Nebraska Independent Community Bankers

7 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 3 burdens have basically put a halt to de novo banking activity. That exacerbates the merger and acquisition activity that’s reducing the field. There’s no incentive for anybody to invest in a new bank because the return just isn’t there. The landscape is just very different. “So we are all about trying to reduce that burden, which will allow our banks to maintain their viability and, more importantly, allow are communities to remain viable. In a lot of these small towns, the bank represents a really nice, white-collar employment opportunity that many of these places have lost with consolidation of school districts, etc. There is a great deal of burden on the ownership generation of these family-owned banks to maintain that business to allow the community to keep its own viability. It’s a vicious circle.” BVM: Looking to the next five years, how do you foresee the community bank landscape evolving? Morrow: “The next few years will be very interesting. There will be more avenues with fintech to store money and move money outside of a bank than ever before. The challenge for community banks will be to present to customers the value over those competitors. We’re going to have to continue to invest in our platforms and provide consumers with attractive products. We’ll probably be entering an environment where interest rates will be increasing, due to inflation or growth, and that’s always a challenging time for banks. It will be a competitive time ahead but I think the industry is ready.” Hallman: “We as an industry have always adapted well. The banks that are out there today have learned how to survive through good times and bad. The question is – how can we take advantage of the new opportunities that are presented to us? And I have every faith and belief that we will.”