How 123-year-old Community Bank is turning to new financial technology and collaboration-driven process improvement to deliver transformative expansion that positions it to compete head-on with the region’s traditionally big banks
Deep in the hills of Southwestern Pennsylvania, in a rural Greene County coal mining community of less than 500 residents, 1901 marked the beginning of a small community bank called the First National Bank of Carmichaels.
It would be another 86 years before the bank officially began its expansion into Washington County and changed its name to Community Bank. And even longer to acquire another bank that would allow it to become publicly traded (NASDAQ: CBFV ), with branch offices in Greene and Washington counties, as well as western West Virginia, and expanded financial services offerings. But that was then.
Today, just three years into an ambitious 10-year strategic growth plan, Community Bank continues to serve its traditional markets while expanding rapidly with a new commercial lending division, a dedicated small business team, a finance management team, specialist financial healthcare services, a care industry, a local call center and a series of fintech investments aimed at enhancing the bank’s customer interaction and cyber security.
“Our focus today remains firmly on innovation and excellence,” said John H. Montgomery, Community Bank’s president and CEO for the past three years and author of the bank’s latest transformative strategic plan. “We’re constantly exploring new ways to improve our customers’ banking experience, whether it’s financial solutions or innovative digital tools that enable them to achieve their goals.”
The planning efforts are already paying off, according to the latest reported year-end financial results. The bank’s holding company, CB Financial Services, Inc., reported adjusted net income (Non-GAAP) of $12.6 million for the year ended 12/31/23 compared to $11.2 million for the prior year. Adjusted earnings per common share – diluted (non-GAAP), meanwhile, ended 2023 at $2.46 per share, up from $2.14 per share in 2022.
Total assets rose to $1.46 billion in 2023 from $1.41 billion in 2022. Excluding a $34.9 million decrease in indirect auto loans, a product the Bank discontinued in 2023, total loans increased by $95.4 million in 2023, a 9.1 percent increase and included a $41.2 million increase—or 58.9 percent—in commercial and industrial loans.
Strengthening his legacy
“We are a true community bank that is heavily invested in our communities and we tend to have a long tenure with our customers,” Montgomery said. “But the banking and finance industry has changed as customer expectations have evolved. We had to change with him if we were going to continue to be the bank of choice for our customers.”
The Bank’s strategic growth plan has upgraded the technologies supporting the Bank’s services and back-office processing functions, significantly improving customer service.
“We’ve had to do some streamlining and consolidation along the way, but we’ve stayed engaged with our communities and customers and kept our big vision very locally focused,” Montgomery said of the strategic plan and its ongoing execution.
At the same time, he said, the bank’s leaders have worked hard to preserve the bank’s legacy identity. This means remaining people-centric, “still customer and employee focused” and values driven, which means embracing flexible working environments and “leaning in” to new technologies and processes.
The goal, Montgomery said: “To make it easier and simpler for our customers to bank with us.”
The value of human interaction
Among the bank’s investments is the creation of a large – and local – virtual banking and call center located in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, which provides real-time service to customers through the Interactive Teller Machine (ITM) network. The new ITMs replace older ATMs and have increased functionality through self-service methods and provide full touch-screen full-service options, connecting customers with a virtual teller to fully process their transactions.
“We are now transacting faster, more efficiently and cheaper, even as we engage more with our customers,” he said.
“However, transactions are no longer where the value is. It comes down to people. The value is in the human interaction. This is the difference for us in the market.”
In fact, Community Bank is in the middle of a construction project for a new, “state-of-the-art” banking facility in Rostraver Township and is updating other branches throughout the network to encourage interactions that add real value to its customers.
Other recent technology investments include an improved mobile banking app, back-end transaction processing systems, a new lending system and even a new “.bank” web domain (www.cb.bank) with built-in safeguards designed specifically for the banking industry and its customers.
In addition, Montgomery said, all transactional data is now processed in near real-time and stored securely on cloud servers with backup.
Montgomery said, “We want to be an innovative institution that makes it easy and convenient for our customers to do business with us.”
Sponsored content brought to you by Community Bank.
Member FDIC.
