The sign above the door clearly communicates you are about to enter a bank, yet the printing on the front door to Bremer Bank’s southwest Minneapolis branch reads, “no cash on premises.” Cue the cognitive dissonance. [Continue]
Throughout Jeanne Crain’s 37 years in banking, industry consolidation has been a constant. Until she reached Bremer Bank, every bank Crain ever worked for changed hands while she was employed there. Sometimes more than once. Crain recalls this journey in her own words. [Continue]
There are roughly 3,300 Wells Fargo employees working inside retail branches across Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and Montana — what the bank now considers its Midwestern region — and Laurie Nordquist assures us that none of them have sales goals. [Continue]
Michael Bell, a 40-year-old lawyer from Michigan is confident as hell about his ability to bring credit union cash to just about any purchase or acquisition you can imagine that doesn’t involve stock or a large deferred tax asset. And he’s clear about what adding a credit union to the bidding field will do to the selling price. “If a bank can pay 1.5 times book value and that’s the value, a credit union can pay 1.7 times book value.” [Continue]
Cultivation of hemp and production of hemp-based products, including CBD, were a notable inclusion in the 2018 Farm Bill. The promise of industrial hemp is manifested in hemp-based CBD products, which include oils, creams, supplements and food items. [Continue]
As the incumbent provider of financial services, banks are well positioned to keep customers despite behavioral preferences which trend digital. This is true even for community banks that have struggled to afford digital solutions. The community banking model is, after all, built on relationships first. [Continue]
The devastation caused by spring flooding in Nebraska will take months to fully calculate. For farmers, the challenges include accounting for the loss of an entire inventory, and the largest losses have been livestock. There is some farmland covered so deeply in sand and gravel, however, that it may never be useful for farming again. [Continue]
Spring flooding was on the minds of Gov. Kim Reynolds and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig as they updated bankers on conditions on the ground in southwestern Iowa during the 26th annual “Day with the Superintendent,” held April 18 in Des Moines. The event was hosted by the Iowa Division of Banking. [Continue]
Writers looking for a book deal or agent representation learn rather quickly that success hinges on two things: Name recognition and a marketable platform. Most bankers don’t have name recognition outside of their communities or institutions, but a platform is clearly within reach and building one can be good for business. Not only can a platform position you as a thought leader, it can raise the visibility of your institution. [Continue]
With news last week of another data blunder by Facebook, it doesn’t take a reasonable person long to conclude the benefits of online social connectivity are hardly worth the risks. [Continue]