Dorothy Savarese, president and CEO of the Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, was a keynote speaker at the Community Banking in the 21st Century Conference, a research and policy conference co-sponsored by the Federal Reserve System and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS).

The first-of-its-kind conference was held Oct. 2 and 3 at the St. Louis Federal Reserve and focused on the challenges and opportunities facing the 21st-century community bank. Participants included community bankers, academics, policy makers and bank supervisors from across the country.

"We [community bankers] bump into the people to whom we lend money and who use our products and services every day.  We have to look them in the eye.  It brings a different level of social responsibility," Savarese said in a statement. "When our customers talk about our bank, despite the fact that we are a mutual, they say ‘Cape Cod Five, that’s my bank.’  They are vested in us and we are in them."

Savarese emphasized the importance of community banks to the "economic and social fabric" of the country, according to a press release. She also pointed to the success of Cape Cod Five in achieving leading market share on Cape Cod and significant market share in the surrounding areas because of its expertise in meeting the individual needs of the customers and communities.

Other keynote speakers included Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell, a presentation of the results of town hall meetings conducted in 28 states by commissioners of banks with community bankers and a panel of high performing bankers.

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, also spoke at the event. He called it an "inaugural" conference, and said he’d like this be the first of many focusing specifically on community banks, according to a press release.