Independent Banker - December 2018 - 48

ICBA 2018 Community Banker of the Year
 CENTRAL 
LEADING ASSET
An innovative civic partnership and non-hierarchical branch design have
propelled second-generation community banker Josh Rowland to the top.
By Kathryn Jackson Fallon
olks in the Show Me State don't cotton to any
nonsense, so when Josh Rowland was nominated by
his coworkers for Community Banker of the Year,
you know they had good reasons.
Rowland's connection with $257 million-asset Lead
Bank goes back to 2005. That year, his father, Landon,
had retired as CEO of Kansas City Southern Industries
but decided he wanted to be a part of the economic engine
that is community banking. The idea of being a small-town
banker appealed to the elder Rowland, so he acquired a
majority interest in what was then Garden City Bank.
Josh Rowland, a lawyer by trade, joined the bank
in 2008, right at the start of the financial crisis. As he
discovered, the bank was not in good shape. In fact, the
state of Missouri and the FDIC had placed it under a
regulatory order. So, Rowland's first years there were the
definition of " trial by fire. " He was more or less learning
what banking was all about while under an enforcement
action. But as a result, he became an avid believer in the
value of community banking.
Rowland believed Lead Bank-it changed its name
in 2010-had to do more to serve its neighborhoods.
Important to that process, he says, was understanding the
complexities of neighborhoods and that many marginalized
communities have traditionally been excluded from
mainstream banking. " If we are doing our job, the bank
should be at the heart of each of those communities [and
they should have] visions of success for themselves, " he says.
He also points to a whole market of emerging businesses
that are not being served by traditional commercial
banking, which relies largely on collateral values to make
credit decisions. Rowland believes that while there will
always be a need for collateral when making loans, there
should also be a high value on the ability to repay. " We
are getting to the point in this country, " Rowland says,
F
" where the next generation of emerging businesses is not
going to have buildings and manufacturing facilities-the
traditional assets that back loans. The number of those
kinds of companies is shrinking. If we want to make
a difference, we have to do a better job of being smart
bankers. We have to understand and do the hard work of
analyzing the risk and how repayment works. "
Civic partnership
One of Lead Bank's most notable successes is its civic
contractor funding program. The program came out of the
bank's relationship with the city of Kansas City, Mo., which
was having trouble meeting its supplier diversity goals
because it tended to take too long to pay contractors.
Lead Bank determined that with all of the city's vetting
and validation of contractors, there was little risk in
underwriting these short-term contracts. " I'm very proud
to say that up to now, we've made $12 million in credit
available to DBE, MBE and WBE [disadvantaged, minorityand
women-owned] businesses, with zero credit losses in
three years, " Rowland says.
Drew Solomon, SVP, business development at the
Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, says
Lead Bank is a true partner to its community. " There's no
bank that believes in community purpose and mission
more than Lead Bank does, " he says.
This is evident in Lead Crossroads, the bank's businessfocused
center in Kansas City's Crossroads Arts District.
Rowland wanted it to eliminate the hierarchy of standard
branch design. There is no big teller counter and no rope line
separating customers from the frontline staff. The concept is
working so well that the bank is considering renovating its
other two locations. Now that's taking the lead. 
Kathryn Jackson Fallon is a writer in New York.
48 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q December 2018
Photo: Steve Puppe
Independent Banker - December 2018

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