One of my favorite days of the “banking” year is Virginia Reads Day. Each year PVB selects a primary or elementary school in our region to be our sponsored school. Everyone (student, faculty, staff) in the school gets the same book and enjoys a community reading event. I like to read. It’s a yearning my mom established for me. Books allowed a country boy with little means to travel the world. To travel time and place.
Often the best books began with the lines “Once Upon a Time”. Once upon a time, the banking world was very different. State laws only allowed banks to open offices (branches) in the county that housed their main offices. National and state laws established the rates that we could offer on deposits and loans. No need to shop for a CD Rate. We all offered 3% on a One (1) year CD. These archaic and anti-competitive approaches were met head on by the marketplace.
And the Marketplace always wins!
Deposits flowed into a new creation: Money Market Mutual Funds engineered by Don Regan at Merrill Lynch. He would go on to become Secretary of the Treasury for President Reagan. In the 1980s, other laws were changed (branching limitations, interstate banking). Some states, like North Carolina, had changed their laws in the 1950s and were razor-sharp competitors who took over much of banking in the South.
And banks that couldn’t compete disappeared.
Here in SWVA, the list of banks that are gone is a long list.
- People’s Bank of Pound
- Famers Exchange Bank in Coburn
- Southwest Bank in St. Paul
- First National Bank in Big Stone and Appalachia
- Washington County National in Abingdon
- First National Bank of Sulivan County
- Wise County National Bank (my first bank)
All gone.
More recently banks like Peoples Bank of Ewing, Highlands Union Bank in Abingdon, and Tri Summitt Bank in Kingsport have joined the ranks of banks that “used to be”.
Why dwell on banks that are no more?
To me, it is a reminder of how precious and special PVB is as a community bank and the efforts we must make every day to assure our future. My goal is to never say “Once Upon a Time there was a Bank called Powell Valley National Bank”.
How do we avoid that story line?
- Hard work
- Appreciation for what we have
- Caring for people (both outside and inside the bank)
- Thinking about tomorrow as much as we think about today.
This is not nor will be an easy task. But the journey for heroes or heroines never is!
Once upon a time…..
Have a great week. – Leton
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“Letters From Leton” is a blog series comprised of the weekly updates that Leton Harding – President, Chairman, and CEO of Powell Valley National Bank, shares with the Bank’s team members. These newsletters are full of uplifting anecdotes and intriguing insights that are applicable beyond the Bank, so we want to share them with you.
