{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"A bank CEO\u2019s front-seat view of risk, survival and recovery","description":"Brent Beardall thinks bankers need to be more comfortable with risk. \u201cWe\u2019re not out there taking crazy risk, but my point is don\u2019t be afraid to fail,\u201d says the president and CEO of WaFd Bank, based in tech-focused Seattle. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to fail: fail quickly, fail small. That\u2019s the two requirements I have, because if you\u2019re not failing, you\u2019re not trying hard enough.\u201d In the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast \u2014 sponsored by&amp;nbsp;Alkami&amp;nbsp;\u2014 Beardall discusses technology experiments that didn\u2019t work, and those that did. He discusses the bank\u2019s tech lab subsidiary Archway Software and its combined voice- and phone-based authentication for wire transfers. Beardall discusses WaFd\u2019s commercial real estate portfolio, which he notes is majority \u201cstabilized multifamily, which is the safest asset class that we or any bank can make.\u201d Office buildings \u2014 the most distressed CRE asset class \u2014 account for just 4% of WaFd\u2019s portfolio, Beardall says, noting that&amp;nbsp;CRE is a big and diverse sector&amp;nbsp;beyond the office headlines. Finally, Beardall talks about his remarkable personal story of&amp;nbsp;surviving a deadly plane crash in early 2023. \u201cYou\u2019re flying on a jet airplane to go to the Rose Bowl, and all of a sudden you go from being pretty good to fighting for your life and you realize just how vulnerable you are and how precious life is because it can change in a heartbeat,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople that I competed with, bankers that I would compete with, they set it all aside and said, \u201cLet\u2019s focus on helping each other.\u2019 We have a lot more in common than we have in terms of differences, and let\u2019s give equal weight to what we have in common and work together for the collective good.\u201d ","author_name":"ABA Banking Journal Podcast","author_url":"https:\/\/bankingjournal.aba.com\/tag\/podcast\/","html":"<iframe title=\"Libsyn Player\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/31832807\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/forward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/88AA3C\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"600\" scrolling=\"no\"  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe>","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/assets.libsyn.com\/secure\/content\/173562742"}