It all started with a born-and-bred Arkansas native, a dream and a not-so-humble beginning. Gary Head, founder, president and CEO of Signature Bank of Arkansas, began his career at a bank owned by the Walton family, where he was promoted to president right out of college. Although happy in his position, Head had an entrepreneurial itch. So, he left the job to start a loan production office for a bank in Harrison. Still, his eyes were focused on a bigger plan – his own bank. In 2005, Head and a team of local bankers opened Signature Bank of Arkansas, with the largest raise of capital in the history of the state. And in true Arkansas fashion, the $45 million was raised at a Fayetteville bar on Dickson Street.
In its first three years, Signature Bank of Arkansas grew quickly from zero to $700 million in total assets. But the road from 2005 to today wasn’t always as easy as those early days. The great recession of 2007 to 2009 hit Signature as it did most other banks across the country. It was rough. “We got beat up and had to fight our way through,” Head recalled. “We had to go raise more capital to recapitalize after that beating, and we successfully did.” Signature not only survived; it came back better.
Photos courtesy of Signature Bank of Arkansas
Today, the bank’s assets are greater than $900 million, and Signature has grown from its original location in Fayetteville to nine locations across the state. These include well-established branches in Rogers, Bentonville and Springdale, as well as more recent additions eastward in Jonesboro, Harrison and Brinkley. Additionally, Signature has ventured into completely new territory in American banking with a niche idea. The bank’s newest division, Banco Sí!, will cater to the growing Spanish-speaking population of Northwest Arkansas.
Banco Sí!/ former Bank of Rogers building
According to Head, what he learned through the crisis of 2009 was the value of patience. So many banks did not survive the financial downturn. The FDIC closed more than 400 failed institutions in the few years that followed the crash. “Some people who were in big trouble in 2009 are some of my wealthiest clients today because they didn’t quit,” he noted. “They just kept on going, and we kept on with them.”
While 2009 may have been the year for learning patience, 2020 became the year for learning the importance of online banking. When COVID-19 shut down bank lobbies, the Signature team was glad it had already established a strong internet banking system long before. Customers learned to depend on their phones for mobile transactions, and now that the lobbies have reopened, inside traffic is still low because customers prefer the flexibility and convenience mobile banking offers.
Brant Ward
“What changed particularly with COVID is the way [in which] people want to be communicated to,” said Signature COO Brant Ward. “Customers prefer to make transfers and deposit checks digitally. I think that’s the demand now,” he added. Amazon and Walmart have changed the landscape with customer expectation.” Signature does not plan to develop its own in-house technology, as such, but the idea is to stay in line with reasonable expectations.
As much as Signature pushes ahead in digital offerings and online accessibility, it continues to focus on “meeting people where they are.” Some customers still prefer the option to come inside and do business face to face. Signature’s brick-and-mortar locations encourage that. “At the end of the day, this is a community bank built on people in the community,” Ward said.
Future Growth
For Signature, meeting people where they are doesn’t mean continuing to open innumerable branches. “We are not a branch-rich strategy,” Chief Strategy Officer Scott Sandlin explained. “We are focused on serving markets. You won’t find us having a branch location on every corner. You will find us having a really nice representation in the market with a great website and a great mobile experience.”
Scott Sandlin
The plan is to keep investing in online banking technology while continuing to find holes where Arkansas residents are underserved. It’s a fill-in-the-gaps strategy vs. expansion strategy, and seems to be working. In the last six years, Signature has seen tremendous growth. “If you go back and look at 2016 — where we were as far as asset size and where we are today — we’re getting close to doubling that number,” Sandlin said.
Ward explained that Signature’s business model favors having decentralized markets with autonomy. Each market gets to flex its own personality based on the community it serves — whether that’s getting involved with the biking scene in Bentonville or the Children’s Safety Center in Fayetteville. This also means patiently and strategically opening branches only when they’re needed, and only when the time is right. In the instances of the Harrison and Jonesboro locations, bankers in those areas identified the need for a community bank and reached out to Signature.
