Can I Sign Pennsylvania Banking Presentation

Industry sign banking pennsylvania presentation online

This is a wonderful opportunity for all of our students to meet the Secretary of Banking and Securities for the State of Pennsylvania Robin Weissman, Secretary Weissman. we just had a wonderful meeting with secretary Weissman, talking about all the things that the students in the college of business are involved with. The accreditation that we've received the AIM students, the internships. So I invite you to listen and to learn this morning as I introduce Secretary Weissman. Thank you. Dr. Ganney is absolutely right we just had a great session I have two great takeaways already from the University. I have actually been here quite a bit um i have children in college one recent graduate from Lafayette, and also another student who's in a university down south but I have been to Kutztown a number of times and I i want to tell you that I think it's a great, great University. a lot of my son, my son went to Lafayette, a lot of his friends came to Kutztown. I don't know are any of you from council rock north? No. It's a big school so but i just thought i would check for the hometown because that's where my my son went to school. But it is really a great university you're really blessed by a beautiful campus all the variety of a college experience and I think it's really wonderful. But i will tell you i appreciate your coming out today. I think the real meat will be when Doug speaks because he's really really excellent about it. But i do want to give you a couple of comments on two things to take away today is two things one is the state of finance in the world we live in today, and the other is opportunities to work for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in very very interesting areas Can you all hear me? This must be a good mic because I don't hear any feedback on it not even when I breathe on it. But this is a really interesting time in finance because of all the changes that are being brought about in the marketplace. And it is because of the marriage of technology and finance we call it FinTech. And it's actually the reason I decided to go into this position. Because it's so interesting i've been a career investment banker I'm a lawyer by training, but i'm an investment banker for decades Started the First woman owned firm on Wall Street, started at Goldman and then subsequently have done a lot of different board work. I was also the former treasurer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the financial crisis, and you can imagine what that was like. but i'm a sucker for it I'll of finance and I I really came to this department because it is an amalgam of all the things that are going on in finance today. Commercial bankers now do what investment bankers broker-dealers do. An investment banker broker-dealers now do what commercial bankers do. And in the middle of all that is ThinTech and all what we call in the department non depository financial institutions which range from mortgage providers who are licensed fire department to pawn brokers who are licensed by the department and the big world in the middle a lot of it is the money transmitters now. Which are known as marketplace lending. It was originally peer-to-peer lending when it was smaller but now its broader its marketplace lending. Which is a way to involve financial companies but it's away from the mainstream. it's much more internet online pairing of investor and borrowers. So it's a totally changed world and finance So if you think about it the way you pay for things has changed just in the past 10 years, specifically the acceleration is made in much greater over the past 5 to 3 to even 2 years. The way you deposit your money in banks is also different. You can do it online and take the picture of the check and it's deposited for you don't have to walk into a bank anymore. And of course the way you invest your money is very very different there's such a plethora there's such a proliferation of different investment vehicles that you it's hard to discriminate it's hard to actually be selective and figure out what you should do and Doug's going to help you with that a little bit today. But my colleagues at the Department of banking and securities are really interested in ThinTech because our job we are first and foremost a regulator. our job is to protect all of the participants in the in the financial marketplace. So when people we want to make sure that the institutions you're working with where the population at large is working with have safety and soundness. those are the two very very important requirements for depository institutions, for banks. If their balance sheet is not safe and sound your money is not sound, so we work on that. And then when you take out a mortgage which I know none of the Millennials want right now, but eventually you might want them. when you take out a mortgage you want to make sure you're treated fairly and you understand the terms of your mortgage. And you get a fair rate, nothing usurious. So we help ensure that lenders comply with Pennsylvania's consumer finance protection laws And when you invest your money to secure your financial future and probably all of you in this room are interested in are you probably wouldn't even be in this room for starters we want to make sure that you get suitable guidance. We do want to make sure that whoever is investing for you put your interest first that they feel and have a fiduciary responsibility, to investing your money. And our goal is to help ensure that amid all of these changes in the market place, that we can help protect citizens and all of their financial transactions. And that's one of the reasons why we have to be focused on ThinTech. If we weren't we wouldn't be doing our job correctly. So, the complexity of that consumers and businesses have I think one of the things i try i am trying to do particularly as the state government entity is to make it more user friendly for consumers. I can't stand it when i go to a website it's too complicated to even figure out where I'm trying to go So I'm really trying to work on that if you