Transcript:

I’m Luke Flatt.  I’m President and CEO of AB&T National Bank.  Not long ago I had someone ask me about our vision of becoming the gold standard in community banking, and I said what does that really mean.  And if you think about it over the last 20 or 30 years there’s really been a consolidation of banks in the banking industry.  There are far fewer banks than there were 30 years ago.  The banks have generally gotten bigger, and getting bigger we believe that banks have gotten less personal than they used to be.

And so when you talk about community banking what you’re really saying it’s about being more personal, being more accessible, and being friendly, recognizing people, and calling them by name.  But really, community banking is much more than that.  It’s much more than just calling people by name and being friendly.  We believe community banking is about understanding our customers’ business, understanding what their needs are, and then matching our solutions to their needs so that we have professional bankers who come in and have a conversation with our customers and really figure out exactly what’s going on with their business or with their particular need.

And as a result, those professional bankers can develop the solutions.  They can make a difference for these customers.  So when we talk about community banking it really is more than just being friendly, it’s more than just knowing customers’ names, it’s more than calling customers by name.  It’s about being professional and understanding who they are and what their goals and aspirations are.  So when we talk about the gold standard of community banking, which is our vision of AB&T, we want to be the very best at doing exactly what I described at understanding their needs, developing solutions to meet those needs, and prospering with our customers as they prosper.

So community banking is more than friendly and calling customers by name.  It’s about delighting customers and making sure that they have everything they need to be successful.  That’s the gold standard of community banking.  That’s what AB&T is about.  So if you have a need, give us a call, 229-446-2265; or visit our website, abtgold.com.  We welcome your input and we invite you to visit us.