More than 100 member bankers and business partners took part in the Association's Virtual Annual Business Meeting on Tuesday. The meeting is traditionally held during the SDBA/NDBA Annual Convention, which was canceled due to the pandemic.

The Annual Business Meeting's agenda included the election of SDBA officers, comments from the outgoing and incoming SDBA chairs, an association update from SDBA President Curt Everson and a South Dakota Bankers Foundation update from Halley Lee.

"The greatest accomplishment I think the South Dakota Bankers Association had this past year was advocating for our industry with our congressional delegation and working to show them the problems with the PPP program and helping them modify the rules and change the process and procedures to make it easier for us to help our customers and our communities to survive this pandemic," said 2019-2020 SDBA Chair Shawn Rost (pictured). "That is what we are all about."

The SDBA's 2020-2021 officers are:

• Chair Steve Bumann, BankWest, Pierre
• Chair-Elect Kristina Schaefer, First Bank & Trust, Sioux Falls
• Vice Chair David Bangasser, Dacotah Bank, Sioux Falls
• Immediate Past Chair Shawn Rost, First Interstate Bank, Rapid City

South Dakota bankers and business partners then joined with bankers and business partners from North Dakota for a Virtual Town Hall with FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams. 

"I am very proud of the work that you are doing in your communities. I know that your communities are largely rural. In a lot of those communities, you are it. You are just not the banking presence, you are the epicenter of the economy's activity," McWilliams said. "I think you have done a phenomenal job working with your communities, and you have a lot of exposure to different industries that have been heavily affected by the pandemic, including oil and gas, cattle ranching, farming, etc., and you have adjusted pretty quickly."

More than 350 people took part in the Virtual FDIC Town Hall. Joining McWilliams were members from her staff, ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols and ABA EVP of Congressional Relations and Political Affairs James Ballentine. The SDBA thanks its bankers and business partners who took part in both of the two virtual events.