Dr. Barry Flinchbaugh, a popular presenter at the SDBA's Agricultural Credit Conference and National Schools for Ag Bankers, passed away on Monday at Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka, Kan., at the age of 78. Flinchbaugh was a professor emeritus in Kansas State University's Department of Agricultural Economics.

Please join the SDBA in saying thank you to President Curt Everson for  his service to the banking industry. The SDBA will hold a virtual retirement reception for Everson on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 4-5 p.m. CST. After more than 18 years leading the SDBA on behalf of South Dakota's banking industry, Everson is retiring at the end of this year.

Everson's virtual retirement reception will be held via Zoom. Registration is required to receive the meeting link. Upon clicking the "Register Now" link, you'll be redirected to the SDBA's Zoom registration page. Register now.

With the passage of Amendment A and Initiated Measure 26 legalizing medical and recreational use of marijuana in South Dakota, the SDBA remains committed to supporting its member banks during this transition.

There are several resources available. The SDBA’s webinar partner, On Course Learning, has a variety of on-demand webinars addressing the topic of marijuana. Visit www.bankwebinars.com, click on the search option and enter “marijuana”.  Similarly, the ABA provides a wealth of information at https://www.aba.com/advocacy/our-issues/cannabis.

During the 2020 South Dakota Legislature, HB 1127 was passed allowing South Dakota credentialed appraisers to do evaluations. While the bill became law on July 1, the rules defining the statute that allow South Dakota appraisers to offer evaluations do not go into effect until after the rules hearing the first part of November.

The South Dakota Appraiser Certification Program is offering a four-hour virtual seminar "Evaluations: Understanding the Brand New Product/Service that SD Appraisers Can Offer their Clients" on Monday, Nov. 16. The seminar will cover the new rules defining when and how South Dakota appraisers can provide evaluations to their clients. The seminar is designed for all real estate appraisers that work in the state. 

The ABA and other industry groups met with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Farm Service Agency yesterday to discuss ways to support the credit needs of new farmers and ranchers. Representing ABA at the meeting were Heather Malcolm, VP, Bank of the Rockies, Livingston, Mont.; Dinese Watson, VP, Merchants Bank of Indiana, Lynn, Ind.; and Caleb Hopkins, chief lending officer, Westside State Bank, Halbur, Iowa. The bankers participated in a panel discussion on the challenges of serving beginning farmers and ranchers and shared some of the best practices they have learned.

During the event, the groups agreed to establish a process for agricultural lenders and FSA to communicate when challenges arise in financing beginning farmers; to engage agricultural lenders and FSA staff in loan-making training sessions and farm loan conferences; and to develop working groups of lenders and FSA staff to share best practices and overcome challenges.

American Banker Magazine yesterday published its eighth annual list of the best banks to work for, and two SDBA member banks and one associate member were part of the 85 honorees. Dacotah Bank in Aberdeen was named number 28, First PREMIER Bank in Sioux Falls was named number 58, and SDBA associate member Bell Bank in Fargo was named number two. 

The SDBA and ABA salutes these and other banks for establishing a culture and amenities that help attract and retain top talent, from generous health insurance and retirement benefits to employee prize programs, jovial atmospheres and employee financial health programs. View the list.

The SDBA will hold two virtual events next week--the NEXT STEP: Emerging Leaders Summit on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 27-28, and Security Officers Conference on Tuesday, Oct. 27. There is still time to register for both events, which will be held via Zoom and also recorded. 

NEXT STEP: Emerging Leaders is designed to help cultivate, connect, engage and empower South Dakota’s future bank leaders. This event will encourage emerging bank leaders to find and express their voices within their organizations, communities and the banking industry and provide opportunities to network and exchange ideas with other industry professionals. It will also increase emerging bank leaders’ knowledge of topics of interest to the banking industry and promote involvement and advocacy. Learn more and register. 

Promontory Interfinancial Network, a SDBA associate member, announced this week during ABA’s Unconventional Convention that it has changed its name to IntraFi Network. The innovative fintech is adopting new names that better describe its suite of financial services — popular products that until now have included CDARS^®, Insured Cash Sweep^®, Insured Network Deposits^®. Going forward, the company’s deposit products will be consolidated into IntraFi^SM Network Deposits^SM and its funding products will become IntraFi Funding^SM.

The ABA recognized seven of the nation’s best bank marketing initiatives, including that of First Dakota National Bank headquartered in Yankton, at its Unconventional Convention on Monday. The 2020 ABA Brand Slam awards honored elite bank marketing strategies that stood out among hundreds of entries from banks of all sizes nationwide.

“Marketing is essential to nurturing a company’s reputation and enhancing its engagement with customers,” said Jim Edrington, ABA’s chief member engagement officer. “During a year filled with extraordinary challenges, these award winners have excelled at implementing creative solutions to make powerful connections with their customers and communities.”

