Why Bank First

Bank First headquarters

#WhyBankFirst IS THE BEST PLACE TO SAVE

Bank First is one of the top performing banks in the country!

As you may know, Bank First is one of the top performing banks in the United States, and that’s not just us saying that. We have received numerous awards and accolades over the past several years as a result of our commitment to excellence and operating in the best interest of our employees, customers, shareholders, and communities.

Industry Recognition

Bank First has been recognized as one of 17 U.S. banking institutions, representing 5% of the eligible banking industry, named to the Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) 2022 Bank Honor Roll. To be eligible for the Honor Roll, banks with more than $500 million in total assets must report consecutive increases in annual earnings per share in each of the past 10 years. In addition, we recently received the prestigious Raymond James Community Bankers Cup award, ranking in the top 10% of community banks in the nation. The annual award recognizes community banks based on profitability, operational efficiency, and balance sheet metrics.

Relationship-Based Model of Banking

Bank First’s success is the result of our relationship-based approach to banking. The core of every customer relationship is the primary checking account. Having the primary checking account not only solidifies a customer’s commitment to Bank First, it also provides us a low-cost source of funding that we can in turn invest back into our local communities. Demand deposits (a very low-cost source of funding for outstanding loans) comprises almost a third of the bank’s overall deposits. This compares very favorably to a national average of approximately 10-15% for community banks our size. Because we are able to garner low-cost deposits at the local level from those in our communities who we know and trust, we do not need to take risk in our securities portfolio.

Also resulting from our relationship-based approach to banking is our small percentage of uninsured deposits to total deposits. Of all the deposits maintained at Bank First, less than 20% are uninsured. This measure significantly outperforms the industry. Of the top 200 banks in the United States, Bank First is within the top 5% of those with the least reliance on uninsured deposits. Also demonstrating our commitment to relationship-banking is our average deposit size by customer. The average deposit size of Bank First’s customer base is $25,000. This differs significantly from Silicon Valley Bank, one of the institutions that failed in March 2023, which had hundreds of companies with millions of dollars on deposit.

Conservative Investment Strategy

Between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2022, deposits at U.S. banks rose by $5.4 trillion, and due to weak loan demand, only 15% of those funds were loaned out. When banks carry excess liquidity (cash), they can either keep it as cash or invest in securities portfolios to bolster earnings. While many banks chose to invest their excess liquidity in either available-for-sale (AFS) or hold-to-maturity (HTM) portfolios, Bank First engaged in a more conservative strategy of maintaining our excess liquidity as cash. Any excess funds that we do invest are done in the most conservative manner, with essentially zero duration risk.

What is FDIC Deposit Insurance?

FDIC insurance is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. Since the FDIC was established in 1933, no depositor has lost one penny of FDIC-insured accounts.* The FDIC insures up to $250,000 in eight separate account categories per depositor per bank.

FDIC Resources:

• FDIC Calculator
•   Understanding Deposit Insurance
•   Deposit Insurance FAQs
•   Insured Deposits Brochure

What is CDARS (IntraFi Network Deposits)?

The IntraFi Network is comprised of a network of banks that work together to achieve additional FDIC insurance coverage on customer’s deposits. The network makes it easy for the customer. They can work with one bank (Bank First). To learn more, watch the demo today!