The Future of Deposits From Three Community Bank CEOs

Deposits are moving faster than ever, and community banks are rethinking how to keep them. In this video, CSBS Senior Advisor Kyle Thomas moderates the Future of Deposits panel from the Community Banking Research Conference 2026. He’s joined by John Blizzard of Seattle Bank, Jeff Sinnott of Vantage Bank, and Anne Tangen of BankFive. The three community bank CEOs explain how rate-sensitive customers and digital expectations have changed deposit behavior. They also cover why branches are being redesigned around how customers want to bank, and how one trucking company’s driver payment problem became a real-world case for tokenized deposits. The panel also gets candid about AI-driven fraud, AI agents transacting on customers’ behalf, and the policy changes community banks need, from a level playing field to CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) modernization. In this video, you’ll learn: How rates and digital expectations have changed the way customers move deposits Why consortiums may give community banks a practical path into tokenized deposits What fraud, AI agents, and policy gaps mean for banks as money moves faster Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (02:37) How deposit behavior has changed over the past decade (06:08) The changing purpose of the bank branch (11:32) Building relationships without a branch network (17:22) Competition from fintechs and nontraditional lenders (21:25) Community bank consortiums and digital assets (25:16) Real use cases for tokenized deposits (33:29) The new moat for community banks (37:05) Serving customers in the old and new worlds (42:20) Fraud, identity verification, and AI agents (51:36) Policy changes community banks need (55:54) What will separate successful community banks