Steven C. Powell of FNB Corp. in Naples, Fla., says he is doing something that chief technology officers at larger banking organizations can only dream about: putting everything on a single software platform.
The $6.7 billion-asset company has been growing so fast, Mr. Powell said it has bought 11 Florida banks and one in Pennsylvania since the start of 1997, when it had only $2.6 billion that timing is critical. Were only going to get one opportunity to make such a change, he said.
Furthermore, said Mr. Powell, 49, an Internet banking veteran, the project will do something he has thought about throughout his career: totally automate a banking company so customer-contact people can focus on sales.
The software conversion is already well under way, but weve got a good couple of years of work to get this all in place, he said. The new technology horsepower will enable management to take our bank to the $10-billion-or-larger level.
Mr. Powell said the technology push is vital if FNB, the largest bank holding company in Florida but still dwarfed by superregional competitors, is to hold its ground. We want to be a community bank at the branch level, he said, but weve got to be able to deliver cash management to business customers who could be wooed away by bigger competitors such as Wachovia Corp. or Bank of America Corp.
Putting FNBs scattered banking operations on a single software platform was one of the jobs for which he was hired, in October 2000, as the president and chief executive of FNBs technology division, Mr. Powell said. (In December he was also named an executive vice president of the holding company and its chief technology officer, a newly created title.)
FNB did extensive research on which software vendor to use, he said. Executives asked themselves, Who can take our bank to the next level, up to $10 billion, $12 billion, $15 billion? he said.
The company has been using various providers software Jack Henry & Associates Inc.s in Florida, Kirchman Corp.s in Pennsylvania and Ohio. But since February it has been converting all operations to the browser-based Premier II suite from Information Technology Inc. of Lincoln, Neb., a subsidiary of Fiserv Inc. of Brookfield, Wis.
The biggest company FNB has ever bought Promistar Financial Corp. of Johnstown, Pa. had been using Premier II at its 82 branches, all in Pennsylvania. FNB bought $2.4 billion-asset Promistar in January, increasing its own assets by 58%.
It is also the software used where Mr. Powell worked before joining FNB at the Internet startup Nexity Bank of Birmingham, Ala. (Earlier in his career, during 10 years at Carolina First Bank in Greenville, S.C., he was also involved in the launch of Atlanta-based NetBank. He also spent 14 years at First Union Corp., now Wachovia, as the Charlotte, N.C., company racked up acquisitions across the Southeast.)
Mr. Powell envisions an Internet banking system for FNB that will deliver end-of-the-month business statements not by the first day of the month but by 8 a.m. on the first day of the month. He also is planning a branch network that uses electronic pads to capture customers signatures at account openings or loan closings.
Were going to do that here, he said. Nexity Bank and NetBank are doing closings online, and I helped put that in place. Were just bringing that now down to the branch.
Mr. Powell said the project will change FNBs culture in a fundamental way as automation frees the front-line staff to concentrate on customer relationships.
Were trying to get to a sales culture here, he said. I know, youve been hearing that for 20 years, he added, but todays intelligent systems are powerful enough to liberate front-line employees from forms and manuals. They dont have to remember tran codes. They dont have to remember product codes, Mr. Powell said. We can take all the operational stuff out of the system so they can focus on sales.
FNBs First National Bank of Pennsylvania, which has absorbed Promistar, converted its own customer accounts to the new system in mid-February. FNBs South Florida operations were converted in March. The $240 million-asset Central Bank Shares Inc. of Orlando, purchased in February, is schedule for conversion April 20, and the Naples headquarters operation should be converted by Labor Day, Mr. Powell said.
By then Ill have all my branches on my big bank system.
On Monday the company also announced plans to build a new information technology center near its Naples headquarters, replacing a smaller one elsewhere in town. A few months ago FNB completed the expansion of an information technology center in Hermitage, Pa., its home town until last June.
FNB is also using technology to reach out to the unbanked. It is going live with a program called Fast Cash that will provide working poor people with cards for withdrawing money from automated teller machines.
The actual records are going to be here at the bank, Mr. Powell said. The worker will receive the money just as fast as if he got a check and it helps us with our traffic in our lobby.
A 60-day pilot test involved the housekeeping staff at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Naples. Even though the typical check may be only $470, we want to cash that check, Mr. Powell said. Ritz-Carlton is one of our biggest customers, and the program means interest-free deposits for FNB.
In addition, Mr. Powell pointed out, the program can help improve the workers credit standing. FNB is also weighing plans to offer classes to Fast Cash customers about the basics of credit or how to handle a checking account.
We have big plans for the program, which should help the company Community Reinvestment Act requirements, Mr. Powell said.
Asked about FNBs technology initiatives, bank technology consultant Marilyn Seymann stressed that technology unless it fails does not make a bank a standout.
What differentiates you is the personal service you give your customers, said Ms. Seymann, the president of M One Inc. in Phoenix. Such service is also what distinguishes community banks from big ones, she added.
