underwrites loans to how it shows up at a Friday block party in North Topeka. Kaw Valley Bank is a $315 million institution with about 85 employees. Nearly all of its business is in Shawnee County and northeast Kansas, skewing toward entrepreneurial and industrial smallbusiness lending, with a consumer arm that includes mortgages and everyday banking.Agriculture is part of the regional story, but KVB’s book tilts toward the local shop owners, contractors, and service firms that keep Topeka moving. SERVICE YOU CAN FEEL Plenty of banks talk about service; KVB still treats it as a craft. Phones get answered. Calls get returned quickly. Problems get solved without handoffs. That responsiveness is rooted in the way the bank manages its people: employees are included in goalsetting, treated like owners of the client experience, and encouraged to push for better ways to help customers. The culture feels more like a family company than a financial institution—and that’s by design. “Across industries, small businesses have a lot in common,” Heideman notes.“We run our bank the way many of them run their companies. It’s a natural fit.” LENDING THROUGH UNCERTAINTY After a decade of ultra-low rates, borrowers today face a different cost of capital. KVB addresses that change without drama. The bank underwrites present-day repayment capacity and models what a two- or three-point rate increase would mean for coverage. Those “stress tests” aren’t kept in the back office—they’re shared with customers so owners can plan for repricing, prepayment, or refinancing windows when rates eventually move. “We don’t guess the market,” Heideman says. “We help people manage it—so they avoid over-leverage and stay prepared for what’s next.” That same realism shows up in consumer conversations. With insurance premiums, construction costs, and maintenance all trending higher, KVB coaches households to evaluate total cost of ownership—not just the headline rate— 109 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 11 KAW VALLEY BANK
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