KQ Article

What Will They Say About Today?

In college, I was a history major. I have always viewed history as something alive, beyond static facts and figures alone. We have the luxury of hindsight when examining events from the past, which sheds insight into not only what happened, but why. When looked at this way, history reveals valuable lessons that can be applied in the present tense.

U.S. banking has a short but interesting history of its own, as Jill Hendrickson describes in her article on page 12. The industry has undergone several periods of success over the last 1160 years, followed by excess, reform and — thankfully — more success. I found this article comforting. It assured me that banking is no stranger to adversity and always finds a way to recover. I am confident our current situation will be no exception.

This issue of The Deluxe Knowledge Quarterly focuses on embracing today’s new banking reality and seeing opportunity within limitation. As you read these articles, I ask you to leap forward to the future and consider some questions:

• What will your future peers say about this period in banking history?
• Which banks and credit unions ended up on top: those that grew organically, or those that expanded primarily through M&As?
• Did the leaders who enacted sweeping internal change get it right, or was it those who pulled in and focused on the existing strengths of their business?
• What innovations set the industry in high gear once again? What role did technology play?

Tough questions, indeed — and as for answers, history is still in the making. However, I do believe that by keeping such questions front and center, you might better ensure that you’re on the bright side of this story when hindsight gets applied years down the road.

I invite you to read on now.

_{© 2010 Tom Morefield}