This Thursday, The First National Bank welcomes the community for an Open House/Grand Opening for their brand new Carmi branch. Our own Jc Tinsley, for WROY/WRUL News recently sat down with Dean Ackerman, Chris Myers, and Kira Sexton for an exclusive first look at their innovative new property at 1500 West Main.Ackerman says the genesis of the Carmi location was maybe 3 years ago…
“It actually started with the board of directors two or three, maybe further back than that, years ago with an idea that this market might be a good market to go into. As with anything, you watch for an opportunity. The opportunity started lining up. Chris and I kind of got together. You look for the people first and then you know whether you can make it in the market we think. Chris and I got to join forces and then we got Kira on board too. We felt very confident and then we started doing the production of building the facility and those things.”
Ackerman brings a wealth of knowledge to banking, especially Ag Lending. He farmed before he got into the industry in 1998. Chris Myers has about 12 years in the banking industry. His focus is on Mortgage Lending. Kira Sexton, who will typically be the first face folks see when they visit the FNB Carmi branch, was doing title work before joining the team. She’ll be helping open accounts and assisting customers with other needs.
The building, a production facility rather than a stereotypical bank, is a hybrid of sorts. Ackerman describes what sets the Carmi location apart from other institutions.
“It is a production office not a ‘bank facility’. We are the Carmi office of the First National Bank. That allows us to focus on electronic banking here but also having the ability to do all things such as open accounts, offer customer service, and loan production of all types.We just feel like in the changing age that is the way the banking is going so we have all those things to offer with mobile banking and all those different things. We felt like this was a good venture for us in this market.
The Carmi FNB Open House and Grand Opening will be held from 10am to 2pm this Thursday, January 23rd. The property is located at 1500 West Main in Carmi, directly across the street from Auto Zone.
