The family bank with a national side hustle

The railroad was supposed to make things easier. Instead, according to First International Bank & Trust’s archives, the tracks arrived farther from its Arnegard building than expected. Odin Stenehjem and his companions found a solution: hitch the bank to horses and pull it closer. Before the institution had an app, it had a remarkably literal approach to distribution.

That anecdote helps explain a bank whose present-day business can look slightly improbable. First International Bank & Trust, or FIBT, offers mortgages and checking accounts. It also helps employers move payroll and mineral owners examine oil royalties. The useful question is how those activities belong together.

01 / A family tree with room to grow

The bank opened in 1910 as Farmers State Bank. Brothers Odin and Gerhard Stenehjem were its only employees, according to FIBT’s account of its beginnings. Four generations later, the family still owns the institution through Watford City Bancshares. Peter Stenehjem succeeded his father, Stephen, as CEO on January 1, 2025.

The scale changed considerably along the way. When announcing that succession, FIBT said assets had grown from just under $49 million to over $5 billion during Stephen’s 34 years as CEO. Those are balance-sheet assets, not annual sales. They describe how much larger the banking operation became while its ownership remained in the family.

Today its branch markets span North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Arizona. Its stated vision is disarmingly domestic: Our customers leave feeling like family. Family ownership supplies continuity; the product range shows how much adaptation that continuity has required.

02 / The other meaning of local knowledge

Consider a mineral owner. Receiving a royalty payment is one task. Knowing whether it reflects the right production, tracking the relevant wells and estimating future income are several more. A deposit account handles the arrival of money. It does little to explain the machinery producing it.

In June 2020, FIBT announced the purchase of Krown Energy Group, proprietor of MineralTracker. The acquisition brought mineral-management software together with the bank’s existing mineral and land services. Krown’s founders, Joel Brown and Jeff Kummer, had built a business around helping owners understand their oil and gas interests.

MineralTracker organizes wells, maps activity, audits royalty income and forecasts production and revenue. FIBT’s specialists add management, appraisal and brokerage services. The distinction matters: a dashboard can display information; an owner may also need somebody who understands leases, ownership questions and the region’s energy business.

In July 2026, coverage expanded beyond North Dakota and Montana to Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. There is a practical lesson here for any specialist business: start with a recurring customer headache, build the tools to address it, then look for the same headache elsewhere. That is our reading of the strategy, rather than a claim about management’s private deliberations.

03 / The $124 billion business beside the bank

The second expansion travels through payment networks. Kotapay became an FIBT division in 2018, bringing a business founded in 1993 into the bank. It handles electronic payments, including payroll direct deposits, ACH transfers and card processing. Its customers include payroll providers, accounting firms and businesses that need money to arrive reliably.

FIBT’s 2025 annual-report page puts Kotapay’s annual payment volume above $124 billion and its client base above 107,000 nationwide. That gives a regional bank a national operating business without requiring a branch beside every customer. Nacha included FIBT among its Top 50 financial-institution ACH originators for 2025.

In October 2024, Kotapay announced Kavinu, a banking-as-a-service platform connecting fintech companies directly to FIBT. The design responds to a particular criticism: when a nonbank middleware provider sits between a fintech and its bank, relationships and responsibilities can become fragmented. That is the problem Kotapay says it set out to reduce.

Raisin became the first fintech to integrate with Kavinu, announced in June 2025. FIBT already held its customers’ cash accounts; the expanded service-bank arrangement covered transfers and risk and compliance functions. Direct access simplifies the partner chain. It does not make the underlying obligations disappear.

04 / The everyday account still has a price

For most customers, the immediate need is less exotic. FIBT offers personal accounts, mobile banking, home loans, commercial and agricultural lending, and treasury tools such as remote deposit capture and Positive Pay. A farmer, homeowner and payroll provider may encounter quite different parts of the same institution.

Everyday pricing deserves attention. The published Essential checking account requires $100 to open and lists a $7.95 monthly service charge. FIBT says that charge is refunded when customers sign up for electronic statements, receive a monthly direct deposit, or make a monthly mobile check deposit. Advantage checking requires $5,000 to open and lists a $12.95 monthly charge, refunded for maintaining the stated $5,000 minimum daily balance.

The useful comparison starts with the job you need the bank to do.

THE CUSTOMER’S TEST

Someone wanting a nearby lender should examine the local team. A fintech should examine integration and compliance responsibilities. A mineral owner should check geographic coverage and service scope. A fee-conscious depositor should check refund eligibility. Neither family ownership nor an impressive payment total answers all four questions.

FIBT’s interesting move is to keep building around specific customer work: financing a home, making payroll, understanding a royalty. The horse-drawn relocation makes a good opening story because it makes the principle visible. Reach the customer, even when reaching them requires changing what the bank can do.