First Interstate BancSystem

First Interstate BancSystem

First Interstate BancSystem was founded in 1968 as a single-bank holding company anchored by First Interstate Bank, originally a small community bank in Sheridan, Wyoming. The Scott family guided its early growth over multiple decades, expanding from rural Wyoming into neighboring Montana markets. The bank relocated its headquarters to Billings, Montana, and eventually grew through more than 20 acquisitions into a prominent regional franchise with a footprint spanning the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, and Plains states. The bank operates as a full-service commercial and retail lender, offering commercial real estate loans, C&I lending, agricultural finance, residential mortgages, and wealth management services. Its loan book is heavily weighted toward commercial real estate and commercial and industrial credits, with meaningful exposure to agriculture in markets like Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. First Interstate also maintains a wealth management division providing trust, investment management, and private banking to high-net-worth individuals and families across its geography. The firm's markets include Billings, Spokane, Boise, Sioux Falls, and Denver. As of mid-2024, First Interstate BancSystem held roughly $30 billion in total assets, ranking it among the largest bank holding companies headquartered in Montana. In February 2024, the company closed its merger with Great Western Bancorp, a South Dakota-based institution with significant presence in the Midwest and Colorado, adding approximately $13 billion in assets to the combined entity. The combined institution now operates more than 300 branches across 14 states. The transaction cemented First Interstate's position as a scaled consolidator within the Western United States community banking sector. The Scott family has historically held substantial voting control through Class B common stock, creating a governance structure where insiders maintain outsized influence over board elections and material corporate decisions despite the company's public listing on Nasdaq. This dual-class share structure remains a defining architectural feature, distinguishing the bank from peers that lack controlling-family interests at a similar asset scale.