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Libertyville Savings Bank |
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December 5, 2016 Issue |
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CEOCFO MAGAZINE |
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Libertyville Savings Bank Understands What it Means to Serve the Largest AG Producing State of Iowa where Commodity Pricing and Weather are Always a Challenge |
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Chief Executive Officer
Libertyville Savings Bank www.libertyvillesavingsbank.com
Contact: Jill Burnett 641-472-9839 jburnett@libertyvillesavingsbank.com
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine – Published – December 5, 2016
CEOCFO: Ms. Burnett, there is a 100-plus year history at Libertyville Savings Bank. Would you tell the focus of the bank today? Ms. Burnett: The focus of the bank is agricultural lending. We are situated in southeast Iowa, in the heart of the largest ag producing state in the country. Agriculture has been our main focus for many years. We do many other types of lending too, but ag lending is our main niche.
CEOCFO: What are some of the challenges in AG banking that people outside of the industry do not understand? Ms. Burnett: Commodity prices and grain marketing are always a challenge for our ag customers. The price of a bushel of corn can go from $3.00 a bushel to $7.00 a bushel in a very short time, and that can affect profitability for borrowers. In addition you have weather issues. A drought or a flood can radically affect yields. Our best performing customers are usually diversified between row crop and livestock. That seems to help build more stability within any operation.
CEOCFO: Do you find that your customers look to you more as an advisor than just a banker, or is it sometimes hard to lead them in the right direction? Ms. Burnett: Every customer is different, but I believe many of them do look to us for advice. Most have banked with us for years. We have several families whom we worked with for 3 or even 4 generations. We become more of a trusted advisor than just a place to go get your loan.
CEOCFO: How are you able to factor in things like the economy and regulatory issues when you are providing loans to a farm or a customer? Ms. Burnett: There is a lot of risk involved in lending money that’s for sure. We have to assess the overall borrower’s operation. How much land and equipment do they own and how much equity have they built up? Therefore if they borrow operating money and they cannot get it all paid back in a given year because the crop burns up or the prices have gone down, then do they have some cushion in the rest of their operation to absorb that loss? You certainly do not want that to happen year-over-year, but you have to look at all of those scenarios when you are looking at any one borrower.
CEOCFO: Do most of your customers do all of their banking with you? Ms. Burnett: This is fairly common.
CEOCFO: Would you tell me about your locations and whether you need more or less? Ms. Burnett: We have five locations right now in SE Iowa. Our home office is in Fairfield and the locations are within a thirty-minute drive of Fairfield. We are always looking to acquire another profitable branch and you just never know when those are going to become available. Our management team is always up for a new challenge.
CEOCFO: What is the competitive landscape with community as well as larger banks? Ms. Burnett: There is plenty of competition out there. There are four other banks and a credit union in Fairfield alone. Farm Credit Services has two offices within 30 minutes of us so it’s a very competitive environment.
CEOCFO: Why are customers coming to Libertyville? Ms. Burnett: We have very strong ag lenders. Most of our lenders have been with LSB for a very long time and have a lot of knowledge on the ag side. The last time the ag industry went into a crisis was in the early 1980’s. There were institutions that were very quick to liquidate out those family farms. We did not do that, we worked with a lot of them and got them through it. People remember who was there when the times were tough.
CEOCFO:
Are there services that you would like to offer or services you do not need
to offer anymore?
CEOCFO: What is crop scouting and how are you involved with that? Ms. Burnett: We have a qualified individual on staff to monitor our customer’s crops from pre-emergence through harvest. There are all kinds of weeds and insects out there that can really cut yields. We can spot these threats and make timely recommendations on how to treat them.
CEOCFO: Do many people take advantage of the service? Ms. Burnett: Yes, we scouted almost 12,000 acres of crops last year.
CEOCFO: I know that ‘giving back’ is important for the bank, how do you decide where to focus? Ms. Burnett: The first thing that comes to mind is our staff and their volunteer time. We volunteer hundreds of hours a year in our communities. Our employees are passionate about their communities and their volunteerism really makes a difference. We are at the point now that we have nonprofit groups call us asking for help with projects. They know they can count on us to supply the help they need because we really care. As far as the monetary donations, those are handled by our Board of Directors.
CEOCFO: How do you reach out for new customers? Ms. Burnett: We rely heavily on word of mouth to gain new customers. If an existing customer has had a great experience here, they will spread the word. We also provide informational material through lots of different media channels. We let people know we are interested in doing business with them.
CEOCFO: Why do people not understand that already, since they are not new to the community? Ms. Burnett: Human nature is stay with what is comfortable. Change only happens when a pain point is realized. This applies with banking as well as life.
CEOCFO: How do you and your people make a difference in customer service? Ms. Burnett: Our people make a difference in many different ways. For example, the other day in one of our branches, the local convenience store was busy and could not get over to get their change order, so we went over and picked their deposit, filled their change order, and delivered it back. There are just a lot of little things like that. Our front line staff loves to sing Happy Birthday when a customer comes on their special day. I will hear my whole front staff just singing away to the customer. We treat people like we’d like to be treated ourselves.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us about regulatory issues and how you are coping with the overabundance? Ms. Burnett: There is an over abundance, especially for the community banks. Community banks were not the ones that drove the issues that created all the additional regulations. We have had to double our compliance staff to keep up with it all.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us about receiving the Banky Award? Ms. Burnett: The Banky Awards are great and a ton of fun. The award was really based on our culture, our customer service and our employee satisfaction rating. We are honored to have received the award.
CEOCFO: You have received other awards as well. How do you maintain the culture and have you set out deliberately to foster the environment or is it the nature of you, the bank, your history and the people? Ms. Burnett: Our process is very deliberate. For three years in a row now we have been voted as one of the Top Places to work in Iowa. That does not happened by accident. Our culture is extremely important to us. We have developed a culture team that drives and measures the things that we do. We have standards set for how you answer the phone, how you dress; how you work area is kept. We have a set of values that all our employees agree to live up to. We even incorporate these standards into our interview process. Culture is one of the main drivers of profit and we have a strong handle on that.
CEOCFO: How is business? Ms. Burnett: Business is good. It can always be better, but business is good. We are always thinking and looking for ways to improve and grow as individuals and as an organization.
CEOCFO: How is Libertyville Bank an example of what banking should be? Ms. Burnett: It is all about the communities we serve, our customers, and our staff. Our staff has a lot of tenure. They call you by name, and they know your basic business so you do not have to start over from scratch every time. They have a great amount of knowledge and they focus on giving back to their communities. I think we exemplify what a community bank should be! |
“We have very strong ag lenders. Most of our lenders have been with LSB for a very long time and have a lot of knowledge on the ag side. The last time the ag industry went into a crisis was in the early 1980’s. There were institutions that were very quick to liquidate out those family farms. We did not do that, we worked with a lot of them and got them through it. People remember who was there when the times were tough.”- Jill Burnett
Libertyville Savings Bank www.libertyvillesavingsbank.com
Contact: Jill Burnett 641-472-9839 jburnett@libertyvillesavingsbank.com
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Jill
Burnett