ABA Banking Journal - February 2011 - (Page 30)
COVER STORY | COMMUNITY BANKING REPORT MAKES OPPORTUNITIES A tough competitor, CAN-DO BANKING Tennessee’s McCall Wilson believes anyone who works hard deserves a chance By Steve Cocheo, executive editor Wilson knows so many folks in his bank’s communities that he can’t drive far without finger waving. Wilson, chairman of the ABA America’s Community Bankers Council for 2010-2011, is very up on what’s going on in Washington and its politics, but that’s not where he lives or what he does. He lives in Tennessee and does banking. Honest banking. “Compliance comes from bad players, and regulations I are written by attorneys for attorneys. But if we were to take advantage of our customers, we’ll never get those customers back, because this is a small community,” he explains. “Our ability to do good is impacted by regulations and politics. But we will continue to serve our community, within the rules.” Wilson’s ideal consumer disclosure for nearly any rule would be a plainly written one-pager. And he not only understands the need for small-dollar loans—a pillar of FDIC’s platform—but especially seeks them in markets where they are needed. To him, they are an essential, though not terribly profitable, public need. He’s got an officer, Larry Bishop, in the bank’s Bolivar office, in Hardeman County, who is the “king of small-dollar loans.” “I think small-dollar lending is a great thing,” says Wilson. “But if it takes 50 pages of regulations to do it, I think Washington has missed the point.” 30 | ABA BANKING JOURNAL | FEBRUARY 2011 n rural Tennessee, the friendly “finger wave” can be such a common means of communication, one wonders why the locals don’t have over-developed finger muscles. A finger wave is a slight lift or swish of the left pointing finger at a friend or customer, given while driving. McCall Bank of Fayette County CEO McCall Wilson, next to a memorial to the champion English Pointer Dunn’s Fearless Bud donated to the bank by world-famous field trial expert Wilson Dunn.
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