(Lexington, KY) Forcht Bank has been recognized by Celent as a winner of a Model Risk Manager award for Legacy and Ecosystem Transformation in 2022.  Celent is a global research and advisory firm for the financial services industry. The award comes from a 3rd party submission entitled “Community Bank Leverages Enterprise Wide Strategic Outsourcing for Peer-Leading Cybersecurity Excellence”. The submission illustrated Forcht Bank converting an aging infrastructure by leveraging new enterprise technology to strengthen both internal and external security components, as well as overall business systems.

“Forcht Bank was able to implement and consolidate best-in-class cyber security infrastructure to greatly enhance our ability to protect our customers data and quickly respond to emerging cyber threats in near real time,” stated Chip Clements, Forcht Bank Executive Vice President of Information Technology & Cyber Risk.  “Additionally, we were able to architect a technology design that allowed us to respond quickly to natural disasters and pandemic events with very little disruption to our customers. Our commitment to customer privacy and service availability is one more way in which Forcht Bank is constantly evolving to serve our customers changing needs.”

Celent’s annual Model Risk Manager Awards recognize the best practices of technology usage in different areas critical to success in Risk. Nominations are submitted by financial institutions and undergo a rigorous evaluation process by Celent analysts. Celent judges submissions on three core criteria: the degree of innovation, technology or implementation excellence, and demonstrable business benefits. For more information, visit https://www.celent.com/awards/model-bank. Previous award winners include: Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Credit Suisse.

According to Neil Katkov, Head of Risk & Compliance at Celent: “The Model Risk Manager Awards recognize how financial institutions are using technology to change the face of risk management and compliance. These firms should serve as an inspiration to others looking for strong examples of best practice implementation that will have a truly meaningful impact on business results and the industry overall. The entry from Forcht Bank clearly demonstrated this.”

Forcht Bank is a Kentucky-owned community bank with approximately $1.5 billion in assets and 23 banking centers in 13 counties Kentucky and Ohio – Fayette, Jefferson, Boone, Grant, Madison, Taylor, Pulaski, Laurel, Whitley, Knox, Green and Hamilton.  www.forchtbank.com