Pub. 7 2017 Issue 3

10 www.azbankers.org F OUNDED IN 1966, BELL IS THE LARGEST INDEPENDENTLY OWNED BANK IN NORTH DAKOTA, SOUTH DAKOTA AND MINNESOTA, WITH 19 FULL-SERVICE BANKING LOCATIONS AND $4.5 BILLION IN ASSETS. Bell already has a presence in Arizona with our mortgage division, providing mortgages in the Phoenix area since 1997. Now, Bell also has a full-time correspondent banker with offices in Phoenix: Tracy Peterson has worked in banking for more than 25 years and has been with Bell since 2003. As Bell looks to expand its correspondent presence in Arizona, Richard Solberg, longtime chairman of Bell’s board of directors and a major shareholder in the company, answers some questions about the company and its dedicated correspondent department. Q. How large is Bell’s correspondent banking area? A. It’s a growing part of our company. We started back in the ’90s by helping a few smaller North Dakota banks with partici - pation loans. These were banks without large lending limits, and their customers’ borrowing needs were becoming greater. Today, we have bankers actively connecting for correspondent opportu - nities in 14 states (Arizona, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado). We are working directly with more than 300 banks, and our correspondent lending portfolio exceeds $550 million. Q. Why do banks choose to do correspondent busi- ness with Bell? A. The banks we work with want a correspondent bank that doesn’t directly compete with them, so they can keep the customer relation - ship. They’re also looking for quick loan decisions when needed, (which is not a problem for us, because we don’t have to call San Francisco for a decision). They want to work with a bank that has a large lending limit, so if it’s a large participation, they don’t have to go to several banks. (We make Bell Bank Expanding Correspondent Presence in Arizona