New Jersey Bankers Association

the national, state and local level to disseminate the information. In the beginning we had a PPP conference call or webinar every week. One of the early calls had over 1000 people, which really reinforced the importance of what we were doing. It was a great opportunity to demonstrate the value of being a member of the association because these were all things that they could not have done on their own. “Bankers were designated as essential workers in New Jersey during the pandemic. People were worried about their finances and paying their bills, so the banks were the front line responders in that regard. They made sure customers had access to their money through online and mobile banking, and through safe, socially-distanced, in- person appointments. The other interesting thing was that drive-ups became critically important as a distribution channel. They were closing PPP loans, having the customer come through the drive-up to sign the document. In New Jersey, alone, a total of 307,838 PPP loans were done – that’s like 10 years of volume done in 5 or 6 months. Over $25.7 billion… It was incredible.” BVM: How do you see the industry evolving, going forward? McWeeney: “The industry is going through consolidation, the number of banks nationally and locally is shrinking. Banks need scale to be effective in this day and age, to make the necessary investments in technology to compete with other banks and fintech firms. The financial services space is incredibly competitive. Having said that, I do think there is a niche for smaller community banks that have a good business plan to do quite well. All in all, the industry is very strong and has a positive outlook for the future.”