Business View Magazine | October 2020

116 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2020 Joseph: “Things were rocking along, and in 2006, my brother and I started looking at our expenses. All our banks were independently chartered because there was no branch banking in Florida when they were formed. That meant five bank presidents, five of everything, and we realized we could accomplish great savings if we consolidated all five banks into the original Bank of Inverness charter. We started working on that in 2006 and completed the consolidation process in Feb. 2008. “We own a holding company called Brannen Banks of Florida, which in turn owns our banks. So, we took on the name Brannen Bank at all our locations. People knew the Brannen family from the beginning of the banks, so it just made sense. Then, in Sept 2008, our actions positively came to the forefront, much sooner than we thought, because of the Great Recession. It saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars by reducing our staff and our payroll. During that time, we also outsourced our data processing, which had been in our own 12,000 sq. ft. data processing center with a big crew. Our operations changed drastically with the consolidation in 2008, but it really has been a positive outcome for us.” BVM: How has COVID – 19 impacted your business? Joseph: “We’ve been really surprised this year with our growth, in spite of COVID–19 and the economic impact that’s occurred. Our CFO factored in interest rates when he did our budget, not knowing this would happen, and we thought we might even lose some deposits this year, when, in fact, we’re $100 million up from last year in deposits. People have always come to us in times of recession because they know their money is safe with the Brannen Bank. And they gravitate to us in uncertain times like we find ourselves in now. “But the growth we’ve achieved over the past year has been amazing. Currently, we’ve got $140 million in overnight money with the 90th Anniversary Celebration Mr. and Mrs. Joseph S. Brannen with their grandchildren, the future of Brannen Bank.