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Big banks and their CEOs are facing lots of questions at their upcoming shareholder meetings, but the stakes might be higher for community and regional banks.

Bank of the West is putting a big focus on small-business lending while waiting for the sluggish loan growth environment to improve, says Andy Harmening, a senior executive vice president and regional banking group head. Harmening spoke to American Banker at the annual Best Practices in Retail Banking Symposium.

As regulatory scrutiny of third-party vendors is increasing, banks must improve their research and monitoring of the business they outsource.

The traditional way of doing business in the branch network may be dead, but bank branches themselves will survive in some form, says Bank of the West’s Andy Harmening, a senior executive vice president and regional banking group head. Bank of the West has been able to open de novo branches without hiring any additional staff, thanks to advanced technology, to meet customer demand for in-store mortgages, small-business loans and investment advice. Harmening spoke to American Banker at the annual Best Practices in Retail Banking Symposium.

Look beyond the hype about the price of this digital currency. Because Bitcoin's not just a currency, it's also a payment system, and as such a budding challenger to PayPal, Western Union, Visa, MasterCard, and perhaps banks themselves. Whether the currency is a pot of gold or fool's gold is beside the point, argues Executive Editor Marc Hochstein. The real potential of this technology is as a set of pipes for transmitting value.

Many regional banks are too small to face the most onerous capital requirements yet big enough to grapple with the growing mountain of regulations. That, and some deft positioning, has left the group more profitable than its larger and smaller brethren alike. American Banker editors discuss the success of the regionals and the challenges they face.

The debate over whether banks should be run by separate chairmen and chief executives has gained fresh urgency as proxy season has arrived. Even at the biggest banks, the question remains far from resolved.

Bank deal-making faces a new hurdle as a small group of attorneys challenges a large number of buyout offers. For the lawyers, even dubious challenges can result in big paydays. For potential acquirers, the added costs and hassles are another hurdle on the way to reinvigorating the still-struggling bank M&A market.