It’s action packed in banking right now as regulatory uncertainty mounts with the looming presidential election.

Today on the show, Al and Steve pick the brain of Nitin Mhatre, the CEO of Berkshire Bank, on the most pressing issues in banking. They explore the tension of a bank changing for the times while preserving its relationship-driven company culture, how to recruit senior talent and the importance of investing in technology. They also get into some of the cool initiatives the bank has pursued, including offering a bank account that comes with an unusual perk – paying up to $15 per month for subscriptions like Hulu and Netflix for certain direct deposit customers.

Al also brings up the big reunion: the Oasis tour. Steve starts humming.

As Jeff Jackson, the CEO of WesBanco, sees it, M&A activity can only go up.

In this episode, Al and Steve chat with Jeff about why that is and what is at stake for community banks across the country.

They also explore other banking classics, including what the future of delivery in banking looks like, how to retain employees and what has helped the bank grow its deposits in a competitive year. They also opine on another passion: college football.

The frequent flyer miles are overflowing for Steve and Al as they continue to visit banks across the country. In this episode, they dish on the burning C-suite issues, including: recession risks, core deposit growth challenges (and ideas to overcome them) and an area they believe bankers need to step it up on – their succession planning. Don’t worry. They talk about Snoop Dogg, too.

Mike Daniels, the chairman and CEO of Nicolet Bank and Green Bay Packers’ board member, talks to Al and Steve about what it takes for a community bank to flourish right now and the NFL offseason.

They also chat about how to preserve company culture when the business is scaling and offer tips on what not to do in pursuing deposits. Also, Mike provides a peek at what it’s like banking in America’s dairy land.

In this episode, Al and Steve discuss the mounting scrutiny on banking-as-a-service providers, the perplexities tied to a higher interest rate environment and the mounting concerns of succession planning.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Your hosts also chat about when M&A activity will pick up, how to preserve and nurture creativity while also mitigating risk and ways to become the best small business bank of the future.

It’s hard to stand out in banking but not impossible. In this cross-over edition of Plugged In, Al Dominick sits down with Mary Wisniewski to explore talent retention, theatrical innovation acts and the importance of the return on tech. They also get into mistakes banks make (ahem, on their social media video efforts) and introduce Mary's new show, 'Money Isn't Everything,' which starts to drop in mid-April.

Tom Michaud, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, is back! This time, he joins Steve and Al to answer the question bankers across the country want to know: How to compete with big institutions and non-banks.

On the show, they get into common mistakes banks make, takeaways from KBW’s Winter Financial Services conference, and why they think the industry outlook right now is relatively positive. While fusing industry insights with the beats of timeless tunes from U2, the White Stripes and a few other favorites, Tom reminds listeners: the stocks had a 35% rally from the end of October to year end.

In this episode, Al and Steve sit down with April Clobes, president and CEO of MSU Federal Credit Union, to chat about growth strategies in Michigan, a state that ranks 49th in overall population growth since the 1990s. Spoiler: For the university credit union, it includes more intimate marketing, like sponsoring green-and-white pizzas (the university’s colors) and pizza-making classes.

April also dishes on the credit union’s two digital banks, while the crew explores how to deal with lost revenue when becoming a $10 billion institution (thanks, Durbin).