October 27, 2021

Associate Member UBB cosponsored the MIB tailgate parties in Missoula and Bozeman. Both events were well attended. Great food, great conversation and of course custom cornhole boards were the big prize.

We would like to thank the vendors who joined us in Billings at the MIB Annual Convention and Trade Show. ICBA, ICBA Securities, Select Bankcard, Crescent Mortgage, FPS Gold, United Bankers Bank, Bankers Healthcare Group, Holtmeyer & Monson, Small Business Association, Leavitt Great West Insurance, Bankers’ Bank of the West, Anderson ZurMuehlen & Co., P.C., First Call Computer Solutions, Big Sky Finance, Community Bankers Webinar Network, Cushing Terrell, Shazam.

On September 30th, Eduardo Garcia, the founder of Montana Mex, spoke to over 500 MSU students as part of the Jabs E Series at Montana State University.

In April 2020, the federal government established the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a new $349 billion program with the mission to keep people on payroll, keep businesses in business, and help the economy recover as quickly as possible. Within hours of the program announcement, Montana lenders were filling my teams’ inboxes for requests for information, eager to do their part in serving our state’s small business community.

United Bankers’ Bank and RiskScout Announce Partnership to Provide Turnkey Solution to Safely and Effectively Enter New Growth Markets United Bankers’ Bank (UBB), the nation’s first bankers’ bank, and RiskScout, the nation’s leading onboarding and due diligence fintech platform announced their unique partnership to provide streamlined compliance solutions surrounding hemp and other emerging markets existing

Opportunity Bank of Montana Celebrates 100 Years of Community Banking Opportunity Bank of Montana opened its doors in August 1922 as American Building and Loan with a single office in Helena, Montana. Growth and charter changes led to several name changes over the last century. In 2014, the Opportunity Bank brand was born because that’s

TILA. Q: I am working on a Loan Estimate (LE) for a purchase transaction on which we have not yet received a purchase agreement. The lender would like to include all of the seller fees on the LE so we would not have to redisclose the LE in the event we get a purchase agreement saying the buyer must pay all seller fees.

Is there any harm in doing this?

A: The LE intends to inform applicants of costs they are likely to incur as part of their loans. If there is some likelihood that the buyer will agree to pay the seller’s fees (such as if that is happening with some frequency in your market due to real estate market conditions), then it would probably be fine to include those normally seller’s fees on the buyer’s LE, showing to be paid by buyer/borrower.

With the right tools, financial institutions can overcome new challenges.
Financial institutions are facing margin pressure from continued low-interest rates, a decline in traditional fee income and increasing competition from new financial players. That has made diversifying revenue streams with noninterest-income sources even more important.

There’s the ancient story of an agitated boss exclaiming to an employee, “You missed work yesterday, didn’t you?” Tersely, the employee replied, “No, not particularly.”

Ransomware attacks are very much in the news in 2021. Every organization should prepare in advance for the steps it must take should a ransomware event occur. While attacks against municipalities, educational facilities, healthcare organizations, the retail industry, and pipelines pepper the news, ransomware attacks have targeted community banks and will continue to do so in the future.