The Big Story
When the way of the past is the vision of the future. Community banks are what were once referred to as “Banks”. Simply put, before the advent of huge mergers and multi-national branch development, your bank was just that, the bank in your community. Such was the thinking behind Saint Lucia’s first penny bank in 1938 toady’s 1st National Bank, started as the first indigenous community bank, with founding principles of service and the empowerment of the local community through access, for the first time for most, to true banking convenience and stability. The bank has stayed true to these core principles and grown organically without losing touch with its community roots despite fairly recent international banking shifts to meet the needs of the ‘Global Village” which have driven many banks to seek a presence in ever y market, stretching past their core communities to install turn-key franchise operations across the map. The practice has advantages, mostly to the parent company, but it is also valid to consider the advantages offered to the customer and community of the community style bank and how it has evolved more organically. One of the key advantages of community banks for customers is direct access to senior bankers and top management. With a community bank, employees on the front line have more discretion to make decisions than a larger bank that must follow stricter policies and procedures from often far-removed c o r p o r a t e h e a d q u a r t e r s . A t 1 st National Bank, managers and staff alike are drawn from the best of local industry and have a unique and deep commitment to local development, displaying a professional empathy for the needs of the growing client base and the regional context in which they must function. Community banks can offer personalized ser vices the larger banks have a difficult time matching. Whether it is a teller's smiling face