Dave Mayo, CEO and founder of the financial institutions data analytics firm FedFis, and Tanner Mayo, its president, launched Bankers Helping Bankers in partnership with the Independent Bankers Association of Texas. [Continue]
Two years ago, the future of the family-owned Iowa Falls State Bank was uncertain. The Barlow family — siblings John Barlow, Pam Angstman, Cinda Classon and their children — had spent 15 years working on a transition plan to shift active ownership of the $153 million, central Iowa-based bank to the next generation of their family. [Continue]
Efficiency, consistency and autonomy. For Isaac Flenner, director of equipment finance and small business lending at St. Cloud, Minn.-based Stearns Bank, those three nouns are the key components of both good customer service and a positive internal culture. Flenner, who has developed this approach over the last 17 years at Stearns Bank, is being recognized by BankBeat as a 2022 “Rising Star in Banking.” [Continue]
As community banks continue to grapple with a worker shortage, a micro-internship program is matching banks with college students and recent graduates to fill both short- and long-term needs. The BankTalentHQ micro-internship program, a collaborative effort between the career hub and business-to-business platform ParkerDewey, allows micro-interns to take on projects that would otherwise be handled by overloaded full-time employees. Those projects, which usually take 10-40 hours, can include creating content, data cleansing, generating leads, and other work. [Continue]
Rich Eckert wasn’t planning to be a community banker. Only seven years ago, Eckert had no banking experience. His unexpected entry came through “a little bit of dumb luck,” said the 35-year-old president and CEO of the west-central Illinois Beardstown Savings Bank. The former college faculty member was leaving small-town Wisconsin and moving to where his wife was from as they started their family. From former president/CEO Travis Schroll, Eckert learned of an opening at what is now a $73 million bank. He started as a loan officer. [Continue]
Small business lending remains stable despite pandemic-era challenges, according to the Consumer Bankers Association and Small Business Financial Exchange’s first quarter lending trends report. “Delinquency continues to trend lower than normal with funding sources such as PPP still having a moderating effect,” states the July 6 report. “In addition, higher than normal new account growth … Read more
A prominent Nebraska financial leader over the past 30 years, the latest chapter in Jeff Schmid’s career could be his most consequential one: Developing the next generation of banking leaders as president and CEO of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business — the same school he graduated from in 1990. [Continue]
More than 85 percent of Americans live in a state where marijuana is legal, either medically or recreationally or both. This includes many of the states this publication covers. Despite the evolving legalities, businesses that grow, market or sell cannabis products are legally shut out of the banking system and must rely on cash transactions. [Continue]
Most banks have steered away from banking cannabis, skittish because Congress continually sidesteps passage of The SAFE Banking Act, which would provide a safe harbor to banks that service MRBs. However, both banks and industry consultants say that by adopting a stringent compliance program, banks operating in states with legalized medicinal or recreational cannabis can, by utilizing an effective compliance program, set themselves up for long-term revenue opportunities that more risk-averse banks will miss out on. [Continue]
Minnesota community banker Perry Forst was recently recognized as Amplio’s 2020-21 SBA 504 Lender of the Year during the organization’s annual meeting on May 12 in St. Paul. Forst, CEO of the $116.6 million Citizens State Bank Norwood Young America, will retire from the bank at the end of this year after 37 years, paving the way for the next generation of leadership. [Continue]