CONNECTIONS LISTEN UP Coastal Community Bank's path to BaaS If you aren't already listening to Independent Banker: A Community Banking Podcast from ICBA (formerly Communities of Innovation), you're missing out on some fantastic insights from fellow community bankers and other experts. Here's a glimpse of what Eric Sprink of Coastal Community Bank talked about in episode 1, which looked at how his community bank embraced banking as a service (BaaS). WHO'S IN CONVERSATION? EXCERPTS FROM Eric Sprink president and CEO of $2.68 billion-asset Coastal Community Bank in Everett, Wash. HOSTED BY Charles Potts ICBA executive vice president and chief innovation officer, and host of the Independent Banker podcast " That path that any given community bank is on is really about 'Where are we at in our evolution of technology adoption?' I think banks need to start with saying, 'Well, what does my community bank need?' And then on the other spectrum will be this banking as a service and providing banking services through other organizations to their communities. " The next evolution that's coming is you're having existing companies with a very loyal customer following, wanting to embed financial products in their brand ... I've heard it said that there probably won't be too many companies in society that aren't offering financial services within the next five years. " 66 // ICBA Independent Banker // January 2023