Old Misouri National Bank finding success

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The owners of the two-year-old Old Missouri National Bank at 1535 W. Sunshine know that the banking industry is extremely competitive in Springfield. With a bank seemingly on almost every corner in the town, they've managed to move into the black, stay there, and today are just shy of $35 million in assets.|ret||ret||tab|

James Holstein is Old Missouri's president and Mark Harrington is executive vice president. The two are co-founders of the company and co-owners of the bank along with 35 other private individuals. |ret||ret||tab|

"We met while working at another independent bank here in Springfield," Holstein said. "Then we decided to start our own bank. We had both been with big banks and found that we liked smaller banking better."|ret||ret||tab|

Harrington said he likes the local control and local ownership of independent banking. "It's better for us and the customers if the decisions are made locally."|ret||ret||tab|

According to Holstein, Old Missouri has exceeded their goals in terms of growth. "We've been in the black every month since our 11th month in business," he said. "That's very uncommon. Bus-iness is strong today and we expect it to be strong tomorrow."|ret||ret||tab|

The company has seen physical growth as well. Holstein and Harrington hope to open a second location on the south side of town by early next year. |ret||ret||tab|

Old Mis-souri now has 11 full-time and three part-time employees. "We'll probably be adding to that number as we move into our second location," Harrington said.|ret||ret||tab|

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Lending|ret||ret||tab|

Old Missouri is primarily a full-service commercial lender. "We do a lot of retail, agricultural and real estate lending, " Harrington said. The bank extends some car, boat and home loans as well. It does not have a trust department, but refers clients to trust companies.|ret||ret||tab|

Most of the bank's customers live in Springfield, but agricultural clients come from as far away as Halltown and Miller.|ret||ret||tab|

The company may get into Internet banking and also have a system set up where custo-mers can have access to their accounts 24 hours a day. "I can see those things in the foreseeable future," Holstein said. "But they're not a priority." He added that when a service becomes important to the bank's customers it will become a priority to the bank. |ret||ret||tab|

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Old-time service|ret||ret||tab|

Holstein said the logic behind naming the bank Old Missouri National is to emphasize old-time service. The name was agreed upon by all the investors, who include Holstein and Harrington's friends and business associates. |ret||ret||tab|

Holstein said he's proud of the fact that so many of the customers Harrington and he had been working with at other banks followed them to Old Missouri National Bank.|ret||ret||tab|

"The competition is tough in banking," he said. "But at this bank the customers get a human being on the phone when they call."|ret||ret||tab|

He added, "They don't have to go through three or four levels of voice mail to get a question answered. People tell us we have a friendly lobby area. When someone walks in, they are immediately welcomed. We expect our employees to know a customer's name by the third time they come in."|ret||ret||tab|

Harrington said their customers followed them to Old Missouri because "we've demonstrated we will take care of them dealing with business or personal finances is important and personal to our clients."[[In-content Ad]]