Mr. Utz: The East Carolina Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of ECB Bancorp, Inc., an 877 million company headquartered in Engelhard, N.C., traded on the NASDAQ Global Market, symbol ECBE. The East Carolina Bank is a 90-year-old company with 24 full-service banking locations and one loan production office serving 13 counties along the east coast of North Carolina. We provide our client base, which is predominantly small to mid-size businesses as well as individual consumers, with an array of traditional suite products but also supplement those with ancillary services, such as our wealth management, mortgage, treasury management and our agricultural lending.
TWST: What are the key factors that differentiate East Carolina Bank from its competition? Is it your business focus, your geography, the quality of your assets?
Mr. Utz: What I believe differentiates ECB is probably three key factors: one is our geographical footprint, two is our diversification of our economic drivers and third is our corporate culture. We service the entire east coast of North Carolina, going from the southern border of Virginia along the estuaries, all the way down to Ocean Isle, which is right above the South Carolina border. So if you put the pins on the map, you will see that we are primarily located along the coastal communities with the exception of our four locations in our Greenville market. The economic drivers in our markets include tourism, real estate and construction, military and defense, manufacturing and the agriculture- and seafood-related industries. Our corporate culture can best be described as a mix of teamwork, talent, technology and a significant focus on the communities that we are serving. When you look to a successful community bank, this is what you should see.
Tickers included in this excerpt: ECBE
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