Writer: Tom Bengtson

Regulators tell bankers about changing conditions, lessons learned and what to watch for. [Continue]

Steve Moore of U.S. Bank, St. Paul, accepted the chairmanship of the Minnesota Bankers Association from Tom Welle, First National Bank of Bemidji, at the association’s annual convention. [Continue]

Meeting just a week before a House-Senate conference committee passed historic financial regulatory reform legislation, Dakota bankers were already preparing for a new landscape of rules and regulations. [Continue]

     Thank you, British Petroleum, for displacing the financial services industry from the front pages of the nation’s newspapers. We appreciate you taking the populist vengeance that has been directed at bankers for the last two years.      When the public gets angry, I guess it doesn’t matter who’s really at fault or even what … Read more

      Strong ownership is necessary for a strong economy. The market crash and subsequent prolonged recession were the consequences of years of deteriorating ownership strength in the housing and mortgage markets. The advent of securitization significantly weakened the ownership of both homes and mortgage loans.       Before securitization, a homebuyer put 20 percent of … Read more

      It is amazing to witness the financial reform legislative debate; Congress is completely off target. By refusing to tackle the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac problems, Congress is essentially wasting its time.       The two housing GSEs fueled the housing bubble by making it easy to get a mortgage. By watering down the … Read more

Bankers attending the Nebraska Bankers Association convention had a variety of opinions about the current state of the industry. [Continue]

Setting fees effectively is an important factor in a bank’s profitability, a former bank president told community bankers recently. [Continue]

Philip K. Smith, president of Gerrish McCreary Smith, Consultants and Attorneys, urged bankers to redefine success, noting that the traditional standards for return on assets and return on equity may be out of date. [Continue]

Notes, news and views on community banking [Continue]