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For many years, April traditionally opens with observation of Community Banking Month, a time reserved
to recognize the invaluable contributions of community banks throughout America. Some citizens may not
feel so celebratory, certainly with news from institutions like UBS and Barclays involved in defrauding mil-
lions through manipulation of LIBOR rates, or HSBC’s money laundering activities for Mexican drug cartels,
or the get-out-of-jail-free pass provided to banks like Wells Fargo, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase
who settled in court cases involving mass mortgage fraud. As the actions of these institutions, along with
others, demand utter disgust, it becomes all the more critical to comprehend that NONE of the mentioned
firms are community banks. In fact, community banks may reflect the only threads of integrity remaining in
the fabric of an industry whose reputation is in tatters. For one association, the essential mission is helping
others understand the difference between the operating practices of mega-banks versus the heroes hard at
work in your hometown community bank.
A little more than 83 years ago, a group of 28
independent bankers gathered in Glenwood,
Minnesota, to confront a situation that in-
stilled each with great concern. Unaffiliated
with one another, each represented leader-
ship of small banks that respectively served
communities throughout Minnesota. Their
convening was compelled by comments that
had been made in the press from the chief
executive officer of a massive banking enter-
prise based in Minneapolis. That enterprise
was known as the Northwest Bank Orga-
nization. The CEO boasted of his corpora-
tion’s intent to buy out every single bank in