The 68th Legislative Assembly of the North Dakota Legislature

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