February 14, 2023

I’ve always been a glass-half-full guy, and though 2023 is expected to be a challenging economic year, it also will bring opportunity. We simply need to remember what makes us special as community bankers, and with that as our foundation, we can embrace this season of change in four primary ways:

The beginning of a new year feels like a fresh start, a new chapter in our stories. We have a blank page on which we can write our narrative over the course of the year, with new milestones filling the pages ahead. And with 2023, we have no shortage of adventures awaiting us.

As I write this article, it is the beginning of the new year, and I hope it brings us so much more than what 2022 brought us. Specifically, it brings us a more favorable position for our securities portfolios. At one point last year, we saw the 10-year U.S. government treasury have the largest drop since 1788 — that made for yet another historic year for our economy.