BankIn Minnesota’s new chair looks to educate

Editor's note: Tiffany Baer Paine, president and co-CEO of Security Bank USA in Bemidji, Minn., was recently named chair of BankIn Minnesota. Here, she weighs in on the importance of a level playing field with credit unions, the importance of independent community banking and serving as an ambassador for the industry. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. .Tell us about your personal background and how your career in banking began..Tiffany Baer Paine: I'm a fourth generation banker. My great grandfather started the bank in 1910. We are now about a $245 million community bank. My father said we needed to go get other experience at other financial institutions and then bring that experience back to our bank, so I worked at two other financial institutions. I've been back for 31 years and a board member for 20. I served on the ICBA Bank Operations and Payments Committee for 12 years, the ICBA Education Committee for three years, and I was on the FDIC Bank Advisory Committee from 2016-19. I've been back on the BankIn board since 2019..You've been at Security Bank for 30 years. What continues to draw you into your work all these years later?.Baer Paine: I probably feel very similar to other community bankers, but it's our culture, our community, it's our family. And not just our family, not just the Baer family, but we have many generations of families that have worked within the bank. It's the support, the giving. And I just love my job. I love the people I work with, whether that's our employees or our customers. I thoroughly enjoy what I do. I love my career and where I work..What brought you to BankIn Minnesota and what has your involvement looked like?.Baer Paine: Well, my father is a past chair of BankIn, and he was chair in '91 and '92. Philosophically, the organization aligns with how we function as an institution, specifically on the advocacy side with regulators and legislators. It is in tune with small community banks, and our voice is so much stronger with them than it could be on our own. In addition to that, when I started working with BankIn, I was on some committees, and we created some networks, which are phenomenal. The value that we see, whether it's an IT network, a CEO network, a marketing network, a compliance and audit network — it is wonderful. We engage on a regular basis, and that's all of our staff at Security Bank. .What areas of concern or bright spots are you seeing across the U.S. or in Minnesota? .Baer Paine: Community banking is strong, and in Minnesota specifically, we are strong. It doesn't mean that there aren't mergers and acquisitions going on. It doesn't mean that there haven't been natural disaster issues that are creating problems in specific areas, but overall, community banking is exceedingly strong. A lot of times what you see nationally, when you see these high peaks and low valleys in smaller towns, they tend to shrink and run a little more stable, and what throws them are the natural disaster type situations. We know our customers, we know our communities, we understand the economics of those things..We have to educate everybody on what community banks do, how we can benefit their towns, and how we need to move forward. In these small community banks, there needs to be right-size regulation. There needs to be an understanding of the area, meaning if you go into an ag bank, your examiners should understand that area, your legislators should understand what's going on in those areas and help the partners with those independent community banks. That's a role that BankIn Minnesota is very good at facilitating..What issues do you want to tackle in your year as chair? What projects and areas do you plan to focus on?.Baer Paine: One of the strategic plan actions we're working on is engaging and educating the public on the difference between an independent community bank and a large bank and a credit union. We're focused on getting that word out and doing it with one voice. That's been an ongoing process for the last few years. There have been a lot of mergers and acquisitions, and a challenging part of that is there have been a lot of credit unions purchasing community banks. That obviously takes that community bank off the tax rolls, and then that can limit the services that they can offer those customers. So, it's limited service, taking businesses off the tax roll, and it's shrinking charters. That's across the United States; it's not just Minnesota. There are small towns across the country where people aren't going to open a bank because the population is 150. So you're limiting banking services to those small towns. .This year, we're doing a comprehensive strategic planning session that began in August and will be complete in May, and then we will report back again at the annual convention. We have hired a facilitator who specializes in associations, and we'll be assessing our pillars (events, education, services). It will be a very interactive strategic plan, engaging all of our members and associate members. .This is probably the most comprehensive strategic plan that we've done. As soon as we announced the plan at our August convention, we immediately started getting feedback from all of the participants. There were over 300 at the convention, and all the comments and questions we've received back were positive. .The employees at BankIn are phenomenal. They are so good to work with and I thoroughly enjoy them and the board. The board members volunteer a lot of their time and a lot of effort. They are such amazing bankers and really wonderful ambassadors to independent community banking in Minnesota, but also throughout the nation. Their commitment is stunning. They are out there fighting the good fight every day.