CEO's You Should Know x Arundel Federal Savings Bank

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
iHeartMedia presents CEOs you should Know.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am John Dinkle, former president and publisher of the
Baltimore Business Journal and now founder and CEO of Dankele
Business Development. This is iHeartRadio's CEOs you should Know, and
I'm here today with Matt Mullin, CEO of a Arundel
Federal Savings Bank. Welcome back and thanks for being here.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, I was looking forward to our conversation and appreciate
you taking the time out. I thought it'd be good
to start out with getting to know you a little
bit in the organization. So for those who aren't familiar,
could you tell us about a Roundel Federal Savings Bank.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
We're a Rondel Federal was founded in nineteen o six
and it started off in Brooklyn and about probably maybe
twenty years ago, we've moved to glenn Burnie, but it's
always been a northern Anaruntal County bank. We're a mutual
savings bank and that is a bank that doesn't have shareholders,

(01:02):
so our depositors are our owners of the bank, so
to speak. And again we've been a small community bank
for for one hundred and I guess up to one
hundred and nineteen years now as you and how many
locations see you? So we have five locations. Again, our
headquarters is in is in Brooklyn, I mean is in Glenburnie,

(01:22):
but we have original location in Brooklyn. We're in Saverna Park,
Pasadena and Annapolis. Okay, great man.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I could talk about your mission a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
So we are you know, the original the original operation
of Arundel Federal was to supply your home mortgage and
have your savings account. This is your traditional uh savings
and learn and thrift model. But you know, our real
mission is to always support the needs the financial needs
of our community. So this northern an Arunto and a

(01:52):
greater kind of Baltimore market are Our mission is to
to meet those financial needs the best we can with
local decision made king and with with just you know,
with you know, really great customer service.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Got it great? Thank you. And and talk about your
geographic reach.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
What's what's you know?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
How far are you uh, you know reaching depositors to
commercial talk about that a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Sure, So you know, with technology over the last say
ten years, the reach has gotten pretty broad. I mean,
if you go back to the roots of banking, especially
in in Baltimore, you had a lot of these small
banks that were within neighborhoods and that's really where they thrive.
But you know, over the years, we really expanded our territory.

(02:38):
So I think it's fair to say that we can
service the needs of anybody in the state of Maryland. Uh.
You know, in our mission statement we talk about meeting
the needs of Marylanders sort of banking of banking needs.
But you know, with again with with technology, we can
really we can do a whole lot today with you know,
online banking and remote deposit capture and these different the

(02:58):
different products we can roll out, we can do a lot.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's great, that's great, appreciate that. And what's what's the
percentage of you know, business banking accounts to retail banking.
What's that look like now? And what do you want
to change about that? If anything?

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Sure, well, it's a it's a great question. And again
going back to the roots. For one hundred and nineteen years,
you know, our real model has been you know, providing
mortgages and savings accounts and CDs and things like that.
And you know, over that time we've expanded to offering
you know, checking account for the consumer, but it wasn't

(03:40):
until probably the last about ten to twelve years where
we really started to expand a little bit more into
the commercial side, but mainly on commercial real estate. So
one of the things we want to do, and that's
part of the reason why I've come to Rondo Federal,
is to expand our business banking needs. And so we feel, really,
we feel really strongly that we're meeting the consumer banking

(04:00):
needs of our community, but we really need to sort
of ramp up and meet the small business needs of
our communities. And that's one of the things I'm working
on right now.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, it's a great market for it, obviously, as you know,
I mean, you know, Maryland a very great small business
small to mid size obviously.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
What well, it's along the lines and I don't mean
to interrupt you, so along those lines, you know what
why small business banking is so important to a community
bank like us, and community banks are important to small
businesses that that local decisioning, right. So you know, there's
a lot of great banks that we that are in

(04:40):
our market and some are you know, national banks, you know,
but they do they really know you know that small
business in Glen Burny. Do they really understand what's happening
within our world? You know, I always used to say
this to clients. You know, when you when you're repricing
your insurance for your employees, we're probably doing the same thing.
And we understand why that's so hard on a small business.

