Our Association

If 2020 was the year of COVID, 2021 will be remembered as the hangover year from COVID. We organized some in-person events this year, including our convention, but we still held many sessions remotely. The acquisition of our High Street building in Jefferson City has proven to be beneficial even in these challenging times as we are able to be much more flexible in scheduling activities.

On the legislative front, we worked with other trade associations to get our state legislatures to approve a few limitations on the PACE program that will benefit our members and clients. Undoubtedly, we will continue to fight to get more limitations on the program in future years.

Financially, your association remains on sound footing. We are also blessed to have a great staff. Matthew Ruge, Michelle Lawson, and Sarah Luetkemeyer work well together to keep the association moving forward.

We are all aware of the decline in the number of banks in our state and across the country, which will continue to challenge us to properly fund the association and best meet our members’ needs.

Our Industry

Bank earnings look surprisingly good this year. Undeniably, PPP loan fees helped boost those results.

Loan to deposit ratios stand at lows not seen in recent times. While interest rates remain unbelievably low, our clients are not borrowing. As we look forward, it remains uncertain how we will be able to post acceptable returns next year with low volumes and narrow margins.

Our Country

Does anyone else feel like we turned a page in our country and our federal government is now socialistic? The America I grew up in was a nation of unlimited opportunities. It appears our government is intent on remaking our country into one only, providing so-called equal outcomes.

• IRS Reporting Requirements — At the time I am writing this, the current administration is proposing to require all financial institutions to report transactions on about every account. Who produced this idea?
• Open Borders — We are now letting in about anyone and everyone who comes across our border. The federal government is even considering paying some of these illegal individuals $450,000. Does this make sense to anyone?
• Mandates — We are mandating many workers to get the COVID vaccine. But not the unemployed, illegal aliens, postal workers, congress, senators, or staff members. Does this make sense?
• Taxing Unrealized Capital Gains — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen supports a proposal for the rich to pay taxes on unrealized capital gains. How long do you think before it will be on those of us not so rich?
• $3.5 Trillion Bill That “Doesn’t Cost Anything” — Wasn’t it Thomas Jefferson who said the federal government can not spend anything that it first has not taken from its citizens?
• Comptroller of the Currency Nominee — Saule Omarova is on record as being in favor of eliminating the banking system as we know it today and having Federal Reserve Banks offer checking and savings accounts.

You cannot make up this stuff.

The Future

“Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward.”
— Soren Kierkegaard