Like Money in the Bank

Across Georgia, some 200 community banks work every day to serve their depositors with tasks as simple as opening a savings account for a child and as complex as financing a multimillion-dollar project. Not only do customers benefit but so do shareholders, who last year earned almost 14% on their investments in Georgia’s community banks. What these banks have in common is a mission to offer their services to not just account holders, but the community at large. And they do this – with the support of banking associations – through educating customers, helping local businesses and farms, and encouraging bank employees to be involved in the community, both in their daily jobs and outside of the workplace.

Respect and Understanding: Donna Lott, Moultrie Bank & Trust CEO. | Photo credit: David Parks

Serving the banking needs of small and medium-size businesses, farming operations, and real estate investors and developers, Moultrie Bank & Trust in Southwest Georgia opened its doors May 9, 2022, the first de novo bank to open south of Macon since the financial crisis of the 2000s, according to CEO Donna Lott. And this April, it moved locations from a strip mall to a stately building, where it continues to attract new customers.

Lott says she spent more than 22 years in community banking before being approached about a new bank that would prioritize strong relationships with customers.

“There’s a certain reverence in banking, a level of respect,” she says. “You’re dealing with people’s finances, and it doesn’t matter if they’ve got $50, $500 or $500,000, you treat every customer with the same level of respect. You have no idea how hard they worked to get that money. Their confidentiality is first and foremost, and they’re owed the time it takes for a face-to-face conversation.”

Lott says educating customers is a large part of Moultrie Bank and Trust’s focus.

“That’s what we’re really reaching for right now, that broader understanding of what a banking relationship is. It’s more than being a number or a transaction. When you build it from the ground up in every sense of the word – the building, the system, the staff, the product – we’re 15 [staff members] strong, right at $93 million in total assets, and we’re just continuing to push,” she says.

The bank not only supports the community; the community is also crucial to the bank, with 486 shareholders in the region.

Healthy Growth

Personal Attention: Bryce McCuin, marketing manager for BankSouth. | Photo credit: Ryan Johnson

Long before Moultrie Bank & Trust was launched, BankSouth was already a fixture in its community. The bank originated as a combination of two local banks: The Bank of Union Point, founded in 1911, and the Citizens Bank founded in nearby Greensboro in 1946. In 1977, the two merged to become Citizens Union, renamed BankSouth in 2004. While the name has changed and the number of branches has grown to five across the state, the role as a community bank has driven every advancement the bank has made, says Bryce McCuin, marketing manager.

“We have a local presence in every branch community. We have individuals that serve on the same boards, we’re coaching your kids in the recreation league, we’re sponsoring the 5K, and we’re running in it,” he says, noting the bank has served multiple generations of local families.

Lott and McCuin agree that the human element is key in community banking. When problems arise, customers can easily reach out to someone they know personally to walk them through the issues.

“So, it’s striking that balance of the technology that you expect to have in this day and age but with the personal attention when things come up and you need to get an answer,” says McCuin. “Relationships are so crucial when it comes to your money and having an advocate.”

Supporting the Banks

Community Focus: John McNair, president and CEO of Community Bankers Association of Georgia. | Photo credit: Stan Kaady

The banks rely on advocates of their own, such as the Community Bankers Association of Georgia, which represents the political interests of independently owned banks of Georgia. Led by President and CEO John McNair, the organization works to oversee government and regulatory relations while providing professional development and other member services.

“These institutions are local, they’re in the community, and they know what’s going on in the community,” says McNair. “And as a depositor, when you make a deposit or buy a certificate of deposit or keep your savings at a local community bank, they’re deploying that money to make loans in the local community.”

That has proven true just southwest of Union Point in Thomaston, home of West Central Georgia Bank (WCGB), which was named a Top 100 Community Bank in the United States by S&P Global Market Intelligence last year. Out of the 16 Georgia banks on the list, WCGB was the state’s highest-ranking performer at No. 6. It’s one of many milestones recognized in the past 50 years, says Chair and President Eddie Rogers.

One of the reasons for the high ranking was that the bank weathered the financial turmoil in the late 2000s so well, according to Rogers, who says his father, Jesse E. Rogers Sr., was among those who initiated the bank charter in 1974.

Open Communication: Eddie Rogers, chair and president of West Central Georgia Bank, in front of a portrait of his father, Jesse E. Rogers Sr., who was among those who initiated the bank charter in 1974. | Photo credit: Nathan Leduc

“Being a part of this bank for 50 years has been special to me and our community. Our bank was built on the foundation of being a financial institution for all people where everyone could feel at home,” says Rogers, of the bank’s 30 employees and around $150 million in assets. Like many community banks across Georgia, WCGB focuses on local families, businesses and farmers.

“We strive to make people feel comfortable by establishing relationships and having open communications to fit their needs. Establishing these relationships for consumers and small businesses has been the foundation of our success.”

Another bank advocate is the Georgia Bankers Association (GBA), which counts 166 of the 200 FDIC-insured banks doing business in Georgia among its members, from community banks to globally active institutions. Founded in 1892, the GBA lobbies on their behalf at the federal and state levels, from efforts to get the Farm Bill reauthorized this year to collecting fees for credit and debit card transactions.

Humble Beginnings

One of the Georgia Banking Association’s largest member banks in Georgia is Synovus. Today over 4,800 employees operate some 246 branches in five states, but according to Heath Schondelmayer, the Columbus-based CEO of the West Central Georgia and East Alabama division, Synovus entered the banking scene on a much humbler note over a century ago.

Leading with Passion: Heath Schondelmayer, the Columbus-based CEO of the West Central Georgia and East Alabama division of Synovus. | Photo credit: Mike Culpepper

When the hem of a mill worker’s dress tore on a piece of machinery, spilling her hidden money for all to see, mill Secretary and Treasurer G. Gunby Jordan invited workers to keep their money in the mill safe in return for monthly interest on the deposits. Those transactions inspired him to establish the institution that became Synovus.

“Banks can only be as successful as the communities they serve,” says Schondelmayer, noting several Synovus presidents have chaired their local development authorities. “We not only encourage our bankers to be involved in those communities, but to lead with a passion and make it a better community.”

To that end, Here Matters is a Synovus community outreach program through which the bank provides volunteers and financial contributions in the areas of economic stability and prosperity, social and human advocacy, and environmental protection and improvement.

One long-standing community relationship, in conjunction with the Greater Columbus GA Partners in Education (PIE) program, is with the Muscogee County School District. Since 1987, PIE has promoted business and community involvement in local schools. As a coordinator of the PIE program, Tiffanee McDaniel, a senior learning specialist at Synovus, teaches financial education to students at South Columbus Elementary School, located in one of the poorest zip codes in the state. She and other Synovus team members teach students about budgeting, saving and investing, to boost the students’ understanding of money management.

By participating in hands-on opportunities such as these, banks are able to reflect the communities they serve, and when those communities are doing well, usually so will the banks, says Joe Brannen, president and CEO of the GBA, adding that in the FDIC’s reported year-end numbers for 2023, Georgia banks saw growth in both deposits and in loans.

“Banks are also shareholder-owned,” says Brannen. “It’s important to look at those metrics. Georgia banks have strong levels of capital provided by their shareholders. Last year, those shareholders earned almost 14% on their investment, so we’re proud of that.”