Independent Banker - June 2022 - 67

Growing a new branch
Providence Bank chose to open a new brick-and-mortar site during the pandemic, when many other businesses
were ceasing operations or shutting down altogether. President and CEO Ted Whitehurst talks timing, lessons
learned, results and how his staff went the extra mile. By Ed Avis
hen COVID-19 rocked the
world in March 2020, Ted
Whitehurst was reviewing a lease
for a new branch of Providence
Bank in Raleigh, N.C. Of course, he
immediately hit the brakes on that
plan-although nobody could have
predicted the severity or length of
what would become a pandemic.
" We said, 'Let's pause this,' " recalls
Whitehurst, president and CEO of
the $700 million asset institution,
headquartered in Rocky Mount, N.C.
" We thought COVID would be a twoor
three-week shutdown. "
Whitehurst and his colleagues
had been considering opening a
branch in Raleigh since mid-2019.
The community bank, which was
started de novo in 2006, already
had numerous commercial clients
in the city; they had been referred
by existing customers of Providence
Bank's five existing locations,
clustered about 45 minutes east
of Raleigh.
" We were already doing a
significant amount of business in
Wake County [where Raleigh is
W
located] without a presence there,
so we felt with an actual location, it
would be easier to work with existing
customers and offer our full range of
banking services, " Whitehurst says.
" And we could then go after new
customers as well. "
There are plenty of other banks
in Raleigh-which has a population
about eight times that of Rocky
Mount-but Whitehurst says he
was confident Providence Bank's
reputation for exceptional customer
service would attract enough new
customers to make the location
worthwhile.
" We focus on learning about our
customers and doing what we can to
help them, " he says. " We have a really
strong group of employees that care
a lot about our communities and the
bank, and they roll up their sleeves
and work hard. They know how to
treat our customers well, and when
you treat customers the right way and
do the right things, they're going to
talk about it. It's just a natural instinct
that if you're treated well by a bank,
you refer your friends to that bank. "
Survival tactics
Name:
Providence Bank
Assets:
$700 million
Location:
Raleigh, N.C.
But with the new location on hold,
growing the market in Raleigh would
have to wait. Whitehurst and his
team instead focused their efforts
on helping their customers survive.
Because Providence is primarily
a commercial bank, the Paycheck
Protection Program (PPP) was an
essential lifeline to its clients. In the
first round of PPP lending, it granted
220 loans totaling $17 million, and in
independentbanker.org Q 67
" As we got through
those early months and
the first round of PPP
lending, we felt like we
were getting our hands
around all that. We
felt like Wake County
was still going to be a
vibrant market for us,
and it just made sense
to move forward and
open the location. "
-TED WHITEHURST, PROVIDENCE BANK

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Independent Banker - June 2022

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