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Southern Bancorp is ‘Banking for the Good of the Community
An Arkansas bank is being honored next month for its longstanding dedication to the communities it serves. Southern Bancorp’s family of organizations – Southern Bancorp Bank, Southern Bancorp Inc., and Southern Bancorp Community Partners – will be presented with the 2017 Marie Civic Leadership Award on Thursday, October 19, at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock. Little Rock attorney William Waddell, who has been involved with the Marie Award for a number of years, explained that the recognition focuses on outstanding Arkansans who have made an impact on their communities and the state through civic service. When choosing honorees for the award, the group looks at topics that have had a positive impact on Arkansas as a whole, and investigate who best represents that sector in the community. This year’s focus is “Banking for the Good of the Community” and the honorees were chosen because of their Outstanding Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rating and their work in community development. “The work Southern does connects with the community. They bring a positive concept to banking,” he said, noting the revitalization efforts the bank and its subsidiary has funded in towns throughout the Delta. “Southern was a pretty clear choice to us once we did all the research.” MORE THAN A BOTTOM LINE For Southern, this type of service is ingrained in the company culture, going far beyond CRA. “We’re honored to receive the award, but for us this is not a CRA-motivated effort. It really goes back to why we were founded,” said Darrin Williams, CEO of Southern Bancorp Inc. “Thirty-five years ago, well before their time, the founders of this organization were really all about doing good and doing well. They had a social mission. That’s who we are.” The idea behind Southern Bancorp was born from observations of a similar institution doing work in inner-city Chicago. Seeing a need that could be met, Bill Clinton, Rob Walton, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, and others came together to build a financial institution to serve underbanked and distressed communities. Southern Bancorp has a double-bottom line mission – as with all businesses, they strive to be financially successful, but their founding documents also set forth a standard for social change with a mission to create economic opportunity. “We don’t measure ourselves simply by the dollars we make, we also measure the impact we have,” Williams said. John Olaimey, President and CEO of Southern Bancorp Bank, took that statement a step farther, saying that the organization’s social mission is its competitive edge in the banking industry. In a time when social responsibility has become in vogue, Southern continues to reach back to those roots and provide financial access to underserved and underbanked communities in Arkansas and Mississippi. “You have to balance margin and mission,” added Karama Neal, COO of Southern Bancorp Community Partners. “If you build up those communities, if those folks are able to have better jobs, are able to have disposable income, they’re able to do the kinds of things that a financial intermediary like a bank needs them to do. So that makes financial sense in the long term as well, to make those kinds of investments in the people in the communities where we are.” What does Southern’s social mission entail? Williams laid it out in a list of what the Southern team calls “Big Hairy Audacious Goals.” Over the next ten years, the organization wants to focus on three things: Supporting 10,000 people in home ownership, not just by making mortgages, but also by offering consumer education courses and other resources to help families sustain their home ownership. Supporting the creation and retention of 100,000 jobs in the markets Southern serves by giving small businesses access to the capital and credit needed. Empowering 1 million people to save. The prevailing theme is to elevate the net worth of a community, not just through a dollar figure, but also providing
Southern works with the national program, Save for America, to teach savings habits early through their school banking programs.
With financial and technical assistance from Southern Bancorp, Roger Perry was able to grow his one-man operation into a multiemployee detail shop, pictured with Southern’s Bill Wright.
individuals with a higher sense of worth and a foundation for success. “What we’re talking about is transformational change,” Olaimey said. “It may be years before the seeds that we’re planting can change some of the generational poverty that we’ve seen in some of the markets that we serve…and I’m okay knowing that I might not see the fruits of my actual labors. I think that we’re taking the right steps and it takes time.” EMPOWERING THROUGH EMPLOYEES Part of what has made Southern successful in its social mission is the organization’s 380+ employees who are already invested in their communities – they are often longtime residents with a passion for serving their neighbors and friends. “Something we’ve done very intentionally is empowering the people in our organization to provide things like helping people find good tax preparation services, helping them figure out what’s on their credit report, making sure they have good access to credit counseling if they need those things, so really empowering them at the local level to do that,” Neal said. She went on to tell the story of a Southern employee who started at the bank during tax season – a time during which Southern offers Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) to income-eligible individuals. A longtime banker, this employee was able to re-envision her role within the community, and better serve her customers. “I think it’s because people are in their communities, they care, they want to be able to help – now they have another set of tools in their tool box that they can pull out and they’re excited to do so,” Neal added. Helping customers file taxes is just one of the services that Southern employees provide – they also delve into financial education including credit counseling and housing counseling; and have compiled a wealth of consumer resources on topics from saving and budgeting to watching for scams. “Southern can attract employees who are really interested in running a profitable and successful bank – they’re interested in community banking, that’s what they want to do. You also can get people who are really excited about that mission.
