Great American Bank

Grounded in Community, Growing Through Relationships

A People-First Approach That is Paying Dividends

With deep local ties and a people first approach, Great American Bank is more than just a financial institution. Serving Lawrence, De Soto, Lake Lotawana and Kansas City, this independently owned community bank is built on relationships, trust, and a genuine commitment to the people and neighborhoods it serves.

“It is very important that we support our local community,” explains President and CEO Les Dreiling. “We try to give back, and we also encourage our officers and staff to be involved in the communities that we live in.”

A True Community Partner

Employees of Great American Bank contribute in countless ways, from volunteering at churches, schools, and hospitals to participating in the Midtown KC Now and other community initiatives. Matthew Little, Senior Vice President, CFO, and CIO, shares, “The De Soto community we serve did not have a food pantry, and a community member stepped up to start one. We supported one of our local officers in joining the board to get that food pantry up and running.” Today, the bank continues its support with an in branch donation bin for customers and community members.

Great American Bank also runs back to school supply drives every August as well as a Christmas program to help families in need. Sarah Schmitt, Senior Vice President of Branch Operations, recounts, “We adopt several families within each branch, and the bank will support some funding to go out and do some big shopping for the families. Last year, we had a total of ten families that we supported within our five branches.”

This community focus even extends into local classrooms through the Junior Achievement program, which teaches financial literacy to different grade levels. “Several of our staff have been providing time within the classrooms for many years,” notes Schmitt. “I recall teaching a kindergarten class about how to count cash. We carried that all the way up through eighth grade where we did a whole segment on balancing a chequebook, having a savings account, and what it means to budget.”

Dreiling, who was recently inducted into the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame, adds, “The Junior Achievement Program here has been around for several years, and it’s exceptional. We provide financial support, and we’ve got a number of officers here that provide their time in teaching, not only at the elementary level, but all the way through high school, where there’s an entrepreneurship type program in the school systems that helps to develop tomorrow’s future leaders.”

Relationship Banking in Action

If there’s one word that captures the spirit of Great American Bank, its relationships. “As a community bank,  we know the people that are coming in each week,” portrays Schmitt. “We’re all local to our home branches here and have a lot of communication with our customers outside of just the banking realm. We know when they’re getting married and when their fathers pass and things like that. The relationship is caring about not just the face to face, but more of how we connect and communicate within the community.”

That model carries through in every part of the business. “We stress service,” Dreiling says. “We do answer the phone when it rings. You can get to the President, you can get to your CFO, you can talk to Sarah, and we normally try to return our phone calls or emails within a two hour period.”

From daily banking to business loans and real estate, Little emphasizes that trust is at the core of every relationship the bank builds. “We’re impacting people’s livelihoods,” he acknowledges. “They’re bringing their cash to us, and they’re borrowing money from us, and if our customers trust us, we’re going to continue to have those relationships. It can last a lifetime, as long as you pay attention to it and you nurture it, and you don’t break that trust.”

This personal approach benefits Great American Bank in many ways. Dreiling conveys, “When you have a customer that is satisfied and happy with your services, that trust then goes to their friends, their family. We do less cold calling now in the last 10 years than we did the first 10 years of the bank existing, because a lot of our new business is referral business, and that’s pretty satisfying.”

Supporting Local Growth

Although agriculture is important for many Kansas banks, Great American Bank’s loan portfolio reflects the character of its local market. “Our emphasis has mainly been in commercial real estate, C&I loans, personal loans,” Dreiling reports. “We have a number of individuals that are employed at the University of Kansas, or for the city or the hospital, that  buy rental properties. That’s been a pretty good side business for a lot of our customers. So, we have a pretty good relationship with some of the local realtors and investors.”

As a community bank, every loan is assessed by a committee that includes three board members and all loan officers. “The decisions are made locally and in a timely fashion,” Little relays. Despite fluctuations in interest rates and material costs, he adds that the bank has maintained stable margins and has had very few loan issues.

Putting today’s lending environment into perspective, Dreiling recalls the extreme rate swings of the 1980s, a true test for borrowers and lenders. Compared to those days, he says current conditions remain manageable. The bank takes a proactive approach by asking borrowers to consider how potential rate increases could impact their investment and cash flow. “We look at that when we’re underwriting and when we’re sitting there talking with our clients about getting into a deal,” he relays. “Something that will help meet our needs as well as our customers needs is maintaining stability and helping customers plan for different rate scenarios.”

An Investment in Technology and Security

When it comes to advances in the banking world, Dreiling says the basics haven’t changed. “There may be a few different bells and whistles, but the basic banking model in a community bank is still the same as it was  when I started 45 years ago, with the exception of advances in technology,” he confirms. “It’s still about relationships, it’s still about borrowing money, it’s still about savings and elements along those lines.”

Still, Great American Bank is far from old-fashioned. The bank has made major investments in technology and cybersecurity to protect  and adapt to customer needs. “In the last 10 years, the IT spend has certainly gone up considerably with cyber security costs,” details Little. “We talked about maintaining our customers’ trust, and you can’t do that without investing in cyber security protection and the infrastructure that’s needed for that.”

Although there are no plans to build additional branches at this time, investment in options that make banking more convenient and accessible are ongoing. “If you look back 10 to 15 years, you’ve got lines in your lobby and you’re processing transactions a different way,” Little expands. “Today, customers can do most of their banking transactions from their phone.”

Supporting the bank’s commitment to security, Little serves on a board with technology partner, Jack Henry & Associates, where Great American Bank has volunteered to be one of the pilot institutions exploring the use of artificial intelligence to combat fraud. “That’s an investment that we’re going to be putting time and money into in the next 18 to 24 months, so that we can protect our bank and protect our customers from any kind of loss that they may have,” he says.

Preparing for the Future

Looking ahead, Dreiling says that maintaining strong relationships with regulators is a top priority for Great American Bank. He notes that the institution continues to work closely with the FDIC and the State of Kansas, earning positive reviews year over year. Along with that, the bank is investing in training, technology, and internal safeguards as fraud grows increasingly sophisticated. “There’s some bad characters out there. We’ve had more losses under fraud cases than we have had in lending losses, and that’s normally not the case for banks as a whole,” he imparts. “We’re trying to do everything we can through IT, planning and working with our regulators, and understanding what risks are out there to try to mitigate that.”

Customers of Great American Bank can be sure the commitment to a personalized, relationship based banking experience is one thing that won’t change. “You’re going to know who you’re dealing with, you’ll get a live person to talk to and somebody that will understand and try to help,” concludes Dreiling. “Are we all things, to all people? No, but we can at least sit down and try to figure out a way to make a deal work.”

AT A GLANCE

Who: Great American Bank

What: A community bank with 5 branches across Kansas and the greater Kansas City Metropolitan area

Where: Headquarters in Lawrence, Kansas

Website: www.greatambank.com