Red River Bank President gives banking industry update at Rotary meeting

The Alexandria Rotary Club heard from the President of Red River Bank for an update on the banking industry.  ABC 31 news Joel Massey has more about recent financial trends. 

Heather Poole, Rotarian says. “I think it’s so important for us to have a clear understanding of how community banks pay into our state’s economy and region.  And of course, Mr. Chatelain’s overview was very helpful in seeing the long term impact that we’ve seen.” 

Heather Poole attended the presentation that Red River Bank President Blake Chatelain gave to the rotary club on the latest news about the banking industry.  She said she learned a bit about how money is insured by the FDIC.

“Our money is secure and that there is no cost in our banking.  We’re not going to lose money because of the FDIC and the insurance that the banks provide us in making certain that our money is safe.” 

Chatelain said that the four recent bank failures involved making risky investments like cryptocurrency or tech companies and that the majority of the banks are on sound footing. 

Blake Chatelain, President Red River Bank , “I think for the majority of the banks in Louisiana, for the majority of banks in this country it is pretty much business as usual.  I think certainly every banker is monitoring the ripple effect of these failures and what that may mean to the economy.  But again, those models of those banks is very different than what most banks are doing.” 

Poole said she was assured that the bank failures will not impact the economy the way they did in 2008.

“We’ve seen an increase in interest rates but at the same time it’s nowhere near the crisis we were in in 2008, and of course I was very interested in cyber security and how the bank has invested in cyber security because like everyone we want to know that our money is safe, and our investments are safe and secure.”  

Another factor that contributed to the recent failures was high number of uninsured deposits. 

“When you have that high uninsured deposit it was what made it volatile for failures and Red River Bank is not like that.  It’s a very solid bank and of course going public this year right on the heals of its 25 year anniversary is quite exciting for our community and our state.” 

JOEL MASSEY ABC 31 NEWS THAT WORKS FOR YOU.