An Interview with Scott Latham—CEO of the Alabama Bankers Association

speaker-2 (00:20.002)
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Community Bank Podcast. This is the podcast by Bankers for Bankers. I’m Caleb Stevens with South State Bank’s Capital Markets Division. And today I’m joined by Bailey Erickson making her podcast debut. Bailey, how’s it going?

speaker-1 (00:33.152)
It’s going well, thanks for having me.

speaker-2 (00:35.512)
You’ve been with us here at SouthState for, what is it, about two years now?

speaker-1 (00:39.416)
Yeah. Two years was in June, so.

speaker-2 (00:41.43)
So, you you’ve been diving into the world of correspondent banking. Tell us quickly about yourself and what you do here at the correspondent division.

speaker-1 (00:49.346)
Well, like you said, I’m one of the business development officers here and I have been with SouthState for two years now. I cover the states of Georgia and Alabama and, you know, share a little bit of that with Chris Wright, who I’m sure many people know in those states. And I have just been having the best time getting out, meeting people, meeting our customers, and learning so much about banking.

speaker-2 (01:10.942)
Like drinking from a fire hose, for sure.

speaker-1 (01:12.99)
Yeah, absolutely. But it’s been such a great journey thus far and it’s been so wonderful just to learn all the connections in banking and everyone who works in it and through that getting to meet Scott, who we have on today.

speaker-2 (01:26.69)
Well we’ve loved having you on the team and you mentioned Scott Latham, the CEO of the Alabama Bankers Association. You sat down with him. Tell us about that conversation.

speaker-1 (01:36.322)
Yeah, so today I sat down here in Atlanta with Scott Latham. He, like you said, is the president and CEO of the Alabama Bankers Association and has been with them since nineteen ninety-seven. So he has had a long career with them, knows a lot about banking and the state of Alabama. And today we talked about banker involvement, trends that we see in banking, advocacy within the state, and so much more. So it was a great episode and we’re excited for everyone to listen to it.

speaker-2 (02:03.67)
Fantastic. Well, let’s jump into it right now.

speaker-1 (02:21.518)
All right, hello everyone. Welcome back to the Community Bank Podcast. I’m sitting down today with the president and CEO of the Alabama Bankers Association, Mr. Scott Latham. Scott, how you doing?

speaker-0 (02:32.847)
I’m doing well. Thank you so much for this opportunity to be with you today.

speaker-1 (02:36.448)
Yeah, thank you for coming. Well, just to get us started, tell us a little bit about you and your career in Alabama.

speaker-0 (02:43.65)
Well, that’s a loaded question. So, I have been in banking in Alabama for forty years with the association almost thirty years. I started as a banker with the Union Bank and Trust Company in Montgomery, Alabama, which became ultimately became a part of Regions in nineteen ninety-five. I stayed there for a little while after it became Regions, had an opportunity and wound up at the association in nineteen ninety-seven and I have been parked and working there ever since.

speaker-1 (03:12.662)
All right. Well you have a great team with you there in Alabama. And just tell us a little bit what’s you know what’s the core mission? What do you guys do for anyone who may not know what a state association really entails?

speaker-0 (03:24.536)
Milly, that’s a great question and I and I appreciate it. So like other state trade associations in the banking world, in all the states that you serve, where your listeners are, we exist primarily to represent the industry at the state level and certainly at the federal level. So the Alabama Bankers Association and our 117 members are active in the, you know.

Ongoings of the Alabama legislature, all things government related in Alabama, and at the federal level as well, working closely with the American Bankers Association and at times also the ICBA, we represent the interests of our members in Washington as well. So any good trade association, in my opinion, has a strong governmental affairs representation. as well, we do everything we can to advance the industry.

