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How Bankers Can Support Their Communities

Contributed by Farmers & Merchants Bank

Banks are more than the repositories where people leave their paychecks on Friday afternoons. These institutions are living examples of trust. Consumer customers depend on them to keep their deposits safe, commercial customers depend on them to finance their growing businesses and neighborhoods look to them to support their unique communities. Bankers have no problem earning the trust of customers by ensuring safe deposits and financing credit-worthy businesses. But the third area of customer involvement - supporting our communities - is an opportunity bankers often overlook.

As keepers of customers' livelihoods, bankers earn the trust of individuals through consistent financial and personal service. But the nature of this business gives them additional opportunities to assist individuals beyond the traditional teller relationship.

First and foremost, banks demonstrate value for their customers when they maintain strong capital ratios and high liquidity. Though customers may not grasp the importance of these figures, what they do understand is their bank still exists during recessions or other local traumas. Thanks to the FDIC, bank runs are no longer the first response of average customers when the economy turns sour. But commercial customers have more to lose, as do the communities relying on these companies. For this reason, bankers can offer security to communities by working to keep their institutions healthy and solvent.

Secondly, banks can proactively seek to finance companies in business district revitalization areas. Bringing a strong business to such an area can infuse life into a weak commercial zone. One such company, a woman-owned business seeking to purchase an office building in Long Beach, met six of seven public policy goals with her move. The local-area CDC director was thrilled with the transaction because other local industries would reap the benefits of the new tenants' presence. Other banks can achieve similar results by embracing opportunities to finance businesses in revitalization areas.

Furthermore, banks can serve their communities by implementing technology initiatives that cater to the banking style of each customer. Online banking, EFT and check imaging represent some of the tools used to wire high-tech customers to the future, while more traditional services like returning canceled checks in numerical order provide others with needed familiarity. The key is to discover what customers value and to utilize cost-effective technology to make banks better (and simpler) places to do business.

Finally, in an effort to support their communities, bankers can corporately and individually participate in local events and organizations. Interacting with people they meet in these situations will not only further their institutions' reputations, but it will enable them to influence society for the better. Service projects, speaking engagements and board memberships are all great occasions to build stronger communities.

Bankers are tasked with the great responsibility of protecting their customers' finances. But a greater task may be supporting the communities in which they live and work.

Farmers & Merchants Bank has a 95-year history of community involvement in Long Beach, having impacted thousands of lives in Southern California since 1907. For more information about F&M Bank, please contact any of the Orange County branches located in Fullerton, Garden Grove, Lake Forest, Orange, Santa Ana, San Juan Capistrano and Rossmoor. To locate a branch near you, call (562) 437-0011 or visit their website at www.fmb.com. F&M Bank is a Member FDIC.