Independent Banker - May 2020 - 44

MORE THAN $1 BILLION
By Kelly Pike
#7
3 minutes with ...
Vito Pantilione, president
and CEO, Parke Bank
ow do you top a year of record earnings? If you're
at Parke Bank, you do it with an even better year.
Strong loan demand from one of the community
bank's largest group of customers-
Chinese American businesses-
was one factor in its earnings of
nearly $30 million, up 22% from
$24.4 million in 2018. Despite
the U.S.-China trade war and
the beginning of the COVID-19
pandemic, loan demand among
the bank's Asian American clients
was robust, propelling Parke Bank
Vito Pantilione
to loan growth of 14.4% overall. " [That segment is]
less than half of the portfolio, but it's a big half, " says
Vito Pantilione, president and CEO.
The community bank has captured much of
this market by catering to its customers' needs.
Pantilione, the former president of a Chinese bank
in Philadelphia, understands the cultural differences
and hires staff who do, too. Among its employees are
speakers of every Chinese dialect, making it possible to
bank any Chinese customer who isn't fluent in English.
Parke Bank has also worked to educate customers
about financial documentation and the loan process.
Now, 60% of new loans in the Chinese community are
from existing customers, Pantilione says.
The biggest challenge, whatever the market, is
keeping up with deposits; Parke Bank is just outside
Philadelphia, one of the most competitive deposit
markets in the country. " It seems like we have spies in
the boardroom, " Pantilione jokes. " We have a meeting
on special interest rates and, as soon as we leave the
board meeting, we find out somebody just came out
with a higher interest rate. "
Though 2020 is turning out to be a very different
year than 2019, Pantilione remains hopeful.
" The only thing I can say is hopefully we are very
well structured to survive what comes at us, " he says.
" We have a very strong capital position, very strong
earnings and a very good asset quality position. We
44 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q May 2020
H
Parke Bank
Sewell, N.J.
Assets: $1.8 billion
3-yr average ROA: 2.56%
parkebank.com
have a strong loan loss reserve. Certainly, all that can
change in this environment, but all the boxes tell us we'll
be able to come out of this crisis strong. "
More than $1 billion in assets
Rank Bank name
City
1 Metro City Bank
2 Cross River Bank
3 Cache Valley Bank
4 Centennial Bank
5 Central Bank
6 EagleBank
7 Parke Bank
8 CFG Community Bank
9 Royal Business Bank
10 Timberland Bank
11 Bank of Commerce
12
First National Bank of Fort
Smith
13 Altabank
14 Northpointe Bank
15 Bank of Ann Arbor
16 Poppy Bank
18
19
Northern Bank & Trust
Company
Heartland Bank and Trust
Company
20 Western State Bank
21 Choice Bank
22 Glacier Bank
23 First American Bank
24 Citizens First Bank
25 Independent Financial
Doraville
Fort Lee
Logan
Conway
Provo
Bethesda
Sewell
State
GA
NJ
UT
AR
UT
MD
NJ
Baltimore MD
Los Angeles
CA
Hoquiam WA
Idaho Falls
ID
Fort Smith
American Fork
AR
UT
Grand Rapids MI
Ann Arbor
Santa Rosa
17 Citizens National Bank of Texas Waxahachie
Woburn
Bloomington
Devils Lake
Fargo
Kalispell
Artesia
The Villages
McKinney
MI
CA
TX
MA
IL
ND
ND
MT
NM
FL
TX
3-yr average
ROA
4.05
3.78
2.84
2.78
2.61
2.59
2.56
2.56
2.48
2.46
2.45
2.44
2.44
2.42
2.35
2.33
2.28
2.24
2.23
2.18
2.18
2.12
2.11
2.10
2.08
http://www.parkebank.com
Independent Banker - May 2020

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