Join us in celebrating Southern Bancorp Community Partners and Southern Bancorp Bank as they receive The Marie Award Thursday, October 19 5:30 p.m. at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center 501 West 9th Street Little Rock
with featured speaker Julie Stackhouse
This event is free & open to the public.
What is The Marie? The Marie Award recognizes outstanding Arkansans who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of the public interest by word, action, and example through interfaith engagement and civic service.
Previous Recipients The Alex Blackwood Foundation #3people4life Amy Dunn Johnson, J.D. Vince Morris, J.D. Rev. Stephen Copley Sam Chaffin Gary Speed Cheif Kirk Lane Curt Bradbury Dr. Fitz Hill Sen. Joyce Elliott
Because you bring those cultures together, there’s opportunity in that kind of mix that you don’t see in a lot of institutions,” Neal explained. Olaimey referenced the next generation of bankers, noting that Southern is in the position to empower them by offering professional opportunities with a social cause. “When I talk to the Millennials that call us, their first question is ‘hey, how can I help?’ This new generation is focused on how can we help people? That generation believes it, they’re passionate about it, and it’s sincere. We can provide that. We don’t just talk about CRA and talk about our mission, we live it every single day,” he said. As the organization has grown, Southern continued to develop the company culture. “Our people appreciate that social mission” said Nathan Pittman, Southern’s Communications Director. “Being a mission-driven organization takes a little more education and a little more understanding of employees to say ‘I’m a part of something that is committed – committed to changing our community and giving back and making it thrive.’” “We really see ourselves as having four constituencies, of course the customers and the communities that we serve, and our shareholders, and our employees. We spend a lot of time investing in our employees, and we spend a lot of time on this culture,” Williams said. “I believe culture trumps strategy every day. It’s built into everything we do, it’s constant.” BANKS INVESTING IN COMMUNITIES Enacted in 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act was intended to encourage financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low-and moderate-income neighborhoods. “Without doubt, this dual responsibility can sometimes prove challenging. And clearly, the business of banking has changed significantly over the course of 40 years,” said Julie Stackhouse, Senior Vice President at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, who will also be speaking at the Marie Award ceremony. “Nonetheless, institutions such as Southern Bancorp have embraced the principles of CRA, prompting activities and partnerships that promote access to credit for lowand moderate-income communities and foster development in these areas. Strong communities lead to strong banks, and strong banks are active in supporting the needs of the underserved in their communities.” In addition to having an excellent CRA rating, Southern Bancorp is one of the nation’s largest Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), a designation given to banks committed to providing the capital to rebuild economically distressed communities through targeted lending and investing. Olaimey explained that other banks can also make an investment in a CDFI to receive CRA credit – it’s an additional way for them to help, and allows the CDFI to expand their reach, creating a win-win. The organization’s quest for social change also includes a political element. “We actively work with both Arkansas and Mississippi, and at the federal level with our legislators, trying to encourage them to look at, promote and pass policies that make it easier or even incentivize low-wealth people to save, to build themselves and move themselves from poverty to where they’re no longer dependent on tax dollars, but they’re actually productive tax paying citizens to help stimulate the economy,” Williams
Southern is committed to entrepreneurs like the Gonzalez family, who after 14 years of working for the owners of the iconic Spudnuts Shoppe in El Dorado, had the opportunity to buy the business and continue the sweet legacy.