Gov. Kristi Noem last Friday announced the launch of the Small Business and Healthcare Provider Relief Program, which will utilize up to $580 million in Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) dollars to assist small businesses, community-based healthcare providers and nonprofits negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Save the date for a virtual retirement reception for SDBA President Curt Everson on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 4-5 p.m. CST. After more than 18 years leading the SDBA on behalf of South Dakota's banking industry, Everson is retiring at the end of this year.

Everson's virtual retirement reception will be held via Zoom. Be watching for more details to come, including the Zoom link to participate. 

The SDBA is going all virtual with its 2020 NEXT STEP: Emerging Leaders Summit on Oct. 27-28. In order to ensure the safety and well-being of our members, the decision was made to cancel the live portion of the event but continue with the virtual component via Zoom. All registrations have automatically been converted to virtual.

This year’s line up of speakers promises to engage and enlighten emerging leaders. Sessions will address leadership, cultural intelligence, gratitude and communications, as well as musings from SDBA President Curt Everson as he prepares to ride off into the retirement sunset. There will also be a variety of interactive activities to allow participants an opportunity to connect with one another and reinforce the speakers’ messages.

The Small Business Administration last night released a much-anticipated, streamlined loan forgiveness application for Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling $50,000 or less. While eligible loans account for just 9% of overall PPP loan dollars, they amount to about two-thirds of all PPP loans.

The two-page forgiveness application, Form 3508S, includes certifications from the borrower but does not require calculations to be submitted with the application. Applicants must submit documentation verifying forgivable payroll and non-payroll expenses. Borrowers are required to retain the documentation supporting their certifications for six years, but do not need to submit it.

The SDBA will offer the Security Officers Conference virtually on Oct. 27 via Zoom. The session will be recorded and available for 30 days. This well-rounded conference focuses on a range of issues of concern to security officers, facility personnel and management.

Using current trends and examples, a variety of topics will be covered: pandemic fraud: what’s ahead, human trafficking, elder fraud: growing faster than the speed of age, social engineering—creating accomplices, financial crime investigations and preparing your case for law enforcement.

The South Dakota Banking Commission will hold a public hearing via phone on Oct. 29 at 1:30 p.m. CDT to consider the adoption and amendment of proposed rules numbered 20:07:10:02, 20:07:10:03 and 20:07:22:04.

The first two proposed rules would reduce certain fees charged for various bank applications to reflect changes made to the application payment process during the 2020 Legislative Session in HB 1015 and to reduce the number of copies of each application submitted to the Division of Banking. The reason for adopting the proposed rules is to adjust certain application fees downward to account for applicant banks paying publication costs directly as required following changes made in HB 1015. The processing of applications has moved to an electronic process, and paper application documents are no longer necessary.

The Small Business Administration and Treasury Department last night updated the Paycheck Protection Program FAQs to address the deferral period extension granted by the PPP Flexibility Act of 2020. The extension allows borrowers to defer payments of principal, interest and fees on PPP loans for 10 months.

In the FAQ, SBA and Treasury confirmed that the extension of the deferral period automatically applies to all PPP loans, and said that lenders should immediately notify borrowers of the change in the deferral period. Importantly, the FAQs note that “SBA does not require a formal modification to the promissory note,” and that “a modification of a promissory note to reflect the required statutory deferral period under the Flexibility Act will have no effect on the SBA’s guarantee of a PPP loan.

With time running out before Congress adjourns ahead of the November elections, ABA joined nine financial trade associations in a letter on Tuesday urging congressional leaders to immediately pass standalone legislation that would allow for additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program and streamline the forgiveness process for PPP borrowers.

“The PPP provided over five million small businesses the financial lifeline they desperately needed to weather the start of the pandemic and the economic shutdown that followed,” the groups wrote. “As these businesses continue to recover, they will need additional resources to maintain business operations, and the PPP remains the most efficient and effective means to assist them through this challenging period.”

ABA, together with nearly 1,500 banks serving the vast majority of retail bank customers in the U.S., today launched a first-of-its kind, industry-wide campaign to educate consumers about the persistent threat of phishing scams. The public facing campaign, #BanksNeverAskThat, is a fresh, bold plug-and-play campaign that fights phishing fraud by turning bank customers into expert scam spotters. It launches as the industry kicks off Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October.

“This campaign is an unprecedented effort by the banking industry to address a growing threat to our customers,” said ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols. “With the help of banks from across the nation, we’re turning the tables on the bad guys by empowering consumers with the tools they need to spot bogus bank communications.”

Given the urgency of PPP forgiveness, ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols sent a CEO Update on Tuesday asking bankers to call House and Senate leaders in support of S. 4117 and H.R. 7777. Bankers can connect easily to the Capitol Hill switchboard through ABA’s grassroots platform, Secure American Opportunity.

Leadership of the Friends of Traditional Banking (FOTB), after much deliberation, has endorsed candidates in three, key U.S. Senate races in the 2020 general election. They are Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa.

"I know that many of you and other bankers in your organization provide financial support for pro-banking candidates through our federal political action committee, SDBankPAC," said SDBA President Curt Everson. "Thank you for your generous support."