Page 12 - December 31 2017 Reporter

2018 League Chairman Travis Schroll

The need for diversity in language skills goes hand in hand with economies. Travis reflected when
Miami’s economy was almost destroyed, they experienced an increase in the Cuban population.
Since Miami’s recovery, the Cuban population has declined. “It’s about employment opportunities
and community banks do well to keep that in mind. It’s interesting.”

EYES WIDE SHUT OR GLASS HALF FULL?
Returning to how Travis began his career at Beardstown Savings. As mentioned at the start of
this piece, he accepted the position as Executive Vice President in 2009, however one could
argue that his career began long before then. Travis has banked at Beardstown Savings his entire
life. His family operated a funeral home and had several accounts with various local banks. One
day he was out doing his personal banking when his predecessor asked him into his office. He
wanted to know if he would be interested in joining Beardstown Savings and Travis purported, “I
was just naïve enough to think yea, I can do this without having any community banking
experience.” At the time his clients were banks and mortgage companies at Wells Fargo. I see
Travis as a community banker over that of a mortgage guy and he wholeheartedly agreed, “yes,
it fits me a lot better.”

“At the time I accepted the job at Beardstown, we were not far removed from a cease a desist
order. I was aware of that, but again, naivety took over and I figured I can do this, no big deal. It
worked out and it’s enjoyable now because when you’re in that situation your regulatory bodies
have to approve most decision making including hiring. I can look back on their letters and
comments and see how they questioned the decision to hire me. Words like inexperience come
to mind.” He was only 34 at the time. When asked what it was he thought led them to accepting
him as the right person for the job, he confessed that it took a couple of years, but the main thing
was seeing him in action.
As any banker who has ever been under the scope of examiners, Travis attributes months of
scrutiny and observation eased their doubts about his abilities. Travis responds that he was
always upfront in providing straight answers. What was asked of them, he and his team produced.
He admits that once the bank started to turn a profit – “well that was the validation needed, but it
took years.” Without exception, it’s best to be transparent when you’re in a scenario of hosting
regulators a couple times a year; usually one to two weeks for the big exam and a week or less
at mid-year. Those not familiar with the banking industry are unaware of the costs paid for external
consultants. External FDIC premiums are higher due to being designated a greater risk to the
system, so everything becomes a challenge. And it’s hard to assume some of the charge downs
and then the possibility of taking the losses.

Q: Asked if Dodd Frank and the Consumer Protection Agency are necessary to keep banks in
check and ultimately reduce the probability of another great recession…

…his response was yes and no. “The motives behind Dodd Frank and CFPB were well intended,
but the implementation and unexpected consequences are the issue. The problem lies in that
the percentage of the regulator costs are much higher for a small community bank. This has
driven consolidation and made the largest banks larger. So, for a smaller bank to spend in excess
of $100,000 a year to be compliant cuts into profitability, which in turn reduces the sort of things
you’d like to do for the community or your employees.” From the prospective of a mortgage lender,
some of the concepts behind Dodd Frank are sound. The forms aren’t the issue, but the new time
frames extend the process to the point of forcing lending fees to increase, so compliance has
made it costlier to the buyer. “We went from charging borrowers a few hundred dollars for fees to

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December 2017 IllInoIs RepoRteR