Guest Speaker: Mike Cullen

 

Mike Cullen returned to speak to his old Rotary Club, about his old bank...and the changes it will be facing, after being acquired by a regional banking company.

 

Cullen has worked for decades at the National Bank and Trust Company of Sycamore; NB&T has been acquired by First Midwest Bank, and will soon be rebranding its various branches in the DeKalb/Sycamore area.  He says the bank's management and Board of Directors sought out a major chain to join forces with, because of a number of economic realities facing the banking industry.

 

Mike says local banks are facing increasing pressure from state and federal examiners during annual audits; the requirements are often stringent, and it was felt NB&T needed a larger infrastructure to deal with these examinations.  He also notes that local banks are facing outside competition from a new type of lender -- on-line loan companies, which direct potential customers to out-of-state locations or websites which provide a large marketplace of credit card sources for consumers.

 

He says this kind of pressure is happening throughout the industry, which is what has been forcing local banks to merge into larger chains just to survive.