Focus Bank was prepared for emergency

A foundational component of community banking is stability. Banks need to demonstrate resilience and continuity, because trustworthiness can be a competitive edge. People want to know their investments are safe and protected against any sort of calamity. If disaster strikes, banking functions need to continue seamlessly without interruption.

When calamity struck in early April of 2025, Focus Bank’s main branch in downtown Charleston was damaged and the bank’s employees were unable to operate from that location. Steps were taken quickly in response. All operations were moved off-site and customers were directed to other branches for in-person banking. This is the sort of development that can generate anxiety in customers, but Focus Bank was able to keep the trust of customers both through their adept crisis management and by virtue of the steps they had taken previously to turn over statement production to HC3. 

Focus Bank’s Challenge and Response

For Focus Bank, the challenges of building and holding trust came to a head swiftly when disaster struck. Once it became clear that the building was unsafe, the branch was closed to customers and all bank personnel were relocated. Loan and deposit personnel, tellers, people handling new accounts, IT staff, and others had to be accommodated in new surroundings.

“We had to take all of those people and figure out a new place to put them as fast as we could,” says Jay McLeod, Focus Bank COO. “Fortunately we had some space in other locations. We were able to move people around and get that sorted out pretty quickly.”

In terms of statement production, the bank didn’t miss a beat. “We switched from in-house statement production to HC3 in 2022,” McLeod says. The initial motivation for looking at the services offered by a statement vendor was disaster recovery. “At first we thought HC3’s role would be limited to emergencies, but as we looked into it further, we decided to fully outsource the operation of statement production,” he says.

One benefit of outsourcing statement production is that employees who were previously managing the process became free to devote their attention to other vital bank tasks. “It’s turned out to be a great decision,” McLeod says. “The move gives our staff more time to pursue new projects and we’ve shifted the disaster recovery burden to HC3. They have disaster recovery procedures in place that help me sleep at night.”

Building Trust in Person Still Matters in the Digital Age

Banking is more digital than ever, which lessens in-person customer visits to bank branches, so the work of building trust through personal relationships needs to be supported by demonstrating dependability in other ways. Some banks are making more efforts to make their presence known in the community through volunteerism, involvement in local events, and philanthropy. This demonstrates that the financial institution is concerned about more than the bottom line and it offers more opportunities to connect directly with people.

Yet despite the increase in demand for the ability to conduct electronic banking instantly and safely anywhere at any time, human relationships still matter to many customers. “Our main branch in Charleston is a very traditional, on-the-corner, main-street, three-story bank building,” McLeod says, “so when we were forced to close it, the biggest problem for many of our customers was the disruption in their pattern of in-person bank visits. They look forward to the social part of banking. They don’t choose to bank online all of the time. They want to come to the bank to handle transactions.”

Prepared for the Unexpected

It is impossible to predict when and where disasters will strike, so being prepared at all times is essential. McLeod knows it would not have been easy to get statements out through in-house production when they were suddenly forced to close the bank building. “The machines we were using previously for in-house statement production were huge,” he says. “I don’t know how they got them in the building and to the third floor originally, but it would have been impossible to get them out after the disaster hit. It was unsafe for people to be in there.”

Focus Bank would also have needed to secure another production location and lease some similar equipment. “If we couldn’t get our paper and envelope stock out of the building, we would have to get a rush delivery on all that as well,” McLeod says. “The best case scenario is two or three weeks to get things set up, if everything fell into place.”

McLeod suggests that the moral of the story for Focus Bank is to be proactive, not reactive. “Many people think, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” he says, “but sometimes the better approach is to ask, ‘Can we improve this?’ Our in-house statement production wasn’t broken when we decided to outsource it to HC3, and we’re certainly happy we did that.”