Number 47 came and went, the 47th Annual MIBA Convention, that is. Matthew, Michelle and the MIBA staff in its entirety gave the membership another well-run, insightful, educational and, as always, fun and entertaining convention. The speakers provided timely information and, with the current political and economic environment, their insightful thoughts were important and appreciated. Craig Dismuke, managing director and chief market strategist with STIFEL, helped provide a little clarity about what might be a very cloudy future. I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Past ICBA Chairman and our Keynote Speaker Brad Bolton. We discussed our industry, and, to me, the conversation solidified the thought that our industry, while challenged, is and will remain strong and vibrant.
Thank you to Mark Laune, our immediate past president, for your service to the association — not just this past year but the many years prior. It is the dedication of individuals like Mark and his predecessors that make our association not only survive, but thrive.
As I shared during the convention, I have two very simple yet extremely important goals for the coming year.
Firstly, grow our membership. There are a number of independent Missouri banks that aren’t currently MIBA members. I’m tasking every member bank and every MIBA director to personally contact one of these non-member banks and invite them to join. Secondly, the demographics of our board aren’t in tune for the dreaded “S” word … succession. We all deal with the “S” word in our banks. We need to look at the MIBA Board the same way we look at the boards in our own banks. Getting the next generation of bankers involved in leadership roles is crucial to the future of community banking.
To our many vendors, sponsors and member banks who attended and helped make this another successful convention, thank you. From the golf tournament at The Cove Golf Course to the Rooftop Rendezvous, the amazing entertainment, the infamous LobsterFest and, of course, the MIBAR, the convention was, once again, a tremendous success thanks to our MIBA staff.
Taking advantage of events like these — especially the opportunity to interact with our fellow Missouri bankers and discuss our challenges and successes — helps make us all better at accomplishing the most important thing: Taking Care of Our Customers.
As I look back at my 40-year banking career, the changes within the industry have been almost unimaginable in every area — regulation, compliance, products, delivery of products — I could go on forever. But technology is, without a doubt, one of the greatest changes.
We used to use typewriters, payment posting machines and one pocket or larger proof machines. We were exchanging checks at the end of the day with the other local banks, batching work and couriering it to a data processing center overnight — reams of green bar paper reports were then couriered back the next morning — this was the norm. Today, I can write a check at a local merchant and, before I can get back to the bank, it has hit my account thanks to mobile depositing.
FedNow or RTP have made our industry 24/7/365. The technology available to bank customers changes constantly, and the ICBA’s Thinktech Accelerator program is a resource that you should be utilizing. While we may never be on a level playing field against our big bank competitors, we do have access to many other resources from ICBA that help tip the scales in our favor. The one thing that we as community bankers will always have to our benefit is the ability to provide unmatched customer service.
As I’m writing this article, I’m sitting in our Oregon, Missouri, branch having just celebrated a ribbon cutting after an extensive remodel. As the picture to the left details, we were able retain the teller windows that were originally installed in the early 1900s, making them well over 100 years old. Imagine the changes in the industry those teller cages have seen. However, the changes we will see over the next 10 years will far exceed the changes of the past 100 years. We as an industry must embrace change and adapt if we are going to SURVIVE AND THRIVE.
