Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Highs, lows, curveballs and surprises are routine for every business, including accounting firms. Pandemics, however, are not routine (thankfully!). This crisis tests and provokes us all to the extreme.

Digital banking has ramped up during the coronavirus lockdown but customers will seek somewhere to go as cities reopen. A branch could provide that safe haven.

While important work lies ahead for the New Year, smart IT execs need to look beyond what technology will need to deliver in the next decade.

The new proposed regulations on data sharing and information blocking show that provider organizations absolutely must make progress.

Despite improvements in the proportion of consumers without a bank account, there is still work to do to bring more Americans into the banking system, argues FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams.

As the market deals with the short-term challenge of getting trillions of dollars of relief and stimulus payments into the hands of citizens in the coming weeks and months, we as a country have a unique opportunity to put our unbanked and underbanked citizens on a long-term path to electronic payment methods, says FIS' Jim Johnson.

As the market deals with the short-term challenge of getting stimulus payments into the hands of citizens, the country has a unique opportunity to put the unbanked and underbanked on a long-term path to electronic payment methods, Jim Johnson of FIS says.

Tom Bell is a Director at Assured Guaranty and works in the Public Finance Group out of San Francisco.� Tom is responsible for the procurement and analysis of public finance transactions in the Western Region in an area covering 19 western and mid western states.�� Tom has over 20 years of experience in public finance and has previously worked at both MBIA and Ambac.���Tom is a member of the California Society of Municipal Analysts and the San Francisco Municipal Bond Club as well as a member of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.�� Tom holds a bachelors degree in Finance from the State University of New York and a Masters degree in Economics from Pace University.�

On March 24, 2014, Sam Solomon joined the RISD community as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer after having spent the past 25 years working at Northeastern University in various roles, most recently as their Treasurer and Director of Finance.As CFO, he oversees the Budget, Controller, Procurement, Institutional Research and Risk Management areas of the college, in addition to working with the Audit, Finance and Investment committees of RISD's Board of Trustees.�Originally from the Boston area, Sam received his undergraduate degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and his MBA and Ph.D. from Northeastern.� He is a Chartered Financial Analyst with a particular focus on investment analysis and portfolio management.

Scott Monroe is a Director in Fitch Ratings’ global infrastructure and project finance group (GIG) in San Francisco. Scott joined Fitch in 2007 and focuses predominantly on transportation ratings and analysis. Prior to joining GIG he was a member of Fitch’s tax-supported and water/sewer groups and authored special reports on California local governments.Scott earned a BS in business administration from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and is a CFA Charterholder. In addition, he is a member of the California Society of Municipal Analysts and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.