To the Editor:
I have just skimmed the "Best in Banking 2000" insert in your Feb. 1 issue.
My question: Why isn't a community banker mentioned? Another side of this question: Why would any community banker be interested in this homage to the largest?
There are plenty of very distinguished community bankers around: Chuck Doyle of the Texas First Banks, who serves on the board of Visa USA and Visa International; Terry Jorde of Country Bank USA, who was the only commercial banker at the President-elect's outreach meeting in Austin - she is also an adviser to the new governor of North Dakota; Cam Fine and Katie Winchester, who serve on the prestigious Federal Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve System's board of governors, a council that by law meets with the full board four times a year. Et cetera, et cetera.
Why do you only think about the largest of the large when you think of the best in banking?
Kenneth A. Guenther
Executive vice president
Independent Community Bankers of America
Washington
Editor's note:
Our "Best in Banking" report named Vernon W. Hill, chairman and chief executive of Commerce Bancorp, a $7 billion-asset bank in Cherry Hill, N.J., as Community Banker of the Year.
