Busey Bank, Champaign, Ill., has completed its second merger of the year, most recently with South Side Trust & Savings Bank, Peoria, Ill., and one this summer with First Community Financial Bank, Joliet, Ill. [Continue]
Equity Bank, Andover, Kan., has received approval to complete its previously announced mergers with Eastman National Bank of Newkirk, Okla., and Patriot Bank of Tulsa, Okla. [Continue]
Kraig Lounsberry will take over as president of the Community Bankers Association of Illinois on Jan. 1. Only one person has ever held the position, Bob Wingert for the past 43 years. Lounsberry spoke with NorthWestern Financial Review writer Douglas Farmer. [Continue]
The jump from pre-calculus to community bank president and CEO is not a typical one. In Shane Pilarski’s case, the jump from high school math teacher to loan clerk at Alliance Bank, Francesville, Ind., was not meant to be permanent. [Continue]
In a big shift from a few years ago, deposits are again coveted by most banks. For a while, many banks were so flush with cash they actually turned away customers who had large sums of money to deposit. But today loan demand is up and other investments are competing for those deposit dollars. Note the Dow Jones Industrial Average recently topped 23,000. [Continue]
Tim Kluender has been named president and chief executive officer of Community Bank Owatonna in Owatonna, Minn. Kluender has 24 years of banking experience, with the last 15 years in an executive management capacity. He has spent his entire career working in the community banking industry, beginning as an officer trainee in his hometown bank in Osceola, Iowa. Kluender most recently served as a senior vice president/chief credit officer for First National Bank in Fairfield, Iowa. [Continue]
Opportunity Bank of Montana, Helena, will acquire Ruby Valley Bank, Twin Bridges, Mont. According to FDIC records the acquisition of the $90 million Ruby Valley will make Opportunity the fifth-largest Montana-based bank with $800 million in assets. Ruby Valley has two branches — Twin Bridges and Sheridan — and the combined company will have 16 branches. [Continue]
It is a natural symptom of the banker-regulator relationship: Rarely does a banker say something nice about a regulator. Julie Dahle has been the exception on both sides. [Continue]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finalized its payday lending rule, creating “strong, common-sense protections” to prevent “financially vulnerable consumers” from falling into “payday debt traps,” the bureau said. [Continue]
Jenny Jakel has been a part of AbbyBank for 41 years, a period in which the Abbotsford, Wis., bank has grown to $458 million from $13 million. Yet, Jakel’s preferred focus does not involve any discussion of profits. For that matter, it hardly deals with AbbyBank’s current customers. [Continue]