Interview: David Druey, Florida

The solution

Banks were in the spotlight for all the right reasons during the pandemic

David Druey

Florida Regional President – Centennial Bank

How did Centennial Bank perform in Florida in the past year? We were very busy. One of the best things about the financial sector is that we were able to be involved in the PPP loans that Congress passed. We were able to help small businesses in a time of need. I think the process was cumbersome but it did what it was supposed to do, which was to help small businesses for a period of time. I’d like to have seen it be a little bit more robust, allowing a little bit longer for small businesses to have more staying power. I think COVID has lasted much longer than many of us anticipated in spring 2020.

Being a part of that allowed us to be a part of the solution. A lot of bankers across the United States felt like they were part of something that was bigger than themselves, and that was a good thing to happen. One highlight was to listen to the people who we were able to help, because the first tranche of PPP went away very quickly as the large businesses and corporations took the lion’s share of the money and the smaller businesses didn’t get it.

The second tranche is when you saw the mom and pop’s businesses benefit, enabling you to call them and say “your loan has been approved,” and listening to the outpouring of emotion and gratitude.

Do you anticipate a surge in commercial real estate loan defaults? We have hotels all across the United States. What we are seeing is a rebound in destination-hotel locations, the ones near the water or around open spaces. I don’t see the default rate on those getting high at all. Conversely, the hotels that are travel-related or landlocked, dependent on business travel, are going to suffer for another 12 to 24 months.

I used to travel two weeks out of a month, and I haven’t been anywhere since April. And within our organization we have around 100 people who are professional travelers.

Which sectors have been performing well during this time? The medical sector could be seen as doing extremely well. Companies producing toilet paper and virusspecific products are going to continue to do well. In Florida, specifically, the trend of people being tired of being in the Northeast will continue because of the weather and other things, and they’ve realized that the genie is out of the bottle with working from home. You’re going to continue to see a huge boom in the state of Florida for tax reasons and quality of life.