, most job growth in the united states has occurred in urban areas. 7 given these differing circumstances, it is not surprising that community banks operating in rural and urban areas tend to face different challenges. for example, the number of competitors faced by a banking organization tends to be larger in urban banking markets than in rural markets, while hiring and retaining high - quality employees can be more difficult in rural areas. and some observers have expressed concern about the implications of bank consolidation over the past two or three decades for access to banking services in rural areas while also wondering about the future viability of rural community banks. see u. s. census bureau ( 2016 ), “ new census data show differences between urban and rural populations, ” press release, december 8, https : / / www. census. gov / newsroom / press - releases / 2016 / cb16210. html. see kim parker, juliana menasce horowitz, anna brown, richard fry, d ’ vera cohn, and ruth igielnik ( 2018 ), “ demographic and economic trends in urban, suburban and rural communities, ” in what unites and divides urban, suburban and rural communities ( washington : pew research center, may ), http : / / www. pewsocialtrends. org / 2018 / 05 / 22 / demographic - and - economic - trends - in - urban - suburban - andrural - communities ; or john m. anderlik and richard d. cofer, jr. ( 2014 ), “ long - term trends in rural depopulation and their implications for community banks, ” fdic quarterly, vol. 8 ( 2 ), pp. 44 - 59, https : / / www. fdic. gov / bank / analytical / quarterly / 2014 - vol8 - 2 / article2. pdf. see mark muro and jacob whiton ( 2018 ), “ geographic gaps are widening while u. s. economic growth increases, ” brookings institution, the avenue ( blog ), january 23, https : / / www. brookings. edu / blog / the - avenue / 2018 / 01 / 22 / uneven - growth ; and brian thiede, lillie greiman, stephan weiler, steven c. beda, and tessa conroy ( 2017 ), “ the divide between rural and urban america, in 6 charts, ” u. s. news & world report, march 20, https : / / www

/ advocacy / how - did - financial - crisis - affect - small - business - lending - united - states. - 2community banks face. i want to be careful not to overstate those challenges - - to paraphrase mark twain, the reports of your demise are greatly exaggerated - - and i believe that the community bank model has many advantages and will continue to play an integral role in our financial system. these sorts of dynamics are one reason that community banks are an important topic for research. as you probably know, this is the sixth annual community banking conference cosponsored by the federal reserve and the conference of state bank supervisors ( csbs ), and it is the first conference for which the federal deposit insurance corporation is joining as a cosponsor. the organizers of the inaugural conference decided that, rather than holding a traditional academic - style conference, they would invite bankers and bank supervisors to hear what the researchers had to say and to share their real - world experience with the researchers. the hope was that these interactions would prove beneficial to all three groups. the positive feedback that we have received from conference attendees over the past five years strongly supports the wisdom of the organizers ’ decision. over time, the conference has evolved, with some new features introduced each year. the case study competition, which is sponsored by the csbs, introduces undergraduates to community banking and some of the challenges that community bankers face. the emerging scholars program was also added to the conference a few years ago. this program is intended to support ph. d. students who are considering or working on a dissertation on a banking - related topic and encourage them to develop a research agenda that focuses on community banking issues. i would like to congratulate - 3this year ’ s winning case study team, eastern kentucky university, and emerging scholars, jiayi xu, cao fang, and flora ma. not all community banks are the same turning to the topic of today ’ s speech, it occurs to me that we often speak of community banks as though they are all pretty much the same. but, in reality, there is considerable heterogeneity within the group of firms that are commonly considered to be community banks. 3 one important dimension of diversity is size, which can range anywhere from less than $ 100 million in assets to around $ 10 billion in assets. as noted by chairman powell when he spoke at this conference two years ago, looking at community banks as a monolithic group masks some