2025 Year in Review
December 26, 2025
Chris Ekstrum
President & CEO
I was blessed with many moments and reasons to celebrate in 2025, but professionally speaking, the highlight of my year has to be cutting the ribbon at our 140th anniversary celebration.
It was an honor to be surrounded by our outstanding teammates as we marked 140 years of serving Sioux Falls and the neighboring communities through innovative, relationship-first banking.
Of course, we owe this longevity first and foremost to you.
You’ve stood with us through economic downturns, a global pandemic, and likely a number of life events that have impacted your finances.
That’s why we’d like to celebrate with you all the wonderful things we accomplished this year, as well as those in store for 2026. Please enjoy First National Bank’s 2025 year in review!
For our support of small businesses, we were named SBA’s 2024 Lender of the Year.
In January, the South Dakota District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) informed us that First National Bank had been named their 7(a) Lender of the Year for 2024.
We received a Leadership in Lending award for closing the most 7(a) loans and the highest dollar value of 7(a) loans in the state.
We made 25 loans for a total of $8,566,800 in 2024, which supported 145 jobs across 10 industry sectors.
This was our fourth time receiving an SBA lender award in the past 10 years. You can learn more about the award and our commitment to small businesses by reading our blog post from February:
It was time for a new look, so we refreshed our website.
This year, we committed to enhancing your online experience by updating our website.
We made the transition on March 25 with virtually no downtime or customer impact, which was a huge success.
With the refresh, we prioritized a more user-friendly layout; a cleaner, modern look; and improved accessibility for those with disabilities.
We cheered on our teammates as they accomplished outstanding feats.
What’s the best way to build a winning culture? By hiring all-stars.
Many of our teammates reached new heights this year, and I would like to recognize a few in particular for their accomplishments.
Annette Brandt
Credit Supervisor Annette Brandt and her husband, Matt, received an Angels in Adoption Award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.
The Angels in Adoption® Leadership Program recognizes individuals, families, and organizations for their commitment and contributions to adoption in the United States.
Senator John Thune nominated the Brandt family, and they had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with the South Dakota Delegation and tell their adoption and foster care story.
Annette is a shining example of what it means to live out our Family value. You can learn more about her adoption journey by watching the video below:
Brian Gilbert
This summer, Market President of Ag Banking Brian Gilbert testified before Congress on behalf of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA).
As Congress was considering the passage of a new farm bill, Brian spoke about the importance of community banks and pro-agriculture policies for family farms.
He represented First National Bank well, and we’re grateful for his contributions to the agriculture industry. You can learn more about Brian’s testimony by reading our blog post from August:
Joe Miller
The ICBA named Chief Credit Officer Joe Miller to its 40 Under 40: 2025’s Community Bank Leaders list in June.
It was an honor for Joe to be recognized among bank leaders from across the nation, all of whom are positively impacting the world of community banking.
The ICBA awarded Joe for his creation of our Farmers ’N Bankers program, which provides financial education to local producers, and his leadership in selecting a new Loan Origination System (LOS) for the Bank.
You can learn more about this recognition by reading our blog post from July:
Tony Goettsch
The 437 Project is an annual run across the state of South Dakota to raise awareness and funds for suicide prevention.
Participating in the project for the first time this year was Senior Internal Auditor Tony Goettsch.
Tony was one of 12 runners for the project, and he ran nearly 40 miles in a span of four days.
I admire Tony’s grit and am grateful for the way he represented our FIRST Values throughout the process. You can learn more about Tony and The 437 Project by reading our blog post from September or watching the video below:
In the fifth year of our financial education podcast, we found reasons to celebrate.
January marked the five-year anniversary of our local, award-winning financial education podcast, but that wasn’t our only opportunity to celebrate this year.
In December, First National Wealth Management received a ThinkAdvisor Luminaries award in the Thought Leadership & Education category for our team’s efforts with the podcast.
We also surpassed 75,000 downloads this year and concluded our seventh season in just five years! Ahead of our Season 8 premiere in January, you can catch up on our most popular episodes from this year using the links below:
- From CEO to Public Servant ft. Mayor Paul TenHaken
- The Finances of Family Farms ft. Darren Hefty
- Climbing the Wealth Ladder ft. Nick Maggiulli
With fraud on the rise, we provided new tools to help you stay safe.
It’s easy to think that you would never fall for a scam, but the truth is that we see it happen all the time.
So, we enhanced the fraud prevention page on our website to include more tips for avoiding common scams like phishing, check and ACH fraud, romance scams, and more.
As your trusted financial partners, your safety is always our top priority. Please take a few minutes to educate yourself or refresh your knowledge at the link below:
We added Sioux Falls Lutheran School to our Community Card roster.
For the first time since adding Jefferson High School in 2022, we brought a new team onto our Community Card roster.
Welcome, Sioux Falls Lutheran Eagles!
If your child is a student there, or if you have your own connection to the school, show your support by adding this card to your wallet. We’ll donate a portion of every credit purchase you make back to Sioux Falls Lutheran.
You can learn more about our Community Card program and request the SFLS card at the link below:
Cheers to a new year and exciting new projects in store!
On top of all these highlights, we’ve spent our year working on some projects a little further down the pipeline.
We can’t say much — other than that we have some contracts to sign — but please know that we have enhancements in store for you in 2026.
Of course, there’s one project we can talk about right now:
Western Mall Remodel
Built in 1968 on what was, at the time, the edge of Sioux Falls, our Western Mall location is starting to show its age.
We’ll be closing the branch at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 31, to complete a remodel that will last several months.
We hope to improve your banking experience with this remodel and look forward to serving our customers at the branch for many years to come!
Follow along with us in 2026
Whether you want to track the progress of our Western Mall branch remodel or simply like to know what we’re up to throughout the year, be sure to follow us on our social media pages.
And should you have further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
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