Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 8

83 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 8 customers personally. Bush shares, “Literally the first thing we did as a team was sit down and call every one of our loan customers and talk to them first, to see how they were doing, and then find out just what the impacts were for them from the virus and some of the restrictions that were in place. In those instances, for many customers, we were able to offer them some payment relief, which really helped them to get through some of the uncertainty and get to the other side. That communication then stayed in place all through the pandemic. We are proud to say that all but one customer out of that group returned to normal payments. I think our ability to do that for our customers was important. “ As businesses continue to navigate the effects of COVID and figure out what comes next for them in a post-pandemic world, First City Bank has been a source of support, offering the same core products, along with new assistance like the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). “Real estate is very hot in our local market right now. We are seeing a lot of purchase activity. We like to focus on owner-occupied businesses as well, and we are seeing a lot of that. But clearly, as we came through the pandemic, and work to where we are today, a big part of that also was the PPP loans that we participated in. That was another important piece that really helped bridge the gap for a lot of our customers. What we realized was that not only our customers, but many nonbank customers, came to us to take advantage of the payroll protection program. We created a lot of new relationships through that, and we are still exploring where some of those relationships will take us,” recounts Bush. In 2015 the bank began working with third party vendors to offer online, mobile banking and digital payment platforms to meet the changing needs of customers. These upgrades were something which has been an advantage for customers during COVID. As Chantale Gilbert- Murat, AVP Retail Manager, explains, “It’s as if we knew that five years later that would benefit F I RST C I TY BANK