Pub. 19 2022 Issue 3

NMBA Welcomes New Associate Member Upgrade, Inc.

The Convention was held September 15-16, 2022 at Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino. Four guests enjoy drinks and dinner. Former President, Mike Lowrimore and guests Speaker: Peter Trevisani EVP John Anderson and Jay Jenkins Speaker: Edward “Stevie” Smith NMBA President David Hockmuth and wife

BHG Financial is the leader in unsecured business and personal loans and the creator of one of the country’s largest community bank loan and product networks – the BHG Bank Network. Growing to over 1,450 members who purchase these top-performing loans, BHG Financial now reports a record milestone, with its network banks reaching a combined $1 billion in interest income since 2001.

In the 14 years since blockchain technology’s invention, banks have been left to compete with emerging business models and new stores of value while operating in an uncertain vacuum of regulatory guidance. The resulting whiplash of lightning-fast innovation seemingly incapacitated the U.S. regulators of currencies, commodities, and securities.

This past spring, the US bond market, where many community banks are invested, flashed a common recession warning: the yield curve briefly inverted, with short-term debt paying more than longer-term loans.

With banks still flooded with cash in the wake of the pandemic, many are waiting to raise deposit rates, content to watch some excess liquidity run off the balance sheet. But in a rising rate environment, some analysts are raising questions about whether banks risk waiting too long. Indeed, over the next 12 months, 77% percent of bank executives expect deposit competition to increase, and 90% anticipate higher funding costs, according to IntraFi’s most recent quarterly survey.

If you follow the machinations of the United States Congress and the Executive Branch with any regularity, you will begin to notice that most of what actually ends up being enacted falls along the lines of corporate tax cuts, subsidies for already absurdly profitable entities, continually expanding military budgets with no end in sight, and other priorities that have no relation to democratic popularity or will. However, in the past couple of months, the Biden administration has addressed the concerns of average Americans in the form of concrete policy, something that is sadly rare in Washington, D.C. Most notably, President Biden announced a student loan debt relief plan that that should genuinely help a substantial amount of people. Biden’s decision is a relatively simple, effective and helpful policy, and the reactions in various factions have also been informative.

As I traveled the country this summer speaking at various state bankers association conventions, I’d always ask this question of my audience: How many of you have clients and customers asking you about cryptocurrencies and digital assets? And nearly everywhere I went, nearly every hand would go up.

The New Mexico Bankers Association 110th Annual Convention was a huge success. A special thanks to all who attended the convention September 15–16
at Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino. The event began with an opening cocktail party and a vendor’s event. I want to personally thank our vendors and sponsors for their support and generosity.

How did you get started in banking?
I started my banking practice with J.P. Morgan in New York. My full-time work for Morgan ran concurrently with my full-time studies at NYU. I was assigned to the American Depository Receipts Desk, which offered customers a way to purchase stocks in overseas companies that were otherwise unavailable to investors through U.S. stock exchanges.