The Harrison location had its grand opening on June 23 and Jonesboro is currently working out of a temporary location. Signature hopes to grow and expand that market into a more permanent space in the next 18 months. Banco Sí will hold its grand opening Sept. 23 at its location in downtown Rogers.
“Around 2015 we started growing again,” Ward explained. “We were looking around for complementary communities when Rogers was started in 2018. As we were looking, bankers came to us from markets we felt were complementary to what we do, which is why all three [that is, Harrison, Jonesboro and Rogers] are coming online at the same time. Traditionally you would try to stagger these launches. But, when the right people come, you have to go with them.”
Photos courtesy of Signature Bank of Arkansas
The Signature family also includes two locations in Brinkley. There, Signature purchased a 100-year-old bank and left it with the Brinkley signage to honor its long-standing history and its already established community. How do Signature leaders know when it’s the right time and the right place to invest? Ward said some research on population growth and estimates enter into the process. But ultimately, it involves “sitting down with a person face to face.” When a banker approaches Signature with an idea for a new location, they spend time having conversations and “getting a good feel for the person” who will be leading that market.
For now, the state of Arkansas is providing Signature with as much growth as the bank could possibly desire, with no immediate plans to expand beyond state borders. There are still gaps to fill within the state, about which Ward said, “K Banco Sí!/ former Bank of Rogers building eeping an eye on the ball with the non-markets is top priority.” Sandlin explained that the creation of Signature’s newest endeavor, Banco Sí!, came from the realization of a hugely underserved community in Northwest Arkansas.
Banco Sí!
As a division of Signature, Banco Sí! is devoted to the Spanish-speaking community that up to this point, has been overlooked. The bank plans to create economic growth and provide access to banking services, capital and funds, especially for small and midsize businesses, for a group that traditionally has not had equal access to these opportunities in the state. In an earlier interview, Vice President of Marketing Tori Bogner noted that the name Banco Sí! (meaning “Yes Bank” in Spanish) was chosen to send a positive message to the Latino community who “has historically been told ‘no’ where finances are concerned.”
Tori Bogner
Banco Sí! will officially open its doors in downtown Rogers in a historic building. Erected in 1906, the edifice originally housed Rogers’ first financial institution, The Bank of Rogers. The interior of the space will honor the building’s original mahogany features, marble baseboards and mosaic tile floor. Banco Sí! will be fully staffed by bilingual team members equipped to serve new customers, as well as existing Signature customers wishing to conduct business in Downtown Rogers.
President of Multicultural Banking Francisco Herrero, who has been leading the formation of this division, explained they have been focusing on attracting and bringing in the right bilingual talent to serve customers in Rogers. That means not just hiring bilingual employees but, more importantly, fielding a team willing to serve by spending quality time with individuals.
Although Banco Sí! has not yet officially launched, the division has been operating on a smaller scale from its Pinnacle location on the other side of Rogers, to which the initial response has been overwhelmingly positive. Word of mouth has spread, and business has grown through referrals to the point that Banco Sí! will already boast a promising number of members when it opens at its new location.
“First and foremost, our customers in the community are telling us that they want to have service without the language barrier, whether it’s in English or Spanish,” Herrero said. “This means being very intentional and spending time with each person who really understands their needs.” Another need Herrero has heard from customers is the desire for more financial education: How to build financial security, credit-building tools, support with housing, how to access capital and funds for business startups and how to support existing small business growth.
With Banco Sí!, Herrero plans to provide local residents with information about the diversity of options available for fulfilling those funding needs, whether via one-on-one conversations or through community events open to the public. “What we ended up finding,” he explained “was that underserved customers — those in our community who didn’t have good access or equal access to banking services and capital funds — were those who have a language barrier to overcome.”
Signature hopes to continue growing the Banco Sí! division with more locations, but for now, focus remains on getting the Rogers location just right and ironing out kinks with this original location. This might be a first in the United States to have a bank solely dedicated to bilingual banking. The marketing VP joked that she had to make sure she had the proper dimensions when she went to a trophy shop to have the FDIC signs printed in Spanish and English, because the FDIC couldn’t provide them with existing signage in Spanish.
