Web-based network promotes industry collaboration

A fast-growing web service aimed at bankers has the potential to take industry collaboration to an entirely new level. More than 1,000 bankers from some 275 banks already are using www.cbancnetwork.com to share policies, exam trends, vendor reviews and other information. Myers Dupuy, president of the Collaborative Banking Network, said he hopes one day that bankers from all the nation's community banks will use it.. Bankers typically have shied away from web-based messaging sites. A compliance officer seeking tips for writing a BSA policy might post a request for help on a web site, but there is little incentive for those with answers to respond. Cbancnetwork.com has solved that problem by creating a points-based currency system that incentivizes participant collaboration.. The web site creates a marketplace for industry information where participants earn points by providing information and use points to buy it. Cbanknetwork.com participants earn points by making policies, reviews and other kinds of information available to others. The document author establishes a point value for each item. The item is listed on the web site and its author collects points every time someone requests it. Then, with those points, the author can obtain documents he or she would like from other participants.. Many documents are available for as few at 50 points, but more typically a policy goes for 250 or 300 points. One very detailed plan for opening a new branch was going for 900 points.. "If you have a good BSA policy, you can post it," explained Dupuy. "Every time someone buys it, the banker who posted it gets points. Those points then can be used to buy a Reg GG policy, an IT policy, an HR manual or other documents.". Documents are described on the web site so a banker gets a pretty good idea of what they are getting before they commit points to acquire it. The description includes the location of the bank and its size, which often indicate whether the policy will be a fit for a prospective acquirer. Also, a seller can block particular banks or geographic areas from viewing certain posts. This protects a participant from unknowingly providing a policy to a competitor.. Bankers get the opportunity to rate the documents. Similar to movie ratings, stars indicate the quality of the document according to those who have acquired it.. Bankers pay $500 per year to subscribe to the service. The fee includes a quantity of initial points; additional points often are offered by sponsoring trade groups.. Cbanknetwork.com is part of CBG Holdings, an Austin, Texas company which sells electronic banking software through another subsidiary called Q2ebanking.com. Dupuy got his start in the banking arena with Q Up Internet Banking System and then worked at CoreTrac, a provider of customer relationship management software.. Shawn Mitchell, president/CEO of the Community Bankers Association of Kansas, said he readily saw the benefits of the Collaborative Banking Network. "Myers talked to me about it and as he was talking I thought, 'I could have used this when I was trying to write an asset liability management policy,'" said Mitchell, who was president of the $25 million Farmers & Merchants State Bank of Wakefield, Kan., before joined CBAK in 2008. Mitchell arranged for Dupuy to make a presentation at a meeting of independent community banker association leadership. Today, 12 associations have endorsed the service, including CBAK. The web site for CBAK now includes a link taking members directly to www.cbancnetwork.com.. "It is easy to see the value for those who don't have time to develop their own policies," commented Doug Krukowski, chief operating office for the Independent Community Bankers of Minnesota, which began offering the service to its members in August.. Krukowski said he likes the vendor reviews. "If you ask a vendor for references, he will hand pick the best ones for you, so they don't really tell you that much. The vendor reviews on cbanknetwork.com are unsolicited, so they are really helpful.". "What really intrigued me was that this gives you a place to obtain information from banks of a similar size," said Don Forsberg, executive vice president of the Independent Community Banks of North Dakota. Forsberg gave the example of an HR manual that might include Family Medical Leave Act information, which wouldn't be appropriate for a very small bank because the act only applies to businesses with more than 10 employees.. Krukowski said he thinks the timing for the introduction of the network could not be better. "With financial reform, there are going to be a lot of new regulations and a lot of new policies to write," Krukowski said. "The cbancnetwork will help a lot of bankers prepare."