Banks in the Carolinas are recuperating after days of intense rainfall and strong winds from Hurricane Florence.
The storm has moved northward, but authorities and volunteers continue to carry out rescue missions and deliver supplies to the area.
The storm’s death toll has risen to 18 and water levels are still rising in many areas. Scores of businesses are still without power, while some parts of the state were pummeled with nearly 30 inches of rain.
While banks have already reopened inland branches, financial institutions with coastal operations are assessing the damage to offices and employees' homes, particularly in Wilmington, N.C., which has been cut off from the rest of the state by flooded roads.
When natural disasters hit, banker's top priorities include checking on employees to make sure everyone is safe, industry experts said. It’s also important to waive customers' ATM and late fees, while also checking in with vendors — especially those with access to customer data — that may have been impacted by a storm.
“Banks need to be proactive in ensuring their response is appropriate and customer information is being protected,” said Scott Sargent, a lawyer at Baker Donelson.
Branches around Wilmington will likely remain shuttered for days until employees can safely return to the area. Wells Fargo, for instance, kept 36 branches in eastern North Carolina closed on Monday.
Still, North Carolina's banking system fared better than many expected, said Peter Gwaltney, president and CEO of North Carolina Bankers Association. No banks have reported major damage to branches or offices, he said.
"We are pleasantly surprised," said Gwaltney, who led the Louisiana Bankers Association through Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "Banks are reopening with generators and getting service back pretty quickly — much quicker than I expected."
The story is still unfolding though, Gwaltney added.
“This isn’t over yet considering all the flooding that is happening across North Carolina," said Claire Parker, a spokeswoman for Live Oak Bancshares in Wilmington. "We are still not able to get back to Wilmington."
Some banks were in better shape than others. Live Oak was able to conduct business as usual during the storm because of its cloud-based operations, said Scott Custer, the bank's president.
Most Live Oak employees evacuated Wilmington and stayed with relatives or friends around the Southeast. Employees worked remotely once they were in a safe location with an internet connection, Custer said.
“Thankfully, Florence waited until we were finished,” transitioning to a cloud-based system, Custer said. “If there was anything good about this storm, it’s that we got a real live test case for how this works.”
Live Oak has been using internal communication tools to stay in touch with employees and share information. Custer said the bank’s headquarters appears to have avoided much of Florence's wrath. Still, the bank is waiting for word from authorities that it is safe to return to Wilmington.
North State Bank in Raleigh, N.C., which keeps about 15 people in its Wilmington office, shut down operations last Tuesday and helped its Wilmington employees evacuate early in the week. Management put a contingency plan in place — one that had never been tested to this extent, CEO Larry Barbour said.
“I spent about 13 years in Wilmington and I’ve been through several hurricanes,” said Jonathan Krieps, North State's chief operating officer. “You have to get out early there. Getting our people to safety quickly was the goal.”
The American Bankers Association is offering assistance to banks impacted by the storm.
“We are coordinating closely with our state bankers association colleagues in the affected areas to assess the full impact on financial institutions and their employees,” the associated said in a press release. “Overall, thanks to careful planning and preparation by bankers as well as local, state and federal officials, the banking system continues to function well. As more damage assessments come in, ABA stands ready to assist recovery efforts in any way we can.”
The storm damaged the homes of hundreds of BB&T employees, said Brian Davis, spokesman for the Winston-Salem, N.C., company. BB&T is operating under a business recovery process designed to assess damage to coastal branches and tend to employees in need, he said.
“We have to make sure, first and foremost, [that employees] are safe,” Davis said. “We checked in with everybody and didn’t have any major injuries — so we are thankful for that.”
BB&T’s branches are mostly intact. Davis said the company will slowly re-open coastal locations; it also has an associate disaster relief fund in place to help employees.
“We are very grateful — this storm could have been a whole lot worse,” Davis said. “We feel good about where we are at and we feel like we will be able to serve clients through those branches in the coming days, as well as through the website, mobile app and care centers.”
