year, 34 student teams representing 28 colleges and universities entered the competition. The teams examined how local community banks are recruiting and retaining talent, approaching succession planning and using technology to advance operations.

The members of the University of Tennessee-Martin team are Ben Arnold, Cole Hollis, Dan Hoffman, Libby Rushton and Abbey Strong. John Clark, Lajuana Davis, Ph.D., and Mark Farley, Ph.D., served as faculty advisors. The team partnered with Commercial Bank & Trust Company in Paris, Tenn.

The winning team will present its findings at the Community Banking Research Conference in St. Louis in early October and each member will receive a $1,000 scholarship.

The second-place Iowa State University team members are Matthew Ayres, Molly Berte, Reese Manternach, Brett McGee and Adeline Meyer. Professor Curt Hoff and Peter Orazem, Ph.D., served as faculty advisors. The team partnered with Peoples Savings Bank in Indianola, Iowa. Each team member will receive a $750 scholarship.

The third-place Messiah University team members are Nathan Clark, Justin Brubaker, Clayton Dimpsey and Natalie Martin. Dwayne Safer served as faculty advisor, and LinkBank in Camp Hill, Pa., served as the bank partner. Each team member will receive a $500 scholarship.

The top three case studies are available at www.csbs.org/bankcasestudy and will be published in the CSBS Journal of Community Bank Case Studies, available in October.

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

Twitter: @CSBSNews

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) is the national organization of bank 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.