Bob Steen, chairman and CEO of Bridge Community Bank, Mechanicsville, Iowa, has been selected by the Iowa Bankers Association to receive the James A. Leach Leadership Award, the highest honor bestowed by the IBA. Steen received the award at the IBA convention on Sept. 19 in Des Moines.
It’s been a big year for Steen, as he was honored with the Robert D. Dixon Founders Award in July. The award is the highest honor awarded by the Community Bankers of Iowa.
“Most of the recognition is due to my focus on payments system issues and community banks,” said Steen, who recently completed two years of work on the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments Task Force. “Whatever I have been able to do for the industry has been enabled by my staff in the bank.”
“Bob Steen is a leader in technology and payments innovation for community banking at the national level,” said IBA President and CEO John Sorensen. “Bob has worked tirelessly to enhance the ability of Iowa banks to deliver faster, more secure payment services to Iowans. He is truly visionary when it comes to understanding the needs of consumers and businesses to conveniently move money in a safe, universally accessible system.”
Steen has spent more than 45 years working in the banking industry and has served as chairman and CEO of Bridge Community Bank for 34 years. He also worked as a bank examiner with the Federal Reserve, and he has spent most of his career working with and for community banks.
Steen said he became interested in payment issues when he served in the U.S. Army in 1971. “You stood in line and you got paid in cash,” Steen recalled. “I had a wife and child and I was thinking how am I going to get this money to them?”
Later, when he was working in a bank, Steen said he recalls watching a 16-pocket proof machine in operation. He called it the “most complicated, most expensive” piece of equipment in the bank. “When check imaging came along, I quickly saw the value of it,” he said.
In the press release announcing Steen’s selection, the IBA said: “Steen has been an innovative leader – active at local, state and federal levels.” The IBA noted that in 2013, Steen was recognized as one of the “10 most innovative CEOs in U.S. banking” by Bank Innovation magazine.
He currently serves on the Federal Reserve’s payments working group and is a member of the IBA Payments and Cybersecurity Advisory Council. He was one of two elected representatives for the small financial institution segment on the Faster Payments Steering Committee. He also has served as an IBA board member, served a three-year term on the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) board of directors and currently is a member of SHAZAM’s board of directors.
“The foundation of banking is safekeeping deposits and lending to our communities. Both of those functions rely on effectively managing the flow of payments. Evolving market changes are threatening equal access to the payments system for our depositors,” said the chair of the Leach Award nominating committee, Susan Whitson, who is also executive vice president of First National Bank in Cedar Falls, Plainfield and Waverly. “We, as an industry, are fortunate to have someone with Bob’s in-depth understanding of payments and willingness to commit the time to address payments issues.”
Under Steen’s leadership, Bridge Community Bank was the first bank in Iowa to introduce electronic check imaging into bank operations, sending its first check image statements to customers in October of 1996 and was the first in the nation to deliver a Check21 FedForward file in December of 2004. More recently, Bridge Community Bank has committed to make biometric security part of the customer experience at its three branches in eastern Iowa.
He has been active in various economic development councils and supportive of education and a variety of community organizations.
The annual James A. Leach Leadership Award recognizes a distinguished Iowa banker who has made significant, life-long contributions to how Iowa banks serve Iowa communities. The IBA created the award in the name of Iowa Congressman James Leach in 2000, following his term as chairman of the U.S. House Banking Committee.
Past award recipients are James Schipper, American State Bank, Osceola; Brad Davis, Hampton State Bank; Nancy Dunkel, Fidelity Bank & Trust, Dubuque; Robert Rigler, Security State Bank, New Hampton; Thomas Huston, Columbus Junction State Bank; Thomas Gronstal, Carroll County State Bank, Carroll; Mick Guttau, TS Bank, Treynor; Alan Tubbs, Maquoketa State Bank; Oliver Hansen, Liberty Trust & Savings Bank, Durant; Edward Tubbs, Maquoketa State Bank; Arnie Schultz, GNB Bank, Grundy Center; O. Jay Tomson, First Citizens National Bank, Mason City; Don Carmody, Henry County Bank, Mount Pleasant; Jeff Plagge, Northwest Financial Corp., Arnolds Park; Paul Johnson, Iowa State Bank, Algona; Dan Krieger, Ames National Corp.; and Holmes Foster, Banks of Iowa, Inc.