About CommunitySouth Bank & Trust
CommunitySouth Bank & Trust is a shared vision between Allan Ducker and David Miller to create a customer-focused, Upstate South Carolina community bank. Allan and David have known each other for over 12 years and created a partnership based on a team approach to covering the Upstate marketplace.
Mr. Ducker’s career has focused primarily on the Pickens and Greenville County markets, where he amassed a customer base of approximately $75 million in outstanding loans. Mr. Miller is a native of Spartanburg County and has been covering the Spartanburg and Greenville markets his entire career. He also established a loyal customer following that consisted of approximately $75 million in loan customers. Together they reasoned they could quickly grow CommunitySouth into an Upstate banking franchise that was truly customer-focused.
Mr. Ducker and Mr. Miller were fortunate to attract an excellent group of people which formed the board of directors. The directors consist of five business leaders from Pickens County and five business leaders from Spartanburg County, for a total of ten outside directors. Mr. Ducker, Mr. Miller and CFO John Hobbs round out the 13 member board.
People are the key to every organization and it was critical that an experienced team of devoted employees be established. With Allan Ducker as chief executive officer and David Miller as president, a strong chief financial officer was needed to round out the operational side of the executive management team. Mr. John Hobbs joined CommunitySouth early on in the organizational process as the company’s CFO. He helped start two other community banks and has in excess of 12 years of experience as a CFO.
With the board and the executive management team in place, regulatory approval was obtained in just five months. Invitations were then sent to local individuals for the opportunity to invest in CommunitySouth. These invitations were received with extreme enthusiasm. Within a period of approximately 60 days, the initial minimum offering of $11.5 million was nearly tripled and the company had to expand the maximum offering to $30 million. Even after expanding the maximum, $32.7 million total subscriptions were received and $2.7 million had to be returned to subscribers.
With shareholder investment of $30 million, CommunitySouth set a record as the most highly capitalized de novo bank in South Carolina history. This strong capital position allowed us to execute on our business plan to rapidly expand across the Upstate of South Carolina.
CommunitySouth is one of the fastest growing community banks in South Carolina. Today we operate full-service offices in Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Greer, Mauldin and Easley. An additional location in Spartanburg is planned for late 2008. CommunitySouth also operates full-service mortgage and investment departments.
The CommunitySouth vision is to build a growth-oriented financial institution like no other in the Upstate. Simply put, we strive to be the best bank in the market. We are a financial institution that is centered on innovation and expansion, and are locally owned and operated, and staffed by the best banking professionals in the market. Our number one corporate goal always has been and always will be excellence in customer service. This is what sets us apart. Customer service standards such as:
- Customers are greeted by their second step into the lobby
- Customers are treated to complimentary cookies, soft drinks, coffee and water
- Customers are called by name and are always thanked for their business
- New customers receive a personal welcome note
- Existing customers receive a thank you note after opening a new account
- Customers receive a follow-up call within 30 days of opening a new account
- Telephones are answered by a live person by the third ring
- Loan requests and service issues are always responded to quickly and locally
- Customers receive convenient banking hours, including Saturdays
- Customers receive access to a surcharge-free ATM service
- Qualified commercial customers receive free courier service
- Customers have access to senior management
We still have a lot of hard work ahead, but we have taken our vision and turned it into a reality after just one year of operation. And results to a recent customer satisfaction survey confirm our commitment to the aforementioned standards. In this regard, we are grateful to our shareholders, communities, customers, directors and employees for sharing this vision.
» Learn more about CommunitySouth by visiting our Newsroom.
