Jill Castilla knows what success looks like.
Castilla took the helm as CEO of Edmond, Oklahoma-based Citizens Bank of Edmond in 2009, when the bank was reeling from the still-unfolding global financial crisis. In the intervening years, Castilla has not only turned the bank back from the brink of failure, but also expanded its size and profile into a stable and successful bank with more than $416 million of assets.
But success can be defined in a number of different ways, Castilla said, and many of the ways that bankers traditionally measure success may not capture some of the initiatives that make a difference for customers. As a privately-owned and primarily employee-owned business, Castilla faces less pressure for quarterly earnings results than many of her publicly-traded peers, which she says helps her focus less on short-term profits and more on long-term goals, such as securing inexpensive deposits to make loans. The bank's core deposits grew 35% between November 2023 and May of this year.
"Our [focus] is mainly about — and this is how this bank has been successful for a century — is how do you attract low-cost deposits and keep them?" Castilla said. "Having those hard-earned checking accounts — not brokered funds, all those sorts of hot [certificate of deposit] accounts or high yield savings accounts that are above the market. How do you go in and win when a customer is choosing between, in our market, 50 different banks? And it doesn't matter what my [return on assets] my [return on equity] is — if I can't do that, then I'm going out getting hot money, and that's not sustainable."
Citizens Bank of Edmond in 2023 launched ROGER, a digital banking affiliate aimed at providing low-cost financial services and financial literacy training to members of the military, and that offering fits in squarely with Castilla's strategy. The bank, which was established in-house with assistance from fintech core provider Nymbus in 2023, started with just $3 million of assets. Today, ROGER has more than $60 million of assets, further firming the bank's core depositor base. It also fits with the CEO's own profile; she and her husband are both veterans, and they currently have two of their three children serving in the military.
Castilla has also carved out a sizable social media presence in recent years, fielding questions from businesses about the Paycheck Protection Program on X during the COVID pandemic, ultimately partnering with billionaire investor Mark Cuban in developing a program to help relief recipients get their stimulus funds quickly. But she says that social media should not be confused with or prioritized over social capital, which she says boils down to being responsive to community and customer needs. Classic-movie buffs will recognize this archetype from the 1946 classic Christmas movie "It's A Wonderful Life"
"'It's A Wonderful Life' is something that every community banker refers back to — well, there were two bankers in 'It's A Wonderful Life,'" Castilla said. "We tend to fall in love with the James Stewart character, but there's also Mr. Potter, and I think the difference between those two is the social capital I'm talking about. George Bailey and his bank mattered to that community; they were contributing to the good in that community. So we're here listening. Even though you're in the social media realm, you're doing the social media realm to be accessible whenever there are challenges or problems or opportunities."
