Ursinus Students Participate in Banking Case Study
A team of four Ursinus students is teaming up with Victory Bank in Limerick, Pa., for the 2019 Conference of State Banking Supervisors Case Study Competition.
The competition is a national program that pairs undergraduate college and university student teams with local community banks to conduct original case studies. The Ursinus students are competing against 18 other Pennsylvania teams, and each of the case studies will undergo three rounds of judging by three separate panels of banking experts. This is the second year that Ursinus students are participating in the competition.
The Ursinus students are Jorge Arrisueno ’20, Gemma Dufoe ’20, Brett Korn ’20 and Bridget Sherry ’19.
This year’s competition will focus on the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (Public Law No: 115-174) and how it will impact banks and their local communities. For the competition, the students are outlining additional changes that could have been included in the bill to produce even greater benefit to the bank and local economy.
Working with a local bank like Victory is allowing the students to see how important they are to local populations. “It’s been interesting to see the relationship that community banks have with their customers,” Sherry said. “The new regulations are expected to help them and promote economic growth, so we’re looking to see the kind of impact it has.”
The Ursinus students will submit their final papers for the competition on April 22 in addition to a 10-minute video. The top three teams will be announced at the 2019 CSBS State-Federal Supervisory Forum in San Antonio, Tex., on May 23. The student teams compete for an academic scholarship, a chance to get their work published in an academic journal and an opportunity to attend the annual CSBS-Federal Reserve Community Banking Research Conference in St. Louis in October.
“This competition allows the students to take their classroom experience and apply it to real life,” says Andrew Economopoulos, a professor of business and economics. “The idea of working with a real business is a real asset to the students and local banks are a large part of the fabric of a community. Some students may not have ever thought about a career in community banking and this is a chance to see how it works.”
Upon completion of the competition, CSBS hopes to collect evidence to present to Congress in support of regulatory relief, while also identifying supplemental policies that could further benefit local communities.
“The CSBS Case Study Competition truly works to foster the next generation of bankers by providing a deep understanding of the role that banks play in their local communities,” Duncan Campbell, the Pennsylvania Bankers Association’s president and CEO, said in a press release. –By Ed Moorhouse