And that includes professional development and opportunities to help grow our bankers and prepare them all the way from directors all the way down to, you know, the new entries into the industry. so a lot in professional development, bringing people together for networking opportunities. We do a lot of that in our state trade associations around the around the nation. And you know, pretty much anything related to how do we how do we

become a better bank, a better industry today than we were yesterday and in the years to come.

speaker-1 (04:56.226)
For sure. And you saying that, I it makes me think of my like many people probably in banking, my dad is also a banker in the state of Georgia. And he said, you know, I really thought I knew what a state association entailed, you know, when I was a lender. And whenever I got into leadership and into the volunteer leadership of the state, it’s like I just really was blown away by just the magnitude of things that the state associations do for us and just how much they advocate for us. So in thinking of that, what

What are some things that the state of Alabama has done, some tangible wins you might say, for the state in the past few years?

speaker-0 (05:31.158)
What my mind goes back to the 2026 legislative session in Alabama when you asked that question. we were ending a week on a Thursday. We the session had been in, I don’t know, a couple of weeks maybe, and we got a call that a bill had been dropped that would allow credit unions to bank volunteer fire departments. We immediately saw that as another step by the credit union industry to

to to get into holding public deposits. Now in some states I think credit unions can hold public deposits in Alabama. It is not it is not allowed under current law. And so we worked an entire weekend and had the last time I counted, we had over fifty of our CEOs who we had reached out to, say from a Thursday evening to a Monday morning before that new week started to say, Hey, would you reach out to your elected official?

with a phone call, with a text, a voicemail, or whatever, and say, hey, this bill was dropped. this is what this really becomes if enacted. And you know, it isn’t always the case, but in that case, public hearings were scheduled and held within a seven day period. And w one of our, you know, one of our greatest tests sometimes as an industry has to do with how responsive we are

How knowledgeable we are on the issues. And as important as a State Trade Association is, an elected official always needs to hear first and last from his or her constituents. And so the constituency outreach really won that game. The bankers engaging won that game for us. And public hearings were held. I testified, some of our CEOs testified, both in the House and the Senate hearing on the same day.

credit unions were present but did not stand up and testify. Only the volunteer firefighters who were representing a small volunteer fire department over, I believe, in Lamar County, Alabama. Long story short, we were able to push back. the bills did not come out of committee following that public hearing. But, you know, they’ll try again as credit unions, you know, seek to become more and more like banks. That was a win for us, but again, it was a win for

speaker-0 (07:52.514)
the entire industry, but the the winners were the bankers who engaged and made those calls. And so from a legislative perspective, that we had a we had a bill to pass called the Alabama Property Protection Act, which was really run by the Alabama Realtors Association. We played a small role in that in helping to through our bankers to and through our lobbyists to advance that particular bill, which of course

was an effort to push back against the scammers posing as property owners to obtain property that really wasn’t rightfully ours. And so that particular bill was passed, was enacted into law that protects our banks, protects our collateral, protects our customers. And so those are those are just a couple of examples of wins on the legislative side.

speaker-1 (08:40.704)
Yeah, absolutely. And and how you talking about, you know, the realtors being so important and playing such a large role, how do you get these lawmakers to understand on the state level and even the national level when you’re in DC, just how it affects the local communities, the local economies and the growth of those as well?

speaker-0 (08:58.338)
Me, it’s when you use real world stories, real world scenarios. If I am a if I’m one of those CEOs who picked up the phone and called that legislator about either of these bills, or another bill, perhaps it may be, you know, on on the on the docket. if I’m able to say to him or her, hey, th this affects our bank this way, but more importantly, this affects our customers, our friends, your constituents. We had a we had a member of Congress

a number of years ago. It was Congressman Mike Rogers from Aniston area in one of our banks. and and we had it stemmed from a meeting we had had in DC when we talked about how many times a customer has to sign his or her name for a small loan. And and we gave some really big number and he’s like, Are you kidding me? We’re like, no. And so we he agreed to come to one of our banks and this particular bank did a great job of pulling, let’s say

a loan package for I think it was like a forty thousand dollar loan. Somebody was literally adding onto their house a garage, maybe, and and and maybe a a a r a bonus room or something. And I don’t remember now how many how many signatures. They of course redacted them. But we handed him a stack of paper that was probably an inch and a half, two inches thick. And it blew his mind. And he said, I’ve heard y’all say this for years, but I’ve never seen it. And so when we’re able to

