®
oundtable:
Community banks Community bank leaders discuss their milestones and highlights from the previous year, while touching on areas including technology, areas of growth and tackling low interest rates.
Jack Barrett
President & CEO First Citrus Bank
How did the First Citrus Bank perform in 2020? We surpassed half a billion dollars in assets on the balance sheet, so that was a seminal moment for our company. We surpassed over a billion dollars in loans in Tampa Bay. Reflecting on 2020, it was one curve ball after another in terms of acclimating, adapting, reconfiguring and moving X’s and O’s on the organization chart between telecommuting and COVID testing. The PPP was really the opportunity to deliver growth capital and blow it out on a massive scale to small businesses that were struggling. Sometimes, adversity really shows your true character. I think we’re the seventh-largest lender in the state of Florida for PPP as quoted by the Hovde Investment Bank out of Chicago, based on the percentage growth in our loan portfolio. We did a lot of the smaller ones too. We really helped the little guy. Even though there was a lot of uncertainty in the market and that breeds anxiety, it was our best year ever in terms of earnings and asset growth. What do you think the impact of low interest rates will be? It really depends on how COVID gets knocked out and if other mutations of the virus become more pronounced throughout society. The sooner that stabilizes, in terms of the healthcare pandemic implications, and the more you let a few quarters pass under your belt, that’ll be the harbinger for rising rates. We don’t see this as any type of quantitative easing infinity as we saw during the Great Recession. We see the economy becoming very resilient. But then again, we have a new administration, so there’s a lot of uncertainty as to the fiscal policy implications that could come about as well. 112
| Invest: Tampa Bay 2021 | BANKING & FINANCE
David Moore
President Bank of Central Florida
What were some of the highlights and milestones for the bank in the past year? One of the things we are most proud of is that we had the ability to participate in the PPP program and deliver critical funding to clients and the community. There was so much uncertainty, and information was coming fast. We were not an established SBA lender, so we had to start from zero and get to 100 in a very short time frame. We did 550 loans in 10 days, which is the equivalent of three years’ worth of work in normal times. The other highlight was our growth of about 40%. That was unexpected. It is a testament to the work of our staff and the value our clients place in us. In which areas have you seen the greatest growth in the last year? We’ve seen a great acceleration in technology adoption. Banking has a very traditional legacy, and the embracing of technology has taken a lot of time. Fintech companies have pressed banks to embrace change. Our older clientele was still very much rooted in the habit of coming to the banking offices. But last year, people who had been resistant to download the app, or even pick up the phone, started using online banking. For us, it’s helpful because it’s a more economical service delivery model. We already had in place most of the technology. We want people to do business with us in whatever way they choose, whether online or in the office. We’re a very fast follower of new banking technologies. Our technology offering is very robust. The main challenge is educating clients and bringing awareness to the advantages of using it, but the pandemic accelerated the adoption.
