From one location in Wilmington, North Carolina, Live Oak Bank is the nation's largest Small Business Administration lender and a leading partner in developing technology for community banks. With an uncertain economic and business environment, two top executives from Live Oak Bank joined the ABA Banking Journal Podcast to discuss:

• How Live Oak delivers personalized banking services to a nationwide footprint.
• Where small business owners are looking to grow and build in the coming months.
• The need for liquidity in small business acquisitions and succession planning.
• The role of technology, including AI, in helping to improve the ability of banks to serve small business clients.
• How SBA loans fit into the Live Oak business model.
• Tips for community banks looking to deepen their SBA-guaranteed lending, including outsourcing back-office functions to ensure compliance with guarantee requirements.

If Texas were an independent country, its economy would rank as the world's eighth-largest. "France is the seventh largest economy in the world and I don't think it'll take as much time at all to catch them," laughs Texas Bankers Association Chairman Ron Butler. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Butler — who is also vice chairman and chief administrative officer of $14 billion-asset, Abilene-based First Financial Bank — talks about:

• What makes the Lone Star State a compelling economic story and an attractive market for investment (and out-of-state bank acquisitions).
• First Financial's approach to balancing organic growth and M&A.
• The urgency of accelerating de novo bank activity.
• How he and Texas bankers are approaching questions of deposit insurance reform.
• How Texas bankers have been engaging the global economy.

The discontinuation of penny production in 2025 caused operational challenges for banks when the regional Federal Reserve banks said they would stop accepting pennies for deposit at coin terminals -- accelerating the circulation shortage that's posing challenges for retailers. Today, the Fed reversed that decision, resuming deposits effective Jan. 14. On the latest episode of the podcast, ABA payments expert Steve Kenneally walks through the Fed's decision, the operational challenges the penny phaseout poses to retailers and banks, ABA's regulatory and legislative advocacy for improvements to the handling of coinage reform and ABA resources for banks, frontline staff and consumers.

• View ABA resources on the penny phaseout.