(05:01):
We're a small business too, you know. We have we
have sixty we have roughly about sixty five full time
employees here, so you know, it's it's not a major bank.
We don't have twenty six thousand employees. You know. We
we live, we work, we play right here and uh
northern and are on the county and Greater Baltimore. So
we understand these business We're going to those businesses. We're

(05:21):
getting pizza from the local pizza shop, you know, so
they know who we are, we know who they are,
and I really think that helps with you know, their
financial needs.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, I imagine that's a huge competitive advantage too, because
you know, people want to people want to meet and
know and have a relationship with their their banker and
know that, Yeah, decisions are being made locally, you know,
and they they're they're not just the number, they're you know,
they're part of the family and you know, and yeah
that sometimes I think I imagine, you know, smaller businesses can

(05:54):
get a little lost when it comes to some of
the bigger national banks.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Absolutely, and you know, and the other thing that we
bring because we're smaller, you know, we have people, We
have long time tenured staff that have seen a lot
of things. So when you come in, if you want
a small business loan, when you come in, you might
sit with our director of commercial lending, who's been doing
it for forty years, right, So this is an expert

(06:19):
in his field. He knows he not only can provide
you with the loan, but he's also can provide you
with you know, that strategic advice when you know, hey,
should I expand my business? Should I look to you know,
do I need to do something here? You know in
my is my balance sheet where it needs to be.
And you know, my staff can come and say, hey,
you know, we're not just going to give you a loan,
We're actually going to help you be successful. And you

(06:42):
know you can't. You know, some of the national banks
can try to do that, but I think we do
that better than they do.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, yeah, that's great, that's great. I appreciate you talking
about that just from your Perspective'm kind of curious what
your thought is, and you know, how has the current
economy impacted the bank?

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Well, I'll see what's really been I think a difficult
couple of years for the banking industry as a whole.
It's not so much the economy, but the rapid rise
and interest rates that we experienced from twenty twenty two
into twenty twenty three really makes it. It really has
made it difficult on a lot of institutions, and it
probably may be a little bit more for us because

(07:23):
of the business model that we have again providing mortgages.
We have a lot of those long term, thirty year
fixed rate mortgages, as most of most of your listeners know,
are in the sub four percent, So we've got a
lot of those that we've done and we've hold on
our books, and then you've got CD rates that have
moved up and it really puts a squeeze on our margins.

(07:43):
And the primary way that you know, a lot of
community banks make money is that we really focused on
that spread between what we can lend and what we
have to give out in terms of deposits. So that's
that's really our lifeblood. That's how that's how we make money.
Unlike some of the other banks that are out there
where they can they can kind of establish some fee income,

(08:04):
whether it's you know, through like just standard fees or
maybe through wealth management divisions and things like that. You know,
that's not the way we offer. We don't sort of
have a lot of fee income that we generate off
of our client base. Our primary focus is that spread
between the two. And so what has that done for us?
It's created a couple of lean years for sure. What
we've seen recently is, as we know, inflation has come

(08:27):
down and sort of thing we stabilize a little bit,
and we've seen some rate cuts that have occurred and
twenty twenty four and you know, potentially into twenty twenty
five that brought some stability. And if we can have
sort of stable interest rates, even if they stay a
little higher for longer, it's easier for us to navigate.
But when they rise really quickly, it can be problematic

(08:47):
for any financial institution.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Sure, sure, great, I appreciate sharing that. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
To kind of.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Go into another subject real quick. Yeah, you guys are
being known for being very philanthropic in the community. Can
you talk a little bit about your your work in
the community and why that's important to you and your team. Oh.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Absolutely, I mean being part of the community is not
just you know, having your doors open to collect deposits
and to you know, provide loans. We really feel like
we need to put boots on the ground and be
out there, whether it's an event in Pasadena or you know,
supporting some of the chambers of commerce that are in

