2021 Annual Report

Hard-Working and Entrepreneurial Culture. The Company has developed a hard-working and entrepreneurial culture, which is a critical component for attracting and retaining experienced and talented bankers, as well as clients. The Company has established a set of core values, based on characteristics that describe and inspire the culture— Unconventional, Responsive, Dedicated, Growth and Accurate. To maintain the culture, all potential and current personnel evaluations include an assessment of these attributes. Clients notice the unconventional environment with dedicated employees who feel like they are part of building a high performing bank. Solid Asset Quality Metrics. A risk-management focused business model has contributed to solid asset quality during a period of strong loan growth and economic uncertainty. The Company diligently monitors and routinely stress tests the loan portfolio. The strong credit metrics are the result of prudent underwriting standards, experienced lenders, and close ties to and knowledge of clients. Proactive Enterprise Risk Management. The Company’s enterprise risk management practices provide an enhanced level of oversight allowing management to be proactive rather than reactive. The Company has been focused on scaling its enterprise risk management function to address emerging risks and support robust growth plans. This included the hiring of a Chief Risk Officer in 2021. The management-level enterprise risk committee, comprised of the senior leadership team, the Chief Risk Officer and senior representatives from all departments, meets quarterly to identify, assess, measure, monitor, and manage the Bank’s overall enterprise risk position and to discuss how the Bank’s strategic initiatives may impact the Bank’s risk profile. Enterprise risk management reports are provided to the full Bank board on a quarterly basis. In 2016, Bridgewater Risk Management, Inc. was formed as a captive insurance subsidiary to provide supplemental insurance coverage to the Company and its subsidiaries for risk management purposes. The Company also has a comprehensive Commercial Real Estate Portfolio Risk Management Policy which implements formal processes and procedures designed to manage and mitigate risk within the commercial real estate portfolio. This policy addresses regulatory guidelines for institutions, such as the Bank, that exhibit higher levels of commercial real estate concentrations. These processes and procedures include board and management oversight, commercial real estate exposure limits, portfolio monitoring tools, management information systems, market reports, underwriting standards, a credit risk review function and periodic stress testing to evaluate potential credit risk and the subsequent impact on capital and earnings. Strategies for Growth To generate future growth, the Company intends to continue to execute the strategies that it has used over the past sixteen years to achieve some of the strongest performance results in the community banking industry. These strategies include the following: Focus on Organic Growth in the Market Area. The Company intends to continue to grow its business organically in a focused and strategic manner by leveraging its competitive strengths, including commercial banking expertise, an experienced management team, an efficient business model and strong branding, to capitalize on the opportunities in the Company’s market area. As a publicly traded but locally-headquartered bank, the Company can go beyond what small banks can provide by offering similar sophisticated products and services to those offered by the much larger, out-of-state banks, but in a manner that is tailored to the needs of local clients in a more efficient, responsive and flexible way. Although the growth potential of the current market is substantial and provides the ability to continue to grow organically in the market, the Company will continue to consider opportunistic acquisitions that complement the current business and support the potential for longer term growth and returns for shareholders. The Company plans to increase core deposits and build market share by expanding existing client relationships and by developing new deposit-focused clients. The Company plans to continue to expand its footprint through marketing and networking efforts focused on generating deposits. Although the Company is committed to growing core deposits, growth will continue to be supplemented, when necessary, with non-core, wholesale funding sources. On the lending side, the Company intends to rely on the commercial real estate lending expertise of the lenders, and believes the Company is well-positioned to continue to organically grow commercial loans based on the favorable market demographics in the Twin Cities MSA.

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