The District Court of Lancaster County dealt another blow to an out-of-state credit union’s plan to purchase a tax-paying Nebraska bank.  Nebraska District Court Judge Ryan Post affirmed the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance's 2021 denial of the application filed by Premier Bank, wherein GreenState Credit Union would have acquired the bank’s entire operation.
 
GreenState Credit Union (formerly the University of Iowa Credit Union) last summer announced plans to purchase Premier Bank, with locations in Omaha and Nebraska City. Premier Bank initially argued that its application should be approved under the cross-industry merger/acquisition statute or the Nebraska “wild-card” statute. The NDBF denied the application. On appeal, Judge Post agreed with the NDBF, stating that the “wild-card” statute does not grant Premier Bank the authority to sell substantially all of its assets to a credit union, which would result in the bank going out of business.
 
Your NBA legal team (Bob Hallstrom, Jerry Stilmock, and Ryan McIntosh), together with the Attorney General’s office, representing the NDBF, presented oral arguments in the matter in early May. Premier Bank may appeal the decision to the Nebraska Court of Appeals.
 
Your NBA team will continue to aggressively work to level the playing field between tax-subsidized credit unions and Nebraska banks.  

Uncertain times like these call for time-tested actions. In 2022, the NBA's Political Action Committee (NBA BankPAC) is certainly the time-tested tool we need in our fight against damaging legislative proposals.​

You may already support local, state, and national candidates with your individual financial contributions. That’s great, but consider the impact that financial support from thousands of Nebraska bankers can have through NBA BankPAC. Candidates understand the depth of that support because it comes from thousands of bankers across Nebraska. See the list of General Election candidates supported by NBA BankPAC here.

Your bank can get involved by running an internal BankPAC campaign.

There are four simple steps:

1. Designate an employee to be your bank's BankPAC captain.
2. Have that person call Jennifer Heaton at the NBA at (402)-474-1555 to receive NBA BankPAC information or visit the BankPAC website.
3. Discuss the importance of supporting NBA BankPAC at an upcoming meeting with your employees, board of directors and shareholders and encourage them to make individual contributions to NBA BankPAC.
4. Celebrate the bank’s success!

Two years after the program's launch on July 1, 2020, the Single Bank Pooled Collateral program (SBPC) continues to add bank participants and public depositors. The 20 banks participating in the program represent 286 public depositors with $1.7 billion in deposits. The market value of the pledged instruments is $1.9 billion.

Participating banks enjoy the efficiency gained through their involvement with the SBPC Program rather than utilizing the traditional method of pledging collateral.

“The program is easy to use and understand. The program administrator is quick with responses to both questions as well as collateral changes. Utilizing the program has allowed us to pledge less bonds as we only have one account with excess pledging to (the pool) as compared to excess pledging to each individual public depositor. This allows us to have a stronger liquidity position.”
Jami Schmidt, CFO
Henderson State Bank (Henderson)

“We are very happy to be a part of the Single Bank Pooled Collateral program. It has provided an opportunity to make better use of our available pledging sources to cover the group of entities. The entities have also benefited by reduced administrative time, not having to sign off on releases or worry about making sure fluctuations are covered. Both the Bank and entities value the additional monitoring and centralized reporting.”
Aleyse Schroder, Finance Officer
NebraskaLand Bank (North Platte)

“Once you see how this works with the oversight of two entities it is a very simple decision that every school district in Nebraska should be involved in this program. It gives you the peace of mind to know that your public funds are always secure.”
Chester “Chip” Kay, Director of Business Operations 
Columbus Public Schools

Hear more perspectives on the program in this video.

To learn how your bank can experience the benefits of the SBPC Program, visit the SBPC website or contact NBISCO Program Administrator Misty (Stoner) Rushing, at [email protected] or 402-904-7060.