PORTFOLIO ď…€FOCUS MARKETING Should you talk to customers about your bank's finances? With the recent failures of a few megabanks, customers may have questions and concerns about their own banks. Here's how you can address them. By Beth Mattson-Teig ike other community banks, Grand Rapids State Bank in Grand Rapids, Minn., has nothing in common with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) or Signature Bank. But in the aftermath of the megabanks' failure, that didn't stop the community bank's leaders from putting a plan together for talking about the bank's financial health if customers had questions. L One of the first steps the $264 million-asset community bank took was sending out an all-staff communication that explained why the failures were occurring and reassured employees about Grand Rapids State Bank's financial position and its ability to withstand economic shocks. The main point of the email was to advise employees to listen for those kinds of concerns from customers and to refer any questions about the financial health of the bank to the CEO or another member of the executive management team. " We wanted to have a unified message in case those questions did arise, " says Noah Wilcox, president, CEO and chairman of Grand Rapids State Bank and Minnesota Lakes 26 // ICBA Independent Banker // August 2023 Photo by Rawpixel.com/Adobehttp://www.Rawpixel.com/Adobe