Shawn Dutton became the bank manager at First Security Bank eleven years ago. A Montanan all of his life, Shawn was born in Deer Lodge, and raised in Wisdom. After graduating college in Bozeman in the 1980's, he had two job offers. One for a feed mill in Jordan, and one for the bank in White Sulphur Springs. The pay was the same for both jobs, and he went into banking. Shawn would work at that bank for four years before moving in 1989 to Dutton Montana, where his banking career continued. In Dutton, Shawn became the bank's manager. Shawn and his wife Darcy raised their children there, and lived in Dutton Montana for 21 years before coming to Roundup in June of 2010.
Shawn was approached by Gill Majerus and Gregg Matfield, of First Security Bank, who were wanting to retire. They were looking for someone to come run the bank. They called Shawn asking if he knew anyone. By now, he had been running the bank in Dutton for fifteen years. He was offered the position, and Darcy and Shawn felt it was an opportunity that they couldn't pass up. Though their children were grown, it was a difficult time to move. They were leaving the place they had raised their children, and now with one child getting married, and one graduating college, the Dutton's hitched up and moved. Shawn states that it has been the best move he ever made.
Shawn has served on the Chamber of Commerce since its resurrection around 8 years ago. He has also been on the Roundup Memorial Hospital Foundation Board for about five years, where he helps with fundraising. He also serves on ICBA, Independent Community Bankers Association, which is a national association of bankers. He serves on their Ag and rural American committee. This group meets four times a year, once of which happens in Washington DC. There they talk to our legislators. There are about four or five Montana bankers on this committee.
More about First Security Bank, shared by Shawn Dutton
1st Security Bank, Roundup, Montana was founded in the fall of 1971 with over 90 stockholders attending the organizational meeting. The first Directors and most active founders were William D. Bianchi, Gerald Kaufman, Otto Stensvad, John D. Armstrong, Jeano Picchioni, and Roy Rodghiero. They wanted a locally owned and operated bank that understood the community and would make decisions based on the needs of the community. The first employees were Bianchi as President, Armstrong as Vice President, Betty Fischer as Cashier, Violet O'Brian as Assistant Cashier, and Tellers Kay Mihalovich and Beatrice Ray. By December of that year, they had already grown to $1,809,000 in Assets. At the annual meeting in January of 1972, they decided to add a couple more Directors. One of them was Harold Isaacs who continues to serve on the board of directors.
The bank grew rapidly that first year, and ended 1972 with total assets of $4,292,000. Along the way, Central Montana Bancorporation was formed as the Holding company of the bank in 1983 and the Central Montana Agency was started to provide insurance products to the bank's customers. Then, in 1996 our current location was completely remodeled.
We have grown to become a $86,000,000 community bank with no branches that is still locally owned and operated. All ten of our staff live in the Roundup area, and all six Directors also live and do business in the area we serve. The Bank continues to operate on the premise of serving our community and providing personalized customer service to our customers.
The town of Roundup is known for "The Big Drive of 89", a cattle drive from Roundup to Billings that commemorated the Montana Centennial. It remains and area of large cattle ranches and grain farms, but also has a history of coal mining that continues today with Signal Peak Energy operating an underground coal mine near the Musselshell County and Yellowstone County borders. This combination makes an interesting mix of customers and customer needs for the bank to serve. We still consider ourselves to be an Agriculture based community bank, but a growing base of young retail and mine workers with smartphones in their pockets means we also must adapt to new ways of doing business.
Our crystal ball is not clear on where First security Bank will be in another fifty years, but our goal is to remain a locally owned and operated community bank that believes in, and invests in, the future of the community we serve. We will continue to provide quality personalized customer service with the idea that helping our customers succeed helps us to succeed as well.
I raised the question with Shawn about the effects he has seen from Covid economically. He explained that Covid has hurt our local economy but that the paycheck protection loans were a huge help to local people as well. The loan money had to be used for payroll and operating expense. The loans started in April 2020, and finally stopped funding in March 2021. First Security Bank did between 170-190 loans, ranging from 15 hundred to 800 thousand dollars. The bank did 5.5million dollars in total paycheck protection loans.
While many banks have several branches throughout Montana or the States, one of the benefits of First Security bank is that it is a singular branch with personal service. In the 1980's it was the small banks that survived the crashing economy. I asked Shawn why that was, and he explained that the small banks just stick to straight forward banking, and don't take big financial risks.
I also asked Shawn if he could speak to the proposals about last years proposals for the federal mandates on aggregate annual spending of ten thousand and above, and the original six-hundred-dollar reporting. He explained that both were proposals that never passed, but that the bills are still out there.
Naturally with the current trends I asked Shawn about Crypto, Bitcoin, and a cashless society. Shawn believes this will eventually happen, even in Roundup, but doesn't foresee it here for several years. Currently the bank's electronic files are nearly ninety plus percent of the business here in Roundup. Electronic banking has evolved in last five years. Shawn states that they now have mobile deposit, where you can take a picture of your check and it will deposit in your account. You don't even have to come into the bank. "We added texting to your debit card. If you swipe your card, and it detects potential fraud, now you will get a text over the phone. If you tell it yes, transaction goes through, if no, it denies the transaction. If you don't respond it will retry, and then put a hold on the transaction. You can also text to opt out of the technology. We have to evolve for the new generation or we will lose their business." Shawn explained the coming new digital wallet tokenization. "Now you can just tip your phone over to the machine, it is a safe thing because it doesn't transmit your card or your cvv, it transmits a token, and when that token gets to visa and then converts to your card number then routes through the bank. So your card data is not as at risk." Speaking of security, Shawn also says that things that put a hold on your card like gas pump, motel room plane tickets, rent car, etc, you should not use your debit card for. Those kinds of "hold" purchases can hang out there for ten days and it can make your card worthless for ten days. Shawn recommends to only use a credit card for purchases like that.
First Security Bank offers both IRA, and Roth IRA, as well as Health Savings accounts. They have Certificate Deposits, Security Boxes, online, mobile banking, and a 24 hour ATM. When you consider banking, consider keeping it local. Your service will be personal and secure.
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