“Name that Year” is designed to put your knowledge of Tracy and its newsmakers of the past to the test. Each week, we will publish a news item that ran in a past edition — maybe it was a major event, or a story about a Tracy resident — it’s up to you to determine in what year that particular news item hit the pages of the paper: IF ALL GOES AS EXPECTED, TRACY STATE BANK WILL HAVE A DIFFERENT NAME IN THE SPRING OF THIS YEAR.
Announcement was made of a planned merger of Tracy State Bank and Minnesota Bank South of Slayton. The combined bank will be named Minnwest Bank South and will operate offices in Tracy, Slayton, Lake Wilson and Waseca.
The merger, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed sometime in May. Both banks already operate under the same ownership, being wholly- owned subsidiaries of Minnwest Corporation, a Minnesota bank holding company with assets in excess of $745 million.
The merged bank will have assets in excess of $180 million, placing it among the 50 largest banks in Minnesota. Tracy State Bank has assets of about $85 million.
Ivan Van Essen, Tracy State Bank president, said that bank customers should notice very few changes in bank operations. The bank will still operate the same way. Bank personnel will stay the same, loan decisions will still be made locally, and customers will continue to be able to use the same checks, he said.
The merger and name change will allow the bank to more easily offer new services and remain competitive in an increasingly competitive field, Van Essen said. As an example, Van Essen cited future plans to offer on-line banking services. Offering on-line services. Van Essen said, would be much more difficult and costly if separate banks with different names were involved. “It would be hard for us as a standalone bank to justify that kind of an investment (on-line banking).” But with costs spread out over more than one bank, improved economies of scale make on-line banking a much more feasible, he said. The common name, Van Essen said, would also simplify banking operations in other areas.
Additionally, a common name makes future expansion at new locations easier, because the name because the name Tracy State Bank wouldn’t mean much in other towns, Van Essen said.
• Last week’s answer: The Milroy community decided to seek charter school status for all or part of the district in 2004.
