With $3 million in assets, two employees, no ATMs, no website, and no transaction fees, Kentland Federal Savings and Loan is the smallest bank in America and has been around for more than 100 years.
Chances are you've heard the names of the giants of the US banking industry like JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, but what about the smallest bank?
CEO James A. Sammons and sole employee. |
That's Kentland Federal Savings and Loan. Founded in 1920 by the current CEO's great-grandfather, the tiny financial institution has just one branch in Kentland, Indiana, and offers just three services: home mortgages, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit.
“We were the only institution that didn’t close during the stock market crash of the late 1920s,” CEO James A. Sammons told Bloomberg. “People felt safe that their money wasn’t going anywhere.”
Banking in the United States has changed dramatically in the last century, but Kentland Federal Savings and Loan has resisted change. Neither Sammons nor his part-time teller are tech-savvy. They prefer to use traditional devices like traditional coding machines to write checks. That’s one reason Sammons believes his business may be doomed.
The 55-year-old executive predicts that when the bank does have to close, whether because of pressure from regulators or because he himself quits, it will be bought out.
Another reason for Kentland Federal Savings’ inevitable demise was its small profit margins. It managed to undercut local competitors with slightly higher interest rates on savings accounts and mortgages. But that was its only source of income, because the bank had no ATM fees, no transfer fees, and no transaction fees of any kind.
According to VNA
Bank,US,Smallest Bank,Bank Closure,Kentland Federal Savings,Transaction Fees
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