July 26, 2021

Recently in the Financial Services Committee at a hearing entitled “A Biased, Broken System: Examining Proposals to Overhaul Credit Reporting to Achieve Equity,” Chairwoman Waters and the majority made clear their efforts to move toward a government takeover of the financial services industry are moving full speed ahead.

Recently at the dinner table, my family had a fascinating conversation about the merits of short stories versus novels. My daughter, an avid reader, made the case that the novel is the superior form of storytelling because it allows the piece to deepen and evolve. My husband, on the other hand, argued that with a short story, every word counts, and that critical focus creates a vivid snapshot of an experience.

When it comes to implementing new technology, community banks have been faced with challenges. For one, we often don’t have the internal bandwidth to build the solutions we want, so we must seek products that exist in the marketplace — and that can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Once we find the right product, it has to integrate into our core systems. And when a product or service doesn’t perform, we may let it limp along instead of sunsetting it.

Community Bankers, it is time, once again, to gather at The Lake of the Ozarks to celebrate community banking in Missouri. MIBA and ICBA are the organizations serving as the exclusive voice of our industry: community banking! I invite you to show your commitment to our cause and join community bankers from across the state at the 44th Annual MIBA Convention and Expo at The Lodge of Four Seasons, Sept. 13-15, 2021.