Local Banking, Local Home Lending
by Melissa LaScaleia
Anderson Brothers Bank is a local institution that was founded in the early 1930s, when tobacco farmers needed financing for their crop. During the recession, there wasn’t an option for farmers to secure funding, so the Anderson family offered it to them out of the back of an old tobacco warehouse in Marion County.
From these humble beginnings, Anderson Brothers Bank has grown into a full service community bank with over thirty locations from North Myrtle Beach to as far south as Summerville, and inland to Florence. They carry all the products and conveniences that you’d expect from a national bank, but also offer the personalized service that can only be derived from building relationships with their clients.
Just as it was almost a century ago, today, Anderson Brothers Bank is still locally owned and run by the Anderson family. The third generation team includes: David Anderson as CEO and president, Tommy Anderson as vice president, and Neal Anderson as the chairman of the board.
Tim McCoy is the vice president of the mortgage banking division, a role he’s held for the past ten years of his twenty-three years working in this industry. The Anderson Brothers Bank mortgage division provides home lending services to Horry County residents and the surrounding areas, offering a variety of options designed to make home ownership as affordable as possible.
“In the past ten years, I’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth in our bank in general,” Tim says. “But particularly within our mortgage department. Today we’re one of the biggest mortgage lenders in Horry County and the surrounding areas. And that growth I attribute to the vision, leadership, and commitment of David Anderson.
“The Myrtle Beach metropolitan area is one of the fastest growing areas in the state and also the country, which is a contributing factor in our growth. But we also develop a lot of relationships with local real estate agents and companies, and many new relationships are built via word of mouth. We’ve developed a really good reputation as time has passed. People say they know who Anderson Brothers Bank is. And a lot of our success comes from building those relationships and that reliability.”
The mortgage industry is different from regular banking in the way business is conducted— secondary markets are involved. So navigating this arena requires a skill set that’s separate from regular banking.
To grow in this market, for the first five years or so, David focussed the bank’s efforts on recruiting a stellar team of loan officers, processors, and underwriters— people who have the qualifications and specializations required to be a success in their industry.
“We focussed on hiring good people,” Tim says. “We did it gradually, and then put infrastructure in place so we can maintain that level of operations. Now everything is done locally, which allows us to communicate better with customers and operate more efficiently than a national bank.”
“It’s also about the repoire we have with the community. They work conjointly those two things— getting the right people and the right reputation. I believe we have the right leadership in place to allow that to happen. David likes to say: ‘Whether you’re a branch manager or processing manager, run it like you own it.’ He gives us the tools we need to succeed, and wants us to take pride in what we accomplish.”
That managerial style goes hand in hand with Anderson Brother’s philosophy— to be the bank where employees love to work and customers love to do business.
“Nowadays, all banks are highly competitive with interest rates,” Tim says. “So when shopping around for a home mortgage loan, really the differentiator is customer service. In the past three to five years, we’ve really taken off. Today we are one of the biggest local lenders.
“We are always in search of a variety of new products and finding the right products, to be as competitive in the market as possible.
“I’ve also seen a switch in customer preferences— whereas previously people tended to opt for bigger banks, now they are electing to do business with community banks because they understand that we carry the same level of security and guarantees, and they really enjoy what we have to offer personally.”
Anderson Brothers Bank
