Community bank independence keeps coming up. Across our recent conversations with bank leaders, the same theme surfaces again and again: the determination to stay independent, to control your own destiny, and to keep decisions — and the value they create — close to the communities a bank serves. It is one of the defining battles in community banking today, fought against a backdrop of relentless consolidation, fintech competition, and the widening gap between Main Street banks and the institutions deemed too big to fail.
Every bank featured below is independent — none is owned by or operating under a larger parent company. They range from a $1.3 billion community bank in New York’s Hudson Valley to a pair of multibillion-dollar institutions whose CEOs have become some of the industry’s most vocal champions of community bank independence.
First Mid Bank & Trust: “Fight Like Heck to Stay Independent”
Few leaders make the case for independence as plainly as Joseph Dively, Chairman and CEO of First Mid Bank & Trust. Illinois’s oldest national bank has grown into a $9.1 billion institution that posted a 1.35% ROA last year and hasn’t missed a dividend since 1879 — all while remaining fiercely independent. Dively traces the turning point to his first board meeting as chair in 2014, when he pushed to list First Mid on the Nasdaq. That decision unlocked the capital access the bank needed to grow through acquisitions, and it has since completed eight of them.
What makes First Mid’s story a useful lens on independence is that Dively treats it as something you earn rather than something you’re owed. The bank is approaching the $10 billion Durbin threshold deliberately, sticking to its $1–2 billion acquisition sweet spot and refusing to stretch for a transformational deal that doesn’t fit. As Dively frames it, performance is what keeps a bank independent — and independence, done right, becomes its own competitive advantage.
▶ Press play — the clip begins at 16:15 — Joe Dively on why First Mid fights to stay independent.
Rhinebeck Bank: Building the Next 160 Years on Its Own Terms
Matthew Smith took over as President and CEO of Rhinebeck Bank, a $1.3 billion publicly traded community bank in Poughkeepsie, New York, that has served the Hudson Valley since 1860. Six months into the role, Smith is rebuilding the culture around speed, transparency, and “diversity of thought,” and bringing a tech-forward, banking-as-a-service background into a 160-year-old institution. His message is direct: community banks have to honestly weigh the opportunity cost of standing still, because the old playbook no longer fits the competitive landscape.
Rhinebeck’s independence story is about positioning to stay that way. Smith points to the bank’s second-step conversion — exiting its mutual holding company structure — as the move that frees up capital and opens new M&A flexibility. In other words, it’s a deliberate step to grow on Rhinebeck’s own terms rather than become someone else’s acquisition. Pair that with a 50-page strategic plan and a CEO who has personally met nearly all 200 employees, and you get a portrait of an independent bank investing to remain one.
▶ Skip to 33:28 in the player below — Matt Smith on the second-step conversion and staying independent on its own terms.
Valley National & WaFd: Two CEOs Making the Public Case for Community Bank Independence
Ira Robbins, Chairman and CEO of $62 billion Valley National Bank, and Brent Beardall, Vice Chairman, President and CEO of $26 billion WaFd Bank, are larger than the typical community bank — but both run independent institutions, and both have become outspoken defenders of independent banking on national stages like CNBC. Reuniting at Travillian’s NEXT Forum, the two didn’t mince words about the biggest threat facing their industry: the widening gap between community banks and the institutions considered too big to fail.
Their core argument is that independent and community banks have to stop staying silent. In a panel that ranged from the misunderstood risks in commercial real estate to the hard truth that two-thirds of bank mergers destroy value, Robbins and Beardall made an impassioned case for why a healthy, independent banking sector matters — and why its leaders need to advocate for it out loud. It’s the macro version of the same fight Dively and Smith are waging bank by bank.
▶ The clip below is a highlight from the panel. To watch the full conversation with Ira Robbins and Brent Beardall, click here.
