May 4, 2021

With the new Biden administration and the Georgia senate runoff election results, there may be future changes in tax legislation that could affect the wealthy for income, estate, and succession planning purposes.

Pete Johnson, President, CEO Opportunity Bank ICBA CHAIRMAN APPOINTS PETE JOHNSON TO ICBPAC COMMITTEE The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) announced the reappointment of Pete Johnson, President and CEO of Opportunity Bank of Montana (NASDAQ: EBMT), to serve on ICIBA’s Independent Community Bankers Political Action Committee (ICBPAC). ICBA is the nation’s voice for community

In today’s data-driven society, we hear a lot about engagement. Whether it’s social media likes, website views, call center touch-points or branch visits, the bottom line amounts to how we engage with our customers and affect their experience.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. As we kick off Community Banking Month, I can’t help but reflect on that statement and the changes of this past year. While we have been challenged far beyond our wildest dreams, community banks have stayed the course in keeping the focus on our communities. We ensured that when the ground beneath us shifted, we remained firmly rooted in our foundation as pillars of our communities, committed to helping the local environment flourish.

TILA. Q: Our flood vendor no longer separates the life of the loan portion of the fee. Should the entire fee now be considered a prepaid finance charge?
A: Yes, though it will have a minimal (if any) impact on the annual percentage rate (APR) and finance charge disclosures (well within tolerances). The Official Staff Commentary on Regulation Z states, “If a creditor is uncertain about what portion of a fee to be paid at consummation or loan closing is related to the initial decision to grant credit, the entire fee may be treated as a finance charge.”

“What a long strange trip it has been” — those words are the sage words of the Grateful Dead. Those words aptly describe what all of us have gone through this past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last nine months of 2020 were one long strange trip.
It goes without saying that nothing was ‘normal’ about the year 2020 with the cancellation of association events, banks’ lobby closures and the advent of huge federal relief programs. But, 2021 has brought us some hope that ’we’ are starting to put the pandemic in the rear-view mirror.

You were recently reelected to the U.S. Senate for another six-year term. What do you hope to accomplish during the coming six years?
It’s an honor to serve Montana in the United States Senate. Heading into a new Congress, my priority is to protect the Montana way of life, which includes defeating the pandemic and getting life back to normal as quickly as possible. This means working to ensure every Montanan who wants a vaccine can get one.

Hopefully, by the time you read this, spring will have sprung, and another ridiculously long Montana winter will be behind us. Thankfully, this year was milder than most. Spring is a time of renewal and a time when bankers can begin to look toward what the remainder of the year will bring.
While we are mired in a very low-interest-rate environment and margins are suffering, there are still abundant opportunities