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Joining the List of Heroes: Our Community Banks

Bank of Zachary, Bank of St. Francisville, Landmark Bank, Feliciana Bank, Guaranty Bank

By Patricia Rachal Stallman rachal2743@gmail.com,225-635-2809 The PPP Fights COVID-19 On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization reported a “mysterious pneumonia” in Wuhan, China, and on January 30, 2020, declared it “a public health emergency of international concern.” By early January, the coronavirus had already begun spreading throughout the United States. As governors imposed quarantines and shuttered all non-essential businesses, the prospect rose of people escaping the virus with their lives, but not their jobs. The pandemic had brought with it an economic crisis. The U. S. Congress earmarked, first, $350 billion and, later, another $310 billion for the Payroll Protection Program under the Small Business Administration. The intent: to keep employees on the payroll for eight weeks. Businesses could prepare for reopening; essential businesses could remain open, though customers were fewer; and employees could pay their bills, buy food, and avoid losing their homes. As long as borrowers used at least 75 percent of the loan to pay their employees’ salaries, benefits, and related expenses, and no more than 25 percent to pay the business mortgage, rent and utilities costs, the government would forgive the loans. But Here’s What Happened The first round of loans began April 3, 2020. The SBA’s list of “existing lenders” did not initially include most community banks. The megabanks jumped in. The money ran out in less than two weeks. The community banks prevailed on behalf of small business. Nothing prohibited any bank from handling larger loans first. As the program unfolded, SBA officials learned that some large companies with multiple locations had applied more than once and received multiple loans.

Pictured left: Mark Marionneaux, a 2010 graduate of the LSU Graduate School of Banking, joined the Bank of Zachary in 2011 and was named president and CEO after serving as senior vice president and chief lending officer. He earned his bachelor’s degree in agricultural business at the University of Louisiana, Monroe. In 2016 the Zachary Chamber of Commerce named him Business Person of the Year; in 2014, The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report named him to its “40 under 40” list of achievers. Active in the volunteer community, he has served on numerous non-profit boards. He and his wife, Alicia Parker Marionneaux, who is a pharmacist, live in Zachary with their three children. Photograph by Don Kadair

Further, the office of the treasury announced that it had never intended the PPP to benefit publicly traded companies that could negotiate their own loans. Voices rose from the halls of Congress and the public at large, calling for repayment of the funds. The best assessment of the first loan roll-out: It was fast. During the first week of the first wave of the program, however, some of the community banks lost time scrambling to join the list of approved lenders, then worked through nights and weekends from kitchen tables and home offices to submit their clients’ applications while observing the governor’s call to sequester during the pandemic. It was a case of David versus Goliath. Commitment and Passion Mark Marionneaux, Bank of Zachary, noted, “Knowing how important these loans were to our customers, we worked around the clock—nights, holidays, and weekends—to get it done. When the PPP reopened at 9:30 a.m. on April 27, we were 100 percent ready to submit. We had worked until 1 a.m. that morning to ensure that 100 percent of our applications were submitted. If

Ben Cavin, president and CEO of Landmark Bank, is a Zachary native and a graduate of Zachary High School. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Northwestern State University, he added a master’s in business administration with a concentration in finance from Southeastern University. He is also a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at LSU. A “believer in the community bank mission,” he has served on the Rotary Club Board, the Chamber of Commerce Board, and the Zachary Arts Council Board, and was the first recipient of the Zachary Chamber of Commerce Young Professional of the Year award. He has also served as the elected representative for the City of Zachary City Council, District 4, which he describes as “one of the greatest honors of my life—to be elected by the residents of my home town to serve as their representative.” Ben and Nikki Cavin live in Zachary with their three children.

H. Carter Leak, IV, president and CEO, left, commercial lending, Bank of St. Francisville, with his father, H. Carter Leak, III, chairman emeritus and founder. Before coming home to join West Feliciana in building a strong educational, spiritual, civic and economic life for the community, Mr. Leak IV was employed for 13 years with CB&I (formerly the Shaw Group, Inc.) as controller for the plant services segment in Baton Rouge and, later, as vice president and controller for the engineering, construction and maintenance segment in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a graduate of the LSU Graduate School of Banking; a certified public accountant, he earned a bachelor of science in accounting from LSU in 1997. As a graduate of the Charlotte Leadership Forum, Mr. Leak invests significant time in mentoring young men and boys through his involvement with non-profit organizations including Young Life and Rotary International, as well as through local sports programs and his church. He also represents West Feliciana on the Board of Directors of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce and is chairman of the Young Life Committee in West Feliciana Parish. He and his wife Brittany live in St. Francisville with their three children. Photograph provided by Sadler Ward

there was ever a time when where you bank matters, it’s this pandemic. The loan program has been a monumental lift for the community banking industry across the country. “While a lot of our economy has shifted to a transactional environment, See COMMUNITY BANKS on page 2

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