Business View Magazine | September 2022

105 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 9 NORTH CAROL INA BANKERS ASSOC I AT ION “Our third subsidiary, Community Insurance Services, offers a digital insurance platform for banks to be able to provide insurance to their customers. In addition, NCBA is constantly asking what are the needs of the industry? And discussing what we can do to help through collaboration to marshal forces to lower the cost of doing business or to bring a revenue opportunity that they might not otherwise have on their own.” BVM: What type of banks make up your membership? Gwaltney: “There are roughly 84 banks doing business in the State of North Carolina and we represent them all. Our largest member is Bank of America, second largest is Truist, and our smallest member is Hertford Savings Bank with $16 million in assets and three employees. The members’ issues are very diverse and sometimes very complex. Every day is different. Certainly, we have strategies and plans and long-term initiatives but you just never know what the next the Office of Commissioner of Banks, our state banking regulator, and also in Washington with all the regulatory agencies in Congress with our delegation. Although the issues have changed, the people have changed, and our methods have changed, the initial mandate has not. We are focused on our mission just like we were back in 1897. “Since then we’ve expanded to serve the evolving needs of our membership. We now have a staff of 21 and three NCBA subsidiaries. We provide a group health insurance plan and employee benefits for all the community banks in the state through our Community Bank Services subsidiary. Another subsidiary, Centrant Community Capital, offers a lending opportunity for banks in the form of participation on loans that provide long-term debt for affordable housing developers. That part of our association is 32 years old and we passed the $500 million mark in terms of the total amount of loans that we’ve made in the history of the subsidiary.