Guaranty Federal welcomes banking veteran as new president and CEO

Don Gibson's first day as president and chief executive officer of Guaranty Federal Savings Bank was Jan. 14, but he's no stranger to the local banking scene. Gibson came to Guaranty Federal with more than 39 years of experience in Springfield's banking industry.

First, he spent 12 years with The Union National Bank of Springfield and two years with Boatmen's Bank, which acquired Union National.

He then worked at Great Southern Bank for 25 years, ultimately serving as vice chairman and chief operating officer. "My experience has given me good insight into the banking industry in Springfield," he said.

Following his tenure at Great South-ern, Gibson spent a brief time working at Northwest National Bank in Arkansas before returning to Springfield.

History

Guaranty Federal first opened in 1891 as a savings and loan in St. Louis before moving to Springfield in 1913. In 1995, it became a federal savings bank.

"It's kind of followed the same path as Great Southern," said Gibson.

Also starting out as a savings and loan, Great Southern then became a federal savings bank before converting to a state-chartered bank in 1998.

"Whether we'll take Guaranty Federal to a state-chartered bank remains to be seen," Gibson said.

Being a state-chartered bank offers some latitude in the commercial lending area that isn't available to a federal savings bank, he said.

However, Guaranty Federal hasn't reached the regulatory limitations placed on federal savings banks that would re-quire the bank to consider a change.

"We've got room to do more commercial loans and still stay a federal savings bank," Gibson said. "Right now we've got the latitude to grow in pretty much any direction we want."

Guaranty Federal, which has its headquarters at 1341 W. Battlefield Road, has four free-standing branches with drive-through banking, four in-store branches in Dillons stores, and an in-store branch in the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Nixa.

Growth

"There's a possibility we'll be looking for other locations in the future, though probably not this year," he said. "I think drive-through banking and ATMs are the future for us, as opposed to large buildings with lobbies."

Guaranty Federal experienced a lot of growth last year, Gibson said, including the acquisition of Commercial Federal Bank in December 2001. At the end of 2001, the holding company had $408 million in assets, he said.

Guaranty Federal is a publicly traded company, and Great Southern is its lar-gest stockholder, owning around 18 or 19 percent of Guaranty Federal, Gibson said. Great Southern made an offer to acquire the bank in August 2001, but Guaranty Federal did not accept the offer.

Future plans

In the banking industry, the possibility for consolidation always exists, Gibson said.

"Right now we're in a position where we could be acquired, or we could acquire another bank. Or, we could continue as we are," he said.

The industry has its own unique challenges, Gibson said.

"Interest rates are low right now, which kind of squeezes margins," he said. "But competition is the biggest challenge."

Although this is true throughout the banking industry, Gibson said, "it seems like it's extremely competitive here in Springfield. There's a lot of competition there's a bank on every corner."

According to Gibson, the abundance of banks is due mostly to bank consolidation. "Usually a lot of the people who were with those banks that are consolidated spin off and establish new start-up banks, and compete against the old bank," he said. "It's an interesting industry."

One reason Springfield is able to support a multitude of banks, Gibson said, is that the city's banking industry still fo-cuses on interacting with people.

"That's given a lot of success to some of the smaller banks," he said. "In some parts of the country, you have to pay extra to see a teller, and there's no person-to-person interaction. But here it's still pretty much a people business."