And bankers can do this easily when we’re able to kind of explain in person, hey, here’s an example of what we’re talking about, or or here’s how it affects, you know, your constituent, my customer, and we get them to see it through a lens that is almost firsthand, to me, that’s when we’re most effective. I can sit and read bullet points all day long. I can I can send an email in response to a a blast alert all day long. But if I’ve got the relationship

And I sit down with that elected official and and and I’m able to get him or her to to kind of see it through that lens, I think we’re more effective.

speaker-1 (11:02.86)
Yeah, absolutely. And and we have so many, you know, different positions of bankers, if whether they’re in leadership, whether they’re in operations that listen to this podcast, and and I think from what you’ve just said is example enough as to why it’s important for the state to have a unified voice at the state level. But do you have anything else you want to touch on in regards to that of of why it’s important and what can bankers do, you know, to make sure we have that unified voice?

speaker-0 (11:28.706)
Well, first of all, that that’s a great question and I appreciate it. you know, if I’m an elected official and I’m hearing different messages from different groups, then that’s an automatic opportunity for me to do nothing. And we have a lot of that at times, particularly when we find ourselves as an industry not necessarily communicating things the same way or agreeing. And, you know, we we’ve all been in situations where mixed messages sometimes get, you know, no results.

so many of the issues facing our industry face all of us, whether we are a large bank or a small bank. the you know the nation, the state, our our respective markets need all-size banks to meet the needs of of customers. And so as as trade associations, we believe it’s important, first of all, to listen to our members. I I know that my counterparts

in the states where you all serve as opposed to just Alabama, you know, from Colorado, Texas, all the way to Virginia, the the heads of those state associations would agree with me on this, and that is we first listen to our members. We get guidance as to where our members want us to go as a state trade association. Generally that’s pretty easy for us if we’re if we’re doing our homework and doing our jobs. Then we take that position or those positions

And our job is to grab the ball and run with it and go with it. And in in being effective at what we do, when we are effective at what we do, then we’ve taken those messages and we have, with that, you know, one common voice there expressed to this legislator or that legislator or member of Congress, hey, you know, here are the issues, here’s why it’s important, here’s why we believe what we do. Fact check us. We’re glad to sit down at a table with you.

lay all the lay all the documents out or give you any examples that you want. When when you do your homework like that and you go prepared, whether you’re a banker or a trade association person, then I think you’re gonna be successful.

speaker-1 (13:37.838)
Mm, absolutely. Well, us talking about all these different issues that you’ve presented, you know, in legislative efforts, what what are some of the top priorities right now for the ABA in relation to advocacy, whether that be on the state level, on the national level, what what’s going on in Alabama?

speaker-0 (13:52.942)
You know, so on an advocacy front, you know, we are at the state level, you know, one of the things that we’re always concerned about is first of all, playing defense. and I and I’m sure my counterparts in other states can say this. There are in almost every session, bills that are introduced that may negatively impact our industry that may not necessarily be, you know, intending to do that. sometimes it could be a bill that

would would require a change in banking and a solution could also be found that doesn’t impact our industry in a negative way. So sometimes it’s just an oversight. But, you know, protecting the state’s tax framework, revenue framework from proposals that negatively impact banks, disproportionately impact banks is important. you know, holding that line on level playing field with credit unions. one of our hills to die on is always credit unions, whether in the state level or

A huge a huge problem at the national level. But we always talk about that in Alabama every year before the session begins. we say credit unions are gonna make a run at public deposits or credit unions are gonna do this or that and and because they continually try to push their boundaries, you know, that’s something that’s a priority for us. budget issues that affect the state’s overall business climate, always at the top of our list. and defending against legislation that again innocently impacts banks.

