Wendy Spicher, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities, congratulated Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania students on winning first place in the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) 2024 statewide Community Bank Case Study Competition. The team worked with First Citizens Community Bank, based in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, to prepare a case study.

“On behalf of the faculty, I would like to congratulate the students, their faculty advisors and the bank on their hard work,” Spicher said. “The competition is very competitive, so it is especially gratifying to see teams from Pennsylvania take the top three places in five of the last six years. Congratulations again to Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania on a well-deserved win!”

As part of the case study, teams were asked to learn about the closures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank. To do this, they first selected a community bank to study and then identified what lessons their selected institution had learned from these regional failures in 2023. In addition, teams were asked to identify what differentiated their selected case study bank from the institutions that failed in 2023. In addition, teams were tasked with identifying how their case study bank manages risk through asset and liability management. Teams were also asked to identify their case study bank's expectations regarding regulatory and supervisory changes, as well as how their selected institution uses social media in its daily operations.

This year, 27 student teams from 21 colleges and universities participated in the competition, which offers students from all fields of study the opportunity to work with local community banks and gain first-hand knowledge of the banking industry.

Each student member of the first-place team and their faculty advisors will receive a $1,000 prize and the opportunity to present their case study at this year's Community Banking Research Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, in October 2024. Their work will be published in the annual CSBS Journal of Community Bank Case Studies.