RETAIL FOCUS

The Bank’s strong core deposit base, particularly in non-interest bearing accounts, is and will continue to be a strategic advantage. Our expansive branch network’s primary responsibility is deposit gathering, and what we may lose to peer banks in overhead costs is made up for in our overall cost of funds.

We do not primarily compete by price, but with convenience and cutting-edge products designed to meet the needs of our market areas. We have a strong focus on personal checking accounts but compete with the large institutions on municipal and governmental accounts. Our suite of deposit products and services allows us to serve all customer types, big and small.

Technology continues to shape and change our industry and customer expectations. We are completing a core conversion, incorporating key technology changes that will bring improved branch efficiencies and a higher level of service to our customers.

Gone are the days of job compartmentalization with branch employees being responsible for a single task and customers moved down an assembly line depending on their banking needs. The old service model is not only cumbersome for customers but doesn’t create the type of engaging and enriching job experience demanded by today’s work force.

When you come right down to it, we are bankers. And when someone comes into one of our branches – customer or prospect – we want to be able to handle their needs in one place. Branch employees will begin to leverage technology to accomplish this. From online account openings, to paperless transactions, to all branch employees being able to originate and close consumer loans, technology will transform our banking experience. While transactions will continue to be a big part of what we do, they will become secondary to our goal of being consultants.

We look forward to the expansion opportunities we have in 2020. We have recently opened our tenth office in Baldwin County, entering the Daphne market. This location was a very strategic opportunity for the Bank, not only because Daphne is one of the fastest growing cities in the fastest growing counties in the state, but also because it completes our branch network’s ability to completely serve the Baldwin market area. The level of convenience this provides is unmatched by any other community bank in the area.

Additionally, by mid Q1 we will be opening our first location in the Mobile market area with a branch in Semmes. Semmes provides the Bank tremendous growth opportunities as it is a flourishing suburb of Mobile. There is strong growth in the residential real estate market, as well as many opportunities for agriculture and horticulture from our Agrifinance area.

The power behind the technology for us is to automate more of the mundane, transactional tasks so our employees have the time to serve our customers better. from our Agrifinance area.
This provides a better customer experience and a more rewarding job for the employee. It’s essentially giving someone a better tool to do their job, to make them more productive and make the job more rewarding so the customer sees a happier, better-equipped employee.

This helps us attract high caliber employees, but also allows us to transition current employees into more rewarding, higher paying positions. Because we’re able to automate many of the transactional functions, not having those employees offsets the cost of paying our existing employees more for doing another job. And because the Bank is growing, there is a growing demand for skilled employees. Leveraging the technology allows us to retrain and redeploy our current employees into more rewarding positions. The new technology has allowed us – and will continue to allow us – to realign our resources to improve both our employee and customer experiences.