National Banking Expert to Speak at Colorado State Feb. 12

A national expert on America’s banking system will speak to students and the business community at Colorado State University Feb. 12.

Bert Ely, president of Ely and Company, a bank consulting firm in Alexandria, Va., will speak about "The Future of the Financial Services Industry" at 8 a.m. in Room C-358 Clark Building. The presentation, sponsored by the College of Business and department of economics, is free and open to the public.

Ely has specialized in deposit insurance and banking structure issues since 1981. As the Savings and Loan crisis unfolded in the 1980s, Ely was one of the first to publicly predict a taxpayer bailout of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. In 1991, Ely also was first to correctly predict that a crisis would not follow the S&L debacle in the commercial banking sector; a year later, he predicted the taxpayer bailout of Japan’s banking system.

"We are very fortunate that Mr. Ely is able to speak in Fort Collins," said economics Professor Ronnie Phillips. "He is very well known and highly respected bank consultant whose forecast of financial industry trends frequently appear in the banking and business press."

In addition to monitoring conditions in the banking and thrift industries and monetary policy issues, Ely helped draft proposed legislation to privatize deposit insurance and establish new guidelines for assessing a bank’s risk in setting insurance premiums. Ely consults on current legislative and regulatory issues in Washington, D.C., and has testified before numerous congressional committees on banking issues. He also serves as an expert witness in deposit insurance lawsuits.

Ely received his MBA from the Harvard School of Business in 1968 and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Case Western Reserve University in 1964.

For more information on the presentation, call (970) 491-6079.