Sounds sounds kind of trite, but every year, you know, we we have a number of bills that would do that. And so we have a in the state of Alabama, our state banking department, which is a large, large regulator for Alabama banks, is solely funded through assessments paid by state chartered banks, zero tax dollars. But sometimes, particularly in a new administration, they will see those assessments sitting in the, you know, the state coffers.

millions of dollars that fund the banking department, they may want to make a grab at that, particularly if, you know, the the budget is tight that year. Fortunately we haven’t had that lately. But so protecting that kind of grab sometimes is something that we do as well.

speaker-1 (16:05.656)
Do you have any examples of recent advocacy wins in the state of Alabama?

speaker-0 (16:09.592)
Well, certainly the credit union bill that we talked about. a number of years ago, we passed a bill that r was a proactive bill allowing banks to have a little more latitude, state charter banks to have a little more latitude on elder fraud abuse issues, things that we could do that would, you know, make it a little bit easier to protect elder funds. Those kinds of wins are great wins for us. and again, being able to

to do anything that that protects our industry, but as well allows us the latitude that we need to do what we do well every day. And that’s take care of Alabama, Alabama main customers.

speaker-1 (16:49.878)
Mm. Yeah, absolutely. And you talking about fraud, I know that’s something that’s just on the forefront of everyone’s mind, you know, across the nation and especially the community bankers. so what are some challenges maybe just looking at the industry as a whole that could be keeping bankers up at night? I’m sure fraud being one of them and many more.

speaker-0 (17:08.386)
You know, as I thought about what we would talk about today, fraud came to mind. It’s one of the top things on my list here. you know, real-time payment fraud, check fraud, financial exploitation of elders, elderly people, it’s it’s evolving faster than most banks can keep up with it. if I am in conversation with, you know, ten of my CEOs this week, eight of them bring that up. You know, our fraud we cannot keep up with the fraud. We cannot

seem to do enough to educate our customers. And that isn’t that isn’t depending on a market. That is in rural markets. That’s in, you know, urban markets, irrespective of a bank size, small or large. That is one of the things that I would say, probably the top thing that keeps most of our CEOs up at night. you know, other challenges that your listeners are going to relate to, you know, is deposit competition, funding costs.

banks are competing not with g with each other, but certainly with, you know, money market funds or or yeah, money market funds, fintechs, you know, a whole host of of non traditional bank providers that, you know, five, ten, fifteen years ago weren’t weren’t players in that. So, you know, deposit competition. we hear a lot about regulatory and compliance burden. those eight CEOs that talk about fraud.

We would probably add two more to and ten out of ten CEOs would talk about right sized regulation. yeah, I remember the I I remember the first banker in my career who said the words to me, I embrace regulation and I enjoy the interaction with my regulators. First time I ever heard it, I thought, Hey, that I I’ve not heard that before. You know, you’re you’re a little bit of a of unique there. But I I think I think that really represents

quite a number of our members, but they want that regulation to be fair. They want that regulation to make sense. and and one of the things that we say, one of the things we do, by the way, as a trade association is maintain relationships with both state and federal regulators. And when we are with those regulators, we talk a lot about how, you know, we think they could maybe view things differently, do things a little bit better.

speaker-0 (19:35.546)
in order to not necessarily be so rigid. you know, understanding that some circumstances that banks find themselves in in a regulatory exam may be unique, may be different. And so if the if the end goal is to help a bank be better at what it does every day, then then that flexibility is certainly important and needed. But right sized regulation is a burden.

speaker-1 (19:58.638)
Absolutely. And I know you guys discuss that a lot. I remember back, you know, at the end of July there we had a regulatory panel at the Director’s College Conference. Yes. And, you know, something no matter what state you’re in, you can reach out to those regulators and they’re happy to help you and direct you. And if you don’t know who to contact, contact your state association because I’d say more than likely they know who to put you in contact with for sure.

speaker-0 (20:21.678)
I had a compliance officer in a rather large bank to reach out to me this week and said, I would really like to have an offline conversation with an examiner. I it’s not something I want to run through my senior compliance department in my bank. And I said, you know what, I think we can make that happen. And the moon had not risen that night, and we already had that call set up with a senior person who agreed to kind of be offline and just help that person think through and work through a couple of things.

