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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ND independent banks 'doing well' | Prairie Public Broadcasting

Prairie Public Broadcasting | By Dave Thompson

"They're strong, well-run, well-capitalized," said David Mason of First International Bank and Trust in Bismarck. "We've been fortunate for a highly supportive community base in North Dakota."

Mason said North Dakotans like doing business with other North Dakotans.

"That's where the community bank model really thrives for us," Mason said.

Mason also said the biggest issue facing banks this year is inflation, and continued efforts by the Federal Reserve to tamper down inflation through raising interest rates.

"Increasing or decreasing isn't as big of a deal as how fast they change," Mason said. "And we've seen a dramatically fast-paced move by the Fed in increasing rates this time around. And that just changes the dynamic."

Mason said it takes a little bit of a different management style, to help customers deal with the rates.

Meanwhile, ag lenders are reporting a more positive outlook in farm country. A banker from southeast North Dakota said farmers are doing very well this year, compared with the past few years.

"The crops that got put in look very good," said Darwin Bitz of Heartland State Bank of Edgeley and Kulm. "The prices are excellent, and even on the livestock end, prices are very good."

Bitz said farmers are in a very good financial position, because of the current prices, and also because of disaster payments, crop insurance and COVID relief. And he said his bank hasn't been making loans to farmers this year.

"I can tell you that right now, of operating loans at our bank, there have been some that haven't been touched," Bitz said. "The farmers haven't needed it."

Bitz said he has sen a lot of pay-down on existing loans.

"It's actually a great time to be farming," Bitz said.

The independent bankers' group had their annual meeting in Bismarck this week.

BISMARCK, ND – Stephen L. Stenehjem, Chairman and CEO of First International Bank & Trust (FIBT), is the recipient of the 2022 Distinguished Community Banker Award. The award was presented to him during the 54th Annual Independent Community Banks of North Dakota (ICBND) Convention & Exposition. The three-day event was held August 8-10, at the Bismarck Hotel and Conference Center, in Bismarck, and was attended by over 200 bank and associate members.

The Distinguished Community Banker Award was created in 1998 by the ICBND Board of Directors to recognize the efforts of its most outstanding members and is the most prestigious award given by ICBND. This award, which need not be given every year, honors an active or former community banker for exemplary and outstanding service to community banking over an extended career. Stephen’s father Leland M. Stenehjem posthumously received the award in 2017, making Stephen the second Stenehjem to be honored with the ICBND Distinguished Community Banker Award.

           

Stenehjem, who recently celebrated 40 years with First International Bank & Trust, looks back on his achievements with pride. “FIBT is over 100x larger than when I started and that’s a testament to the amazing team we’ve built over the years. From our humble beginnings in Arnegard, ND, we now have 34 locations across four states and can serve more customers than ever before. Thank you to everyone who has been part of FIBT’s success. I am truly humbled and honored to receive this award.”

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ICBND hosts 54th Annual Convention in Bismarck | KX NEWS (kxnet.com)

BISMARCK, N.D. — This week is the ICBND 54th Annual Convention. The convention will last Monday through Wednesday.

Jessie Pfaff, who is the vice president for the ICBND says this is a chance for community bankers and associate members vendors across the nation to get together.

“It’s just a time to reconnect with eachother and to celebrate everything they have accomplished last year” “

Pfaff says conventions such as this one is extremely important to have in the state.


“North Dakota in general is a tight knit rural community and community banks across our state are what provide the funding for a lot of main street, and we are excited about bringing them together.”

According to Pfaff, ICBND is the only association in the state of North Dakota that excessively represents Community Banks.
The convention always has a theme and for this years theme it’s the roaring 20’s.

“We figured it’s the 20’s. We are roaring forward and everything that banks have had to overcome with their customers and COVID the last couple of years,” said Pfaff. “They keep charging forward into the future.”

And the big topic on everyone’s mind is inflation.

“It’s front and center. The man on the street and the lady on the street mind’s these days is on how much things are costing,” said Reber. “When they go to the grocery store, when they go buy clothes. When they fill up their gas tank.”

As far as what interest rates could do in the next six months, Jim Reber, President and CEO of ICBA Securities, says it’s impossible to predict.
Despite not being able to predict how long the inflation will last, Reber says community banks are built to benefit from rising rates.

“If this is a long term scenario, where rates are higher than normal, community banks should do just fine.”

They say no matter what the economy looks like… they will continue to reach out and help their neighbors from rural to cities here in North Dakota.

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