Even before the pandemic, bank customers had increasingly migrated toward online and mobile banking products to conduct simple banking functions. The widespread temporary closure of bank lobbies in 2020, which linger in some areas today, has called into question the relevance of the brick-and-mortar branch, especially after banks successfully migrated much of their workforce to remote home offices. [Continue]
Enebak Construction Company started in 1905. Tip Enebak is a third generation leader, shepherding his sons as the fourth. He’s being recognized as one of BankBeat magazine’s 2021 Amazing Outside Directors. Tradition Capital Bank was founded in 2005, when Enebak, his son Jake, and his son-in-law, Erik Hendrickson, began to etch the blueprint of the de novo. [Continue]
From Brownie Scout on up, Becki Drahota has always put 110 percent into everything she’s done. “It’s evidently impossible for me to be part of an organization if I can’t be fully engaged in it,” said Drahota, founder of Mills Marketing and board chair of Spirit Lake, Iowa-based Bank Midwest. “I’m not good at sitting on the sidelines.” [Continue]
Michael Vekich has become known among politicians and the press as the fix-it man, or the go-to guy. “I’ve been fixing organizations for a long time,” he said, whether it’s governmental, public, private companies or banks, as an accountant. The firm he bought in 1978 ultimately led him to practice in nine foreign countries. He’s being honored as one of BankBeat magazine’s 2021 Amazing Outside Directors. [Continue]
On the wall behind Fran Fleck’s home office desk in Des Moines, Iowa, hangs a quote by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg: “If a woman is short, bend down and listen to her.” At 4 feet 11 inches, Fleck jokes that when she started lobbying, she was six-one. “Being beaten down all those years, I just got shorter and shorter.” [Continue]
At the beginning of February, the state of Indiana lowered the eligibility threshold for COVID-19 vaccinations to age 65. One day later, Mark Fogt, president and CEO of Garrett State Bank popped into a vaccination site in north Fort Wayne to get his first shot. Noah Wilcox, chair, president and CEO of Grand Rapids, Minn.-based Wilcox Bancshares, who admits to never having had a flu shot in his life, is chomping at the bit to get his inoculation. “I’ll be first in line,” he promised. [Continue]
The realities of the core processing industry are stark: The industry’s Big Three — Fiserv, Jack Henry and FIS — account for the vast majority of the market. The remaining wedge is divided among a range of smaller shops. At its heart, the pitch from smaller core providers mirrors the one community bankers give those considering them over their largest competitors: They offer a high-touch, focused service model with real people responding to inquiries, problem-solvers able to understand and react to swiftly or at least explain their limitations without sounding like automatons. [Continue]
The third round of PPP funding was released in December. In the first two rounds, “who got the short end of that stick? Women-led businesses, minority-led businesses. Hands down,” said Dionne Gumbs, CEO and founder of GenEQTY. [Continue]
In the backyard of her home, Cassandra Chandler has delicate white azaleas that decorate and punctuate a sea of green. On a hot day last summer, she noticed a hand of poison oak ivy grip one section of the garden. Horribly allergic, Chandler pulled out what she could, but the ivy still clenched at the roots. She cut on the outer edges to manicure an apparent solution, with no lasting avail. She never got to the root, so the weeds kept growing. [Continue]
One week after George Floyd’s death, St. Paul, Minn.-based Bremer Bank’s president and CEO Jeanne Crain released a public statement condemning racism in America’s history and culture, including in the banking industry. Several other bank CEOs did the same. [Continue]