And so you’re right, they’re very willing to do that. The associations can always serve as a a connective point, you know, for things like that and love doing that.

speaker-1 (21:01.366)
Yeah, absolutely. And it it definitely seems like each state, the states that I cover and the people that I know at their respective associations, anytime that someone needs something, whether it’s just a day to day task, reach out to your state association if you need a contact. They’re more than willing to help you. like before we were eating lunch and you said, If you need help getting anywhere, you call me. The the state associations are more than happy to help you in any way that they possibly can and they do so much more for you than what you realize. just to

talk about the industry outlook like we were. What what are some of the opportunities maybe that you see in the state of Alabama and just in the US?

speaker-0 (21:38.21)
You know, I I think some of the things that we’re working on, opportunities for for our banks. One of the things that ought to be keeping bankers up at night is talent and talent acquisition. you know, we’re we’re in an environment that is changing every day, in an industry rather, that’s changing every day. I I would have never believed, and many listeners wouldn’t either, that we could deposit a check on an iPhone so easily or that we could transact business, you know, maybe at a stoplight in traffic.

But we can do that now. That will continue to change with AI. Opportunities to me where we can be helpful to our banks is to help, say for instance, with that talent acquisition. I was telling you over after lunch, I believe, about a a program we have in Alabama where our association through our young bankers is on about a dozen college campuses each year, from Florence, Alabama, all the way to Mobile, you know, University of Alabama, Auburn.

larger, smaller universities with those schools of business, holding events, bringing real life bankers in who make presentations and say, hey, think about us when you’re prep preparing to graduate and start looking for jobs. That’s been incredible. We’ve had a number of wins from that. We’ve had a number of jobs offered and accepted just from those events. The use of AI in banking, to me, we could talk about that all day long.

Are our bankers grasping opportunities to learn how AI can help them? And particularly if I’m a smaller bank and I have a smaller staff, I may not know exactly where to start, but there are ways we can help with that at the trade association. But w I just want to encourage bankers who are listening to make sure they’re thinking about, hey, it it’s not coming, it’s here. And and there are many things that we can take advantage of as it relates to, you know, how we can

How we can grow our grow our banks and and and pave a road in the future that is a whole lot less bumpy and curvy than it might otherwise be. you know, many opportunities to serve. One one of the things that you and I don’t I don’t want to I don’t wanna jump ahead of you here, you you talked earlier about you know some of the things that we do in the advocacy role. I’m sure that the number of people listening here.

speaker-1 (23:52.718)
Good job.

speaker-0 (24:04.056)
go beyond the C suite. You’re gonna have presidents and CEOs who are listening, chief lending officers. You you you probably have tellers that are listening. You probably have people who are, you know, aspiring to even join the industry. I want to encourage everybody who’s listening to engage and know the issues, both at a at a state and a federal level. And it may be that as a listener in your respective bank, you’re not maybe the one that’s necessarily attending the convention.

for your bankers association, or you’re not necessarily attending all of the major events. Maybe you attend an educational event, maybe you don’t do that. Maybe you’re in a banking school, whatever. Know those issues. And one of the best things that that you can do as a listener for your bank is to know your elected official. And and when those bankers know those elected officials and and develop those relationships, you know, they’re they’re gonna come in to cash a check or make a deposit or

you know, obtain a loan or whatever. those those relationships, the engagement there will further good things for for all of the listeners’ banks as quickly as anything else that could be done.

