In late 2019, when ag bankers reflected on the year and forecast expectations for 2020, they foresaw classic perennial challenges: bad weather and low commodity prices. What 2020 actually delivered would have been hard to predict. No one has been immune from the struggles the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought on the nation’s health or the economy, including farmers and their community banking partners. [Continue]
What does it mean to be family built and community strong? That’s the question Aleesha Webb asked herself as she rejoined Village Bank in 2018. She’d begun her career at the Minnesota bank led by her father, but had taken time to work in other financial institutions. As newly minted president and vice chair, she took stock of the situation and what needed to be tweaked.
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Medica, the largest non-profit health insurer in Minnesota, has traditionally had most of its operations accounts in larger banks. After visiting with a neighborhood bank in Edina, Minn., however, John Naylor, the president of Medica, wondered whether the company’s cash would benefit the community more if it was placed in a community bank. [Continue]
Almost every Friday morning for the past 10 years, Kathy Schoettlin’s voice is heard on the local radio. Fueled by fruit and coffee and likely without much sleep, she presents $100 to a local charity in exchange for airtime. Born at the border of Kentucky, she speaks with a slight southern twang, and with careful consideration. Choosing her words, she said, is as important a task as caring for her community. [Continue]
Barb Smith has always been driven to make a difference for her employer. Earlier in her career, Smith had been a senior lender at a Bemidji, Minn., community bank when it was acquired. When a new retail sales role caught Smith’s eye, a colleague wondered why Smith wanted to also learn retail sales and service and deposit functions. She told him it was an opportunity to learn and “a way to make a difference.” [Continue]
Rebecca Diaz is not a perfectionist. “There’s this expression: GETMO. Good enough to move on,” Diaz explained. “Sometimes you need that philosophy in your life.” Diaz is acutely aware of women’s tendency to abstain from a job application because every prerequisite wasn’t met to a tee. But with experience and working with women along the way, she learned how to run with the big dogs, though her golf skills are still lacking. [Continue]
Kathleen Bruegenhemke started her career as an examiner with the FDIC in the midst of the ag crisis of the 1980s, and initially rejected the possibility of a transition into banking. None of the banks she examined in her first year on the job were very profitable, she said. “I didn’t see that as a real enticing industry to go into.” [Continue]
When Michigan legalized recreational cannabis, Edith Farrell, the Bank Secrecy Act officer at Union Bank, Lake Odessa, was in staunch opposition. Well-versed in compliance, Farrell was content to analyze customer data and loan activity. She never expected she’d be the voice advocating for Union Bank to be one of the first in the state to bank the marijuana industry. [Continue]
Partnerships with community organizations are critical for banks to meet their CRA responsibilities. Working on their own, banks can spend days just vetting organizations for CRA-eligible funds, and community groups often struggle to get banks to bite. Through a program called Investment Connection, eight Federal Reserve Banks are taking a “shark tank,” or speed-dating approach to the set-up, assembling a neighborhood of options. [Continue]
Wyoming Bank & Trust has been one of the state’s top performers for a while, but its stellar credentials don’t only come from its business performance. Cheyenne-based WB&T has harnessed the power of a real estate brokerage to complement its lending portfolio in ag and mortgages. With rates so low, the bank’s mortgage department is humming with activity, while its ag customers have largely done well this year. [Continue]