Community banks are not dragged through the mud by angry online reviewers as frequently as your local restaurant or service company. Yet, a cursory search of Yelp reveals negative reviews of hometown banks are pretty easy to come by. [Continue]
Since 2000 the population of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has dropped 4 percent, and unemployment is 5.5 percent, more than a percentage point higher than the national average. One bank-backed economic development initiative is working to turn that around. [Continue]
Minnesota’s newest deputy commissioner of financial institutions, Max Zappia, joined the Commerce Department as a bank examiner in 2009, where he has held several positions, including chief examiner of banking. [Continue]
Camden Fine has closed the door on a 15-year career as the president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America. BankBeat publisher Tom Bengtson recently asked Fine to reflect on his career in advocacy. [Continue]
When Andy Amador was 26, he had enough savings to make a down payment on a ranch in California’s Napa Valley, but no bank financing to close the deal. Lucky for him, the seller was willing to hold the note on the 188-acre estuarine flatland at the base of Mt. Veeder. Amador coveted the ranch’s hayfields and pastureland for their hunting potential. [Continue]
Former CEO and chair of Centinel Bank, Taos, N.M., Rebeca Romero Rainey became head of the Independent Community Bankers of America in May. Once the youngest bank president in the nation, Romero Rainey now brings her passion to the world of community banking advocacy. [Continue]
Wisconsin’s River Valley Bank originally launched IncredibleBank.com as a deposit-gathering tool. It sustained itself during the recession, and now it’s expanded to serve the niche banking needs of luxury motorcoach owners. [Continue]
If the technology had existed in 1905 surely master architect Frank Lloyd Wright would have created a mobile app for the landmark bank he designed in Dwight, Ill., as part of his signature organic effort to bring the outside indoors. A century later technology informs design, prodding banks to reinvent customer convenience in redesigned spaces reminiscent of Wright’s prairie-style living room lobby and meeting room with a Roman brick fireplace. On Main Street and, more frequently in new strip mall branches, anyone is welcome for fresh coffee, password-free Wi-Fi and, oh yes, financial products and services. [Continue]
Gary Deering represents the fourth generation of his family to live on the ranch in Hereford, S.D. But he’s not really the fourth generation to ranch it. Matter of fact, he feels more like a first generation rancher. [Continue]
When Dayna Burtness and Nick Nguyen decided to break into farming, it took them three years to find the right acreage and the financing to acquire it. Despite their excellent credit, banks were asking for a 40 to 50 percent down-payment on undeveloped land. That translated into roughly $100,000 for the 67-acre site they wanted. … Read more