speaker-1 (25:16.598)
Yeah, and knowledge is power. I mean, that knowing those things like you talk about will make you a better banker. It’ll make you a better employee. And and like you said, just knowing those things, it’s incredibly important. do you have any trends that you feel like maybe in the banking world that are top one?

speaker-0 (25:33.304)
You know what? So I you know, I do I feel like, you know, as it relates to let me talk about technology for a minute. you know, we we you know, we hear a lot and see a lot, particularly out of the largest banks in the nation and even our regional banks about what technology is doing for their customers. you know, one of one of my concerns sometimes is that our smaller banks don’t necessarily trend in that direction.

Maybe maybe they’re it’s a little harder. And again, if I’ve got a staff of fifteen or twenty or twenty-five and and I’ve got three in IT and you know, ten in compliance, which it seems it needs these days, you know, then it’s hard to it’s hard to trend in the direction of of technology. But again, as a state association, we want to do anything we can to help those smaller banks utilize any available technology.

Because as y’all know, that’s exactly where everything’s headed. Yeah. And and so the the trends there I feel good about, but I I don’t necessarily know that the reach is equitable for all of our members necessarily. and and there are smaller banks that have really embraced it and gone in a great direction with it. But then there are two, you know, down the street from them that maybe haven’t. And we get concerned about that.

speaker-1 (26:57.43)
Yeah, absolutely. And and just a plug to all bankers out there, whether you’re a young banker or, you know, one that’s further in their career, that that’s something that it’s a great opportunity for the younger people because they adapt so quickly to new technology. And it’s just something as whether you’re, you know, the CEO, CFO looking at your younger talent and just seeing, you know, how adaptable they are. And that’s what you want for the future of your bank. And so that’s just something. If you are a young banker, make sure you’re immersed in that technology and know.

what the future of banking holds. as we talk about the younger bankers, I mean, just let’s talk a little bit about banker involvement because any state association I know is wanting to reach out to the younger bankers and get them involved. And so what what’s some meaningful involvement from bankers actually look like and how can we pull young bankers in?

speaker-0 (27:47.37)
You know, that’s something we talk a lot about at the Alabama Bankers Association. In in Alabama specifically, and again in other states that are listening as well, we have a strong component of young bankers. Ours is called Bankers to Leaders. And our Bankers to Leaders division, we used to call it Young Bankers, and and there are a lot of young and and wannabe young bankers that are involved in it. that particular division has its own conference every summer.

Talks lot about what you just asked. Hey, how how can we be more relevant? How can we be more involved? The Young Bankers in Alabama, the Young Bankers Board is our top state political action committee donor. Really? That that board has fundraisers, silent auctions at the annual meeting, and will and will, you know, routinely

contribute fifteen, twenty, twenty five thousand dollars a year to our state pack. That’s incredible. we we we we point that out. We talk about that in in public and private private forums. You know, as well in Alabama, we have something called lead ABA, which is about a sixteen to eighteen month program capped at about forty younger bankers who will sign up and they will they will be in two day sessions with us around the state.

over that eighteen months and I don’t remember if they meet quarterly, it may it may be quarterly, it’s with some frequency like that, for about a year and a half. And we will bring in various high level you know, speakers, presenters on leadership topics, and we kind of stretch their minds a little bit on it. And it’s it’s really a coveted program to be a part of. Within that, we talk about leadership, we talk about advocacy, we talk about ways that, you know, those

those bankers can not only themselves be more involved, but influence those on their teams are around them to get involved in issues that are important. Interestingly enough, I have had we’ve had two individuals to go through that program in very recent years who were elevated to CEOs in their bank. And in both cases, someone said to us, I’m not sure he or she would have been CEO material before that program. It is a great program.

speaker-0 (30:12.724)
Wow. I can’t say enough about it. It’s it’s one of the best that that that we’ve seen and we’ve had a number of states to reach out to us about it. But you know, so for young bankers as well, I would encourage them to look for ways to be involved in advocacy. We find ways for our young bankers board to go to Washington with us when we take our lobbying trip in the in September. I’ve said to them more than once in a board meeting, Hey, if you want to go.

