When fintech became a buzzword with the potential to disrupt their industry, bankers had to come to terms with how they should react. Just outside Kansas City, community bank nbkc decided to enter the space, but cautiously. [Continue]
For 95 years, Lead Bank has been a fixture in the Kansas City area. While it’s had changes — in ownership, in direction, in growth — in those many decades, its latest iteration has a lot more percolating under the surface. [Continue]
Horicon Bank in eastern Wisconsin had fairly typical small-town beginnings, but has blossomed into a bustling and innovative enterprise. [Continue]
Recent years have brought challenges, but certain tensions have started to ease for farmers and ranchers throughout the Midwest, as well as for the ag bankers they partner with, to keep their farms going. [Continue]
In the community of Fond du Lac, Wis., where the average temperatures range from a low of nine degrees Fahrenheit in January to a high of 81 in July, it’s temperate in all seasons inside Horicon Bank’s branch.
That’s because of a cooling and heating system that draws geothermal energy from far under the ground.
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Farmers have spent 2022 working through challenges like rising inflation and supply chain delays, just like other businesses and consumers across America have had to do. Those who make their living in agriculture, and the ag bankers who work with them, have needed to think even more creatively and constructively than usual. [Continue]
If there’s a thread that runs through Emily Boardman’s banking career, it’s growth. She left the public accounting field to join Crossroads Bank in Wabash, Ind., because she wanted to bring her growing family back to her hometown. In her 15 years in banking, she has taken opportunities to develop and stretch her skills to fit into ever bigger and different roles. Yet, Boardman isn’t focused only on her own growth. She makes a point of fostering the professional development of others, too. [Continue]
Lakewood, Colo.-based FirstBank has, for decades, sought customers and recruited employees in order to build a business that reflected the diversity of its markets. In an effort to expand this vision, it created a Multicultural Banking Center, which opened in March 2020, just three weeks before pandemic-related shutdowns. [Continue]
We reached out to institutions with industry-leading ROAs, ROEs and rock-bottom efficiency ratios to learn how they recorded such notable numbers. [Continue]
As they near the end of 2021, many community ag bankers say their farm clients are feeling optimistic, but the industry isn’t entirely sunny. Farmers have long served as stewards of the natural world, and as climate change becomes a more pressing topic, they wrestle with how to respond. That’s not their only challenge, as they also face down consolidation, rising real estate prices, rate pressure, among other issues. [Continue]