Leader of Minnesota bank is making an impact at the local, state and federal levels

Tony Moch, an attorney in the Community Banking practice at Winthrop & Weinstine was recently quoted in a BankBeat article, “Banker of the Year 2024: Bryan Bruns.”

Suing your regulator is a bold step many bankers would hesitate to take. It certainly wasn’t a flippant choice for Bryan Bruns, president and CEO of Lake Central Bank in Annandale, Minn. But that’s exactly what he and the bank chose to do last summer, when they joined the Minnesota Bankers Association in a suit against the FDIC over recent guidance the agency issued requiring banks to retroactively evaluate their non-sufficient funds policies.

Suing your primary regulator is not something an organization’s really excited to ever do,” said Moch, who has worked with Bruns since 2010. “He did it from an industry perspective of, ‘I really think that what we’re doing is the right thing to do for community banks, and if that means I have to take a stand, then so be it.’ He was willing to do that.”