And you’re not necessarily comfortable asking your CEO, all you gotta do is tell us and we’ll call them. We’ll ask them because we need you there. And we need those elected officials, DC, Montgomery, wherever the state is, we need those elected officials to know from those young bankers how important you know the respective issues are. And so in any, in any of the state bankers associations where South State has a presence across the Southeast and up the eastern coast there.

the state trades are ready and willing to get your young bankers involved.

speaker-1 (31:15.318)
Yeah, absolutely. And as someone who attended the Bankers to Leaders conference earlier this summer, it it’s a great place to be. And I would encourage any banker in Alabama to attend it. And as well as if you’re in your other states, Georgia, Virginia, wherever you are, reach out to your state association and find out what opportunities there are for younger bankers because it it’s the future and we we need to get them involved. What would you say are maybe some of the benefits to a bank being a member of their state association?

speaker-0 (31:44.334)
You know, I that’s a great question and thank you. One of the one of the benefits of being a member is you’ve got you’ve got a a state trade association looking out for you from a governmental affairs perspective. We have doors that we can open that may not necessarily be doors a bank wants to open itself, state level, federal level. I I can think of a number of examples where we have fronted situations with regulators where a bank didn’t necessarily

want to be out front about an issue right there at the at that particular time and place. you know, for banks that aren’t members of their respective trade associations, they’re they’re they’re missing an opportunity and and really shifting the the burden to the bankers that are because a a lot of what we do is is protect those charters, protect those the franchise value of banking.

again from a legislative and a GR perspective. But but other benefits, again, we haven’t talked much about professional development, but you know, we are a provider of of a number of training seminars throughout the year that are customized. We will spend a lot of money to get the right speaker in that that they don’t come cheap anymore. And and and who wants the least expensive in most cases, you you get what you pay for sometimes. We will we will bring the very best in we can find

with the latest and greatest information to help train when in fact a bank may not be able to do a lot of its own training. Larger banks in many cases are able to do that. We’re able to supplement that. But but the benefit of professional development is a big one. And you know, and as well, most trades, including Alabama, have a for-profit side where we’re able to go out and establish relationships with providers for

various products and services a bank needs at a greatly reduced cost. And so those are also relationships where so let’s just say a bank is using one of our indoor service providers and they have a problem, they call us, we go to that provider and we hold them accountable and and insist that they make it right, as opposed to a bank kind of getting down in the in the fray over that. Lots of benefits to being a member

speaker-1 (34:04.51)
Hundred percent. I can’t imagine too, just the contacts that you make through certain events and getting to meet other bankers a and just talk to other people that are having the same problems that you are. And I’m not sure if Alabama has round tables or not, but I know most states do. Yep. And it it’s a great way to just get out and meet people and it banking from what I have learned, I’ve only been in banking two years, it’s really like family. You get to know everyone’s families at these conferences and you talk and and

It becomes friends and you develop great relationships. So we just appreciate you coming on today. Scott, do you have anything else that you want to give or or highlight of the state?

speaker-0 (34:40.28)
what I I don’t I don’t think of anything specific. We’ve talked about a lot and I just appreciate so much South State. Appreciate your team. Appreciate what you do in Alabama and all of those bankers in Alabama who are do doing good things for Alabamians. we are honored to be joined together today and to be a part of this and just really, really appreciate the opportunity.

speaker-1 (35:01.824)
Absolutely. Well, big takeaways. Contact your state association for anything you may need. They are there to advocate for you and they want your bank to grow so that the ABA can grow as well. Absolutely. Thank you so much for coming on, Scott. We appreciate it.

speaker-0 (35:15.202)
Likewise.