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Charles Isch, board member and former president\/CEO of First Bank of Berne, agreed to make the trip and graciously accepted the award on behalf of the bank at the ICBA National Convention in San Diego, CA. First Bank of Berne was awarded the Grand National Award for its \u201cGiving Back\u201d donation program to the communities it serves..<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is quite an honor for First Bank of Berne to be recognized for this national award. It is really something to have won not only in our asset size category ($250 million-$500 million), but to be awarded the Grand National overall award,\u201d Isch said. \u201cThis is just hard to believe. Coming from a small town community bank in Indiana to being on the grand stage venue in front of 3,000 people was quite overwhelming. Thank you for this. We appreciate the honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Independent Community Bankers of America, the nation\u2019s voice for community banks, represents nearly 5,000 community banks of all sizes and charter types throughout\u00a0the United States and is dedicated exclusively to representing the interests of the community banking industry and the communities and customers\u00a0we\u00a0serve.<\/p>\n
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) today honored six community banks with the 2011 ICBA National Community Bank Service Awards.\u00a0 The six community bank award recipients were announced during ICBA’s National Convention and Techworld in San Diego, Calif.\u00a0 There are four service award category winners, based on asset size, and two financial literacy awards, based on asset size, with one overall Grand National Champion of all winners, which this year was FBB, the only winner from Indiana.<\/p>\n
Other service award winners were: under $100 million, Reliance Bank in Faribault, Minn.; $100 million to $250 million, Allied First Bank in Oswego, Ill.; over $500 million, Southern Bancorp in Arkadelphia, Ark.; Financial Literacy Awards: under $500 million: Hilltop National Bank in Casper, Wyo.; over $500 million: Cardinal Bank in McLean, Va.<\/p>\n
Each year, a certain percentage of First Bank of Berne\u2019s profits are donated back to the communities it serves. In 2010, nearly $200,000 was given back to about 95 entities in the local markets. FBB completed and donated to the City of Berne a new street expansion that connected the retail area of the north corridor to the downtown area of Berne, a five-year, $538,000 project. Two downtown buildings on Main Street were donated to the Berne Boys and Girls Club of Adams County, as well as new beautiful Swiss fa\u00e7ades costing $52,000. Each market\/branch earns donation dollars based on their percentage of total bank deposit and loans for the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to improve and make our community a better place in which to live and work. This includes operating a profitable business and then giving back to those people and businesses who have trusted in us over the years,\u201d said Teresa A. Flaugher, assistant vice president and marketing director of FBB.<\/p>\n
ICBA founded the National Community Bank Service Awards program to help celebrate outstanding volunteer efforts of community banks.\u00a0 The ICBA National Community Bank Service Awards bring national recognition to the unparalleled contributions community banks make to help sustain their communities.\u00a0 The awards are given to ICBA members that show longstanding commitments to community outreach and development.<\/p>\n
Whether located in small towns, suburbia or big city neighborhoods, community banks grow our towns and cities by funding small business and using local dollars to help families purchase a home, finance college and build financial security.<\/p>\n
ICBA is committed to providing the highest professional standards in community banking and tailors its programs specifically for community bankers. Through ICBA educational courses, certification options and continuing education programs, community bankers are better able to serve their customers and stay profitable.<\/p>\n
The Independent Community Bankers of America\u00a0is the only national trade association dedicated exclusively to serving the interests of community banks. ICBA aggregates the power of its members to provide: a voice for community banking interests in Washington, profitable\u00a0solutions to help community banks compete in an ever-changing marketplace, and community bank education and marketing.<\/p>\n
Employee owned, First Bank of Berne was named the 2009 and 2010 No. 1 best performing bank in the state of Indiana. The bank has assets of over $425 million and operates a total of eight offices in Berne, Decatur, Bluffton, Portland, Ind., and Van Wert in Ohio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) named First Bank of Berne (FBB) of Berne, Ind., the Grand National Award winner for the 2011 ICBA National Community Bank Service Awards for the bank\u2019s outstanding leadership in its \u201cGiving Back\u201d donation program. \u201cICBA is proud of First Bank of Berne,\u201d said incoming ICBA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 19:10:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}