(09:28):
our areas. You know, we feel very strongly in that
that those community efforts. We we want to be part
of the community, not just be just another business. It's
really important to us. It's it's really part of the
foundation of the organization and it's actually something that we
talk about pretty frequently that we want to try to
expand you know, as the bank becomes more and more

(09:49):
success successful, we will be able to do more and
more for our communities. And and one of the things
that we just talked about last week with some of
my leadership team, as we want to have one hundred
percent of our workforce do it at least some volunteer
hours in twenty twenty six, So twenty twenty five, we

(10:10):
have a portion we're gonna We're gonna try to get
that as high as we can. But in twenty twenty six,
we want every single one of our employees to donate
some time back to our communities, whether it's nonprofit organizations
or you know, just being part of events that happened.
So that's one of our main goals going forward.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
That's great, that's awesome. Appreciate your support there. So just uh,
you've been in this role now for just a few months,
and do you, other than really trying to amp up
the small business and the banking side of things, any
other new initias that you would like to share.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
You know, it's actually been a really interesting uh ninety days,
and it's you know, my background has always been on
the business side, but I'm a very passionate person about
what I do and and I'm a big believer in
community banks and I've always been that way. I've always
worked for community banks. And one of the things I'm
really trying to do is is bring a little bit

(11:09):
of that passion to the people that I work here.
We've got some really long tenured people that've been here
for a while, and you know, you show up, you
do your job, and that's great. But what I want
to share with them is, well, let's show the impact.
Like you don't something. Me, being someone that has worked
directly with clients in the past, I can see that
impact and when we give that loan and we can

(11:31):
see that business grow. But some people that might work
in our deposit operations or are accounting folks, or even
some of our retail folks, they might not always see it.
So what I'm trying to do is make sure they
understand how important we are to the community. What they
do matters. It's not just showing up and moving some
papers around. Really we really make a difference. And that's

(11:51):
that's something that what's one of my sort of personal
initiatives that I'm trying to do here as we go forward.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
That's great, That's great, I love it. Yeah, which was
a perfect segue into you know, one of the things
that I really like to talk about is leadership on
the show you how would you describe your leadership style?

Speaker 1 (12:10):
Well, I I think I bring a lot of energy
and passion to to that as I just said, and uh,
you know, I I really try not to be somebody
that micromanages. So one of the things that I've done
here in my short period of time and said, you know,
I've somebody brings me something. You know, we need you
to sign this, And I look at it and going, well,
you've already signed it, you know, And I think I

(12:32):
think we're good. Like I trumpt to make the right decision,
you know, so like try to try to make sure
that I really, you know, empower the people that work
with me. I don't ever, I'm not a kind of
guy that you know, you'll see, like you know, I
don't need to have a plaque on the wall that
says I'm the president or anything like that, because I don't.
I just don't believe in those kind of things. I

(12:52):
believe that I'm fighting a good fight with you and
we you know, I'm not gonna be able to do
it on my own and you're not gonna be able
to do it on your own. But take other we
can do a lot. And I think, you know, I
think I try to bring that everybody. You know, I'll
give you some advice if you need something, I'll help you.
But I really I trust that the p and I
really trust the people we have here. We have some
really really talented people from a lot of different backgrounds

(13:16):
and and I really try to just lead them to
where they're comfortable making a decision.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, I love that. I Mean one key where
that I you know, think about that you just said
is the trust piece and trusting your people. And you know,
I see a lot of times, you know, and not
that you know, business owners mean to do this or
make some bad people or anything, but they I think
there's so much into their business and it's their baby,

