Independent Banker - November 2023 - 59

benefits like health and life
insurance, planning for retirement,
and investing their hard-earned
dough. Community banks are in a
great position to help customers with
any or all these things, both from
a service provider and educational
resource perspective.
Leveling the playing field
Independent workers also need
speedy and/or instant payment
processing options. Giorgio sees
FedNow as an opportunity area for
banks that want to meet that " need
for speed. "
" FedNow and instant payments are
important tools for supporting this
share of the market, " says Giorgio.
This also presents an opportunity to
work with companies that contract
with and pay gig workers. " From
a small business perspective,
companies that employ gig workers
need payment services to be able to
support paying those contractors
with more frequency and to be able
to transact with them in a more
efficient way, " she adds.
Going digital in Dallas
Founded in 2009, Veritex Bank
has always worked hard to serve
small and growing businesses in
the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan
area. More recently, the bank has
welcomed a growing number of gig
workers, independent contractors
and freelancers as customers.
To serve this growing niche,
Veritex uses a " personal touch " that
it knows gig workers won't get from
a large, national bank. It's also put
digital technology tools in place to
ensure a high level of service for folks
like the Uber driver who delivered
Abernethy home safely the night his
flight was delayed.
" Whether you're ordering a ride,
booking an Airbnb or requesting
a food delivery, the ease of use of
the related platform is what makes
that platform so interesting, " says
Abernethy, who realizes that the very
Sunstate Bank's president and CEO Lloyd DeVaux (top, with customers)
understands that both businesses and gig workers flourish with the support
of community banks.
Lloyd DeVaux, president and CEO of Sunstate Bank in Coral
Gables, Fla., knows that most businesses start out the same
way: as very small entities run by one or more entrepreneurs.
Over time, someone probably helped them get the funding,
support and resources they needed to be able to grow
and thrive.
The same principles can be applied to the gig economy,
where community banks that understand that their customers
are well positioned to help these " non-traditional " business
customers achieve their short- and long-term goals. For
example, those customers often need small, short-term loans
as low as $5,000 to help them get to the next level.
Going beyond basic lending parameters, community banks
can tap into the power of " character " (one of the 5 Cs of
credit) to help determine the applicant's creditworthiness.
Again, this is something a larger, national bank may not be
able to match.
" To be comfortable doing a loan, you have to know
someone's character, " DeVaux says. " As community bankers,
we can get out there and work with them, understand their
issues, know who they are and better understand how well that
person's business will perform. "
independentbanker.org // 59
Photo by Jeffery Salter
http://www.independentbanker.org
Independent Banker - November 2023

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