Transcript

May name is Matt Rushton.  I came to work for AB&T on the commercial side of the house and I’m looking forward to the opportunity.  I spent the last 10½ years of my career in a larger corporate commercial bank, have evolved into a community banking model, and I wanted to talk a little bit about why I chose to come to work at AB&T.  One of the most unique factors that I’ve developed—or that I’ve seen as a developing factor here is the interaction of the employee base.  You know, banking is not something that’s very exciting but you can feel true excitement and a true groundswell of interaction here within the employee base and within the culture that’s becoming, that’s permeating this institution.

One of the interesting aspects of a community banking delivery model is the banker is involved, not just within the bank but within the community and has civic responsibility, and in that the expectation is set in more than one way.  You’re not just an order taker that says yeah, this is what we’re going to do and here’s how we’re going to do it.  Your clientele expects a different level, and in most cases, as it should it, is a much higher level of honesty and integrity because these decisions really impact their future.  And that’s the partnership that we strive to put on the table.

AB&T has been very forward with a marketing slogan in setting the gold standard for a community bank.  That was pretty foreign to me until I got here and kind of got my feet under me and realized what it was all about.  The true factor of a gold standard is indeed something that the employees aspire to, the clientele aspires to, and it’s, in my opinion, basically doing what you say you’re going to do.  To me the gold standard is to simply deliver, to deliver in a fashion that goes above and beyond the expectation.  And that you deliver the solutions, you deliver the methodology, what have you, in a way that’s comfortable to the client base and as technical or as untechnical as it needs to be. 

That’s one thing that’s been very intriguing and one thing that I hope that we can continue to improve upon.  I look forward to the opportunities.  I look forward to what the future will bring for the company, and hopefully a very long ride and looking forward to it indeed.  If anyone is interested in hearing more about the commercial bank at AB&T and our capabilities and more than happy to reach out with me or, you know, I’d be more than happy to have a conversation.  My name is Matt Rushton again, and we can be reached at 229-446-2265; or feel free to long onto our website, abtgold (all one word)—www.abtgold.com.