Mr. Hayes: We are a company that was founded approximately 13 years ago. We serve the St. Louis metropolitan area exclusively. In late 1990 we had 11 million in banking assets in the St. Louis region, and today we have over 2.2 billion in total assets. We are the largest commercial bank exclusively serving the St. Louis market, with 39 locations.
TWST: What has been the major catalyst for the growth of your
company?
Mr. Hayes: What has helped our company beginning in late 1996 and
continuing in this market has been consolidation in St. Louis by
large out of state bank holding companies. The largest market
share in St. Louis is held by US Bank and Bank of America. In
addition, M&I out of Milwaukee just announced an acquisition of
the number six market player in Mississippi Valley that will
close by year-end. Union Planters out of Memphis and Commerce out
of Kansas City are the other larger players, so what we have seen
in our market is tremendous disintermediation of middle market
customers, who value local decision making and like to do
business with the people where they live and work.
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