The 68th Legislative Assembly of the North Dakota Legislature wrapped up in the wee hours of Sunday morning, April 30th which marked the 75th Legislative Day of the session saving five days during the interim if there’s a need to reconvene. While we didn’t get everything we wanted from this session, independent community banking fared well particularly given our defeat of limitations on interchange fees and squashing the credit unions’ aggressive and expensive campaign to expand their fields of membership! I won’t belabor this message with details from the session as you’re probably just starting to recover from my weekly legislative updates the first four months of the year! Moving forward, we are beyond pleased to announce ICBND’s 55th Annual Convention and Exposition which carries the theme “Community Banks: Your Country Needs You”. How appropriate is that given what’s happened in the banking world as of late? Your Convention Committee nailed it with this theme. Please mark your calendars for August 6-8 and note the change back to a Sunday evening through Tuesday format. The ICBND Convention is a tremendous opportunity to get together again with our friends and colleagues to enjoy a fun and informative celebration of community banking in the great state of North Dakota. And don’t forget to pack your patriotic attire for the theme party to be held Monday evening. As always, there’s sure to be some interesting ensembles! I hope you all have a great summer and I look forward to seeing you in Bismarck on August 6- 8!

Barry

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Happy April, everyone! It’s supposed to be spring but the forecast looks like we may be in the middle of another winter storm about the time this newsletter hits your inbox. Good grief! Enough already!

You’re probably tired of hearing from me about the 68th Assembly of the North Dakota Legislature. Not many weeks have gone by when I haven’t implored members to reach out to their legislators requesting they vote with us on one issue or another. In my limited tenure with ICBND, this has easily been the busiest as it relates to bills affecting community banking. We’ve been effective in turning back, or amending to satisfaction, most of the problematic bills. Unfortunately, we’re not even close to being done. In fact, we are currently in the throws of possibly the most problematic proposed North Dakota legislation in the past decade as it relates to community banking.
 
That bill is Senate Bill 2266. It was brought by the credit unions and originally sought to gut the field of membership rules in Century Code by allowing pretty much unfettered expansion. As amended in the
Senate, it is still extremely problematic as it seeks to expand the field of membership of any credit union main office to 125 miles from the current 75-mile radius. That’s a near tripling of the service area of every state-chartered credit union – there are 19 of them. It passed by one vote in the Senate. We need it to fail in the House and we need your help to do that. The bill was heard in the House Industry, Business and Labor Committee yesterday. It will be the subject of Committee work again the week of April 3rd. It could hit the House floor for vote as early as late that same week or the week of April 10. Please contact your Representatives from the following roster ND House of Representatives and ask them to vote “NO” on SB 2266!
 
Happy shoveling,
 
Barry

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Happy February, community bankers! I hope you are surviving this year’s North Dakota winter. You will see in this edition of our newsletter that ICBND is proudly promoting the launch of Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB), a collaboration with FedFis, a fintech providing data transformation for financial institutions, and the Independent Bankers Association of Texas (IBAT). The new program is supported by community banking associations nationwide. And best of all, it is available free to all ICBND member bankers!

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I hope this message finds you recovering from the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s truly my favorite holiday involving good food, family, friends, and football. My favorite part was spending time with my two grandsons as we enjoyed the mild temperatures and sunshine that still prevail in this early winter.

As I look back on 2021, I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to represent you all and the interests of community banking in North Dakota and nationally. And I’m proud of our accomplishments this past year with the 67th Assembly of the North Dakota Legislature which convened on January 5 and adjourned on April 29. In addition to the Regular Session, Governor Burgum called a Special Session of the Legislature that was conducted the week of November 8 adjourning on Friday, November 12.

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I hope this message finds you doing well and enjoying our gorgeous fall weather. While the days have been very pleasant, I don’t think any of us would mind some “rain” days. Drought has taken a heavy toll on our ag producers this year, especially our livestock producers who are scrounging hay and feed to get through the winter. I feel for them during this challenging time.

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