Interview: Ginger Martin, President

Ginger Martin

President & CEO American National Bank

What are some of the advantages of being able to work with a smaller, family bank?

Firstly, let me say that there is plenty of banking business in South Florida for all of us. When you’re a larger institution, you do have to have more structure and bureaucracy just due to sheer size. As a community bank, we can customize our services to a greater extent. Sure, we have our structures and guidelines dictating how we run but we have the flexibility to change and customize them. We’re a single-unit bank — we only have one location — so all the decisions are made right here. Sometimes, at bigger banks, there’s not that kind of local decision-making. Here, you’re dealing with the decision-makers and not forced to go through other channels. That does allow us to be quicker. At the same time, we have a limit on the size of the loan we can do because lending limits are based on our capital. There’s a place for all di erent sizes of banks, it just depends on what’s important to you and what your needs are.

How did the bank handle the onslaught of PPP loans over the past year?

We were named by the South Business Journal as the No. 1 PPP lender in South Florida. To be able to support these small businesses and help them survive was so rewarding. We did $68 million in loans in the first round, over 500 loans in total. We took care of our customers first, then we opened it up to noncustomers. While the big banks were trying to get the technology and software in place, we did these things manually, so our customers didn’t have to wait on these much-needed funds. We had, across the bank, everyone working in PPP in some form or fashion. We were working seven days a week, 10-12 hours a day. Some people who were not our customers got very frustrated with their banks, talked to our customers and heard about how they got their PPP loan in two days. Many of them became customers because we were able to help them. I think that’s part of the reason we had the 35% growth.

The financial and professional services sector represents about 9% of Florida’s employment.

( ) pre-construction development lending in Fort Lauderdale barely lost steam as 2020 witnessed several projects secure financing. Commercial real estate finance company Berkadia reported 19 projects were under construction in the multifamily space alone during 1Q20 in Fort Lauderdale, totaling 6,355 units.

Amid projects worth highlighting, FATVillage’s old warehouse redevelopment into a 35-unit, seven-story luxury apartment building secured a $9.1 million construction financing in May 2020. Fast forward to October 2020, Walker & Dunlop announced the arrangement of an $82 million bridge-financing instrument for The Rise Flagler Village, a 30-story, 348unit apartment project.

One area of concern is historically low interest rates. To support the country’s economic recovery, the Federal Reserve has signaled it will maintain low interest rates

as far as 2023. While this may be good news for people looking to invest in a new or secondary home, for financial institutions, the low rates force them to operate under squeezed margins, hurting profits. Still, lending is on the upswing. The Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) took a deep dive throughout 2020, falling about 60% since the start of the pandemic, indicating tighter lending. But by October 2020, the indicator had started a turn upward. During the January to October period, the MCAI went from close to 185 in March to below 120 in September before popping back up to 121. As a reference, it reached nearly 100 during the 2008 crisis. A higher score signals loosening credit.

Top banks COVID-19 posed a series of significant operational challenges for banks, including historic low interest rates, an accelerated and streamlined remote transition and solving the balance between brick-and-mortar, inperson services and a bolstered digital platform.

Demonstrating the differing approaches banks are taking to their physical branches, Regions Bank announced the go-ahead for a branch expansion in November 2020. The bank’s established footprint in suburban Houston, Orlando-Kissimmee and Miami-Fort Lauderdale serve the purpose of providing modernized branches in areas that offer a broad range of customers. The new branches in Magnolia, Texas; Kissimmee and Pembroke Pines, Florida; and Marietta, Georgia, are more focused on premium-based customized, personal services. Chase Bank, with three operating branches in Fort Lauderdale, announced its plan to consolidate its Central Florida footprint in December 2020 by adding three new branches: two in Orlando and one ( )

Robert Ramirez

President & CEO – We Florida Financial

The idea that you can open an account or apply for a loan from your couch has reduced the need for physical branches. I see us downsizing the size of our physical branches because the need for them won’t be as great as it was before. We will place a larger focus on digital. Millennials want to know that a branch is near where they live and work, but they rarely go to a branch. It’s more of a security blanket for them. An increasing percentage of our member business will be done electronically going forward; however, it is our goal to continue to provide both physical and digital delivery channels.