the role of a banker (feat. Walt Postlewait)

Compared to how it was back in, um, the '90s compared to now-

Mm-hmm

... um, how big of a change have you seen, um, in the financial world? Uh, do you see a lot of financial pr- struggles going on now than compared to maybe 10, 15 years ago? What's kind of been your opinion about how everything's kind of really skyrocketed now?

Sure.

Excuse me.

Well, I would say that, um, if you're a small business, it's harder today than it was 20, 30 years ago when it comes to bank loans.

Uh, when I had entered banking, uh, it was still, um, fairly regulated.

There was this big, in the early 2000s, were, where a lot of rules were changed.

When I started in the '90s, you couldn't have banks cross state lines.

You could have the same brand name, like with Bank of America, you know, there's Bank of Americas all over the US, but each state really was its own separate entity.

Uh, you know, if you banked in California or Arizona, it was more difficult because our systems weren't the same.

It, it was a different organization.

Uh, and Washington was actually called Seafirst, uh, instead of Bank of America.

But as those changed, it, it opened up a lot more access.

So I would argue that, that with those changes, it makes some things a lot easier, especially across state lines.

But what, in my opinion, happened is it accelerated the big banks acquiring the small banks.

And at the end of the day, I'm pretty passionate about community banks.

Uh, don't get me wrong, I do think that there's a place for the big national banks and the big super regional banks.

But for most people, whether it's individuals, uh, or small, medium-sized businesses, I think you're far better served at smaller community banks than you are at the, the national banks.

Um, I, I, um, I, I struggle to find good things [laughs] to say about the national banks, but I love the community bank industry, and most of the, the community banks are very, very solid banks.