look at out website, and the Department of Banking and Securities, you will see a lot of drop-down positions, but i think i think we're getting there that it's a little bit more user friendly. the other thing you should know is that our department, participates in social media. I have a Twitter account were on Facebook and we are actively embracing that as a method of communication. And more and more departments are too. I was talking to the Secretary of revenue the other day and she's concerned that for their use of social media she's a little concerned that people will give her too much information like their social security numbers on social media. so of course you know that's a that's a no-no. Right now it's tax season and the big thing is, you might even hear it on the radio, although you guys download all your music, there's so many people who impersonate the IRS on phones and call people and you know tell him get all the information so that they can they can get their return instead of the rightful owner getting their return. So my rule of thumb and i just spoke about this the other day on a consumer protection panel with Senator Casey for elder abuse actually elder financial abuse, the rule of thumb is you know just hang up. I get solicitations all the time on the phone. If they give you if they ask you a question, you know they're not for profit you might actually be interested tell them to give it to you in writing. Don't ever give them information over the phone. Doug will probably i don't know do you cover this i don't know. Your protection right is really really important. by the way I've seen Doug make a number of presentations i have not seen this one so i'm looking forward to hearing it. But the other topic the second topic that i said i wanted to talk about is about working for the state government. Last year the first one of the, I've been in the job since January 20 of 2015, last year one of the first things I recognized was how important it is to build to continue to create bench strength and get high quality people into the department. You people become so skilled in our department that they are very marketable to the private sector in terms of banks or other financial institutions and also the federal regulators so we do have turnover in our department and people develop a really really tangible skill base whatever role they are taking on in our department. But regardless, as the regulator I have to make sure that we have the tools and the biggest tool for us is human capital in the department. So last year I set up almost immediately a program called rrrev-up. And rrrev up doesn't just have one R, it has 3. 1 is recruitment which is what I want you to all think about here today. retention, retaining our employees having them enabling them to have a not a gratifying career because they all feel good about what they do. I feel good about what we're trying to do on a daily basis that's why I'm doing it also. So retention is really important but also recognition. Recognizing that what are public servants doing what the people do besides them developing their own skills and being able to increasingly augment those skills that they also feel good about the the type of lifestyle they have and the and the kind of work that they're doing. We developed the workforce initiative to help ensure that we attract develop and retain the quality professionals. I will tell you and I've done a lot of been in the private sector a lot and I've been in the public sector lot and i can tell you i'm going back and forth which is what makes life interesting for me but i can tell you that public sector is very gratifying. it's also much more challenging than the private sector often gives it credit for there's so many so many variables in the in the public sector that you work under and and often it's very very challenging. But I think it's really really a great career. we are the Department of banking securities in Pennsylvania is considered an excellent department to work for we have high accreditation and all of that. And our legal and examination teams do depend and we have a couple of Kutztown alumni in our legal department. We have a woman named Sharon Williams who is a Kutztown grad and Chuck Mortier who's in our depository area he's in a specialist IT examiner and he is really superb. When we've been working on cyber security which is a big initiative for the Department Chuck Mortier is at the forefront of that and great great he'd be a great person to learn from. so two, a couple of things we do have a public service internship program. And it's a six month paid internship at a state government agency doesn't just have to be ours by the way although we're the best of course. And it allows the college student upon completion of a bachelor's degree and the internship the opportunity to be promoted to a full-time employee. As you all know, internships are the key and the state does have one of those where you actually get paid as well. And these internships are available on a year-round basis. They're not just summer internships and they pay about fourteen dollars an hour. Students who apply must be full time and have completed at least 60 college credits, and you have to receive approval from Kutztown University but I got that all fixed this morning you don't have to worry about the approval. We do have handouts for anybody who's interested in learning more we've been we've been working on trying to simplify those a little bit. oftentimes if if you aren't coming in on an internship later on, often the route is through civil service, and a civil service application. That's another thing that you can find information on it's not nearly as challenging as it seems. right now there are some tests there that are applied but it's nothing compared to what you do in college. I guarantee your law you would pass with flying colors. so i'll close with that and and look forward to listening to Doug and i hope you will all consider and if it's not something you're going to do spread the word around the campus your great school we'd love to have some of you come work with us and thank you very much for listening