(13:44):
and that they don't give their team like the latitude
and the room to grow and to do the role
that they were you know, hired to do. They tend
to be you know, kind of too much in the
business and not working on the business. It's uh yeah,
but you have to say about trusting.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Your I heard a you know, I heard a saying
this morning from a from a guy that said, you know,
sometimes as a as a business owner, you can't read
the label from inside the jar, right, So like when
you're inside the jar, you you don't really know the
ingredients because you're in there. You're working here, griding away.
And you know, I know a lot of small business
owners and again, like I said, we're a small business too,

(14:25):
and I know what their days are like I mean,
they're you know, they might take a couple of days
off a year, but otherwise they're they're pulling, you know,
eighty one hundred hours a week. I mean, they're just
they're really working hard to get this done. And you know,
and and sometimes it's hard to take us to back.
I've had a lot of clients that I've helped with
over the years where you know, they'll come to me
and don't be what what do you think? And I'll

(14:46):
just ask them a few questions back and and usually
they have all the answers, they just don't have a
chance to really think about it. And so you know,
generally I never give an answer. I just ask them
some questions and they all of a sudden go, oh man,
I never thought about that. Let me let me here's
my answer. And then all of a sudden, they they're
they're good, they're good. You know, they're hanging on the
phone and they're running. So you know, I guess that's

(15:07):
I guess that sort of maybe describes how I how
I manage people. Just just try to bring it out
of them, you know, and I trust that they're going
to make the right answer.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, Yeah, I love that well. That and that also
that also breeds you know, kind of more confidence in
their own roles and and and you're trust in them.
I mean, once they know that that you trust them
to do the job, I mean that. I mean that
just you know, increases engagement, increases their you know, wanting
us to work with you and for you, and all
those all that positive stuff that goes along with it. Yeah,

(15:37):
I love that absolutely.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
And I'm a you know, I really try to stay
pretty like I'm I think I'm a pretty upbeat and
positive person.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
And I like that fun too.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
And that's one of the things I've also said to everybody.
I'm like, you know, let's have a little fun. Let's
have a little fun here, you know. I'm like. One
of the things that we're setting up right now is
something we call it an employee Engagement Group, where it's
going to be sort of employee led. I don't want
to be I don't want to have anything to do with it,
you know, I want them to come up. We've given
it a budget, uh, and we're gonna do like fun

(16:05):
little mini events during the workday for our employees just
to have some you know, collaboration between departments, and we've
got some branches that you know that you know, like
maybe in Mineapolis, people don't ever get to come down
and see the Saverna Park people. I mean, they've got
jobs to do, so it doesn't really foster a lot
of collaboration. But if we can, we can do some
little fun things maybe once or twice a quarter, and
people really really respond to that. So I also like

(16:28):
to have a lot of fun, uh and you know,
joke around and laugh and you know, I like to
pop in and out of offices. I always have my
doors open. Come on in, let's talk, Let's chat. How's
your family? Did you watch? Did you see the Ravens
game last Saturday Sunday? You know those kind of things.
So yeah, we just you know, it's just I like
to have a good time.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, you gotta have fun. You got to love what
you're doing.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
You know.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
When I was the lead the team at the BBJ,
I I tried to make it a point to go
at the lunch or breakfast or happy out with the
you know what, my team members, all of them, and
I just got the best ideas from from them. And
my questions to them were, you know, what can we do.
What can I do to make you have more fun

(17:10):
of your job, make you feel like you're developing and
you feel like you're growing like all these other things,
and how can we can increase communication and and you know,
I you know, I got the best ideas from the
team members and it sounds like it sounds like you
have the same similar culture, which is which is really
good to hear. Yeah, absolutely, that's awesome. What what gets
you excited about the future of a roundel Federal Savings?

Speaker 1 (17:34):
So you know, I always again I said this this morning,
is you know it's like that home improvement show where
they where the manner away for you know, the woman
and all this this this house has good bones, right,
So we have really great bones. We have so much potential.
What really gets me excited here is is to see

(17:56):
when we start making impact in this small business community.
I really think that we can make a huge difference
in our in our communities about you know, providing you know,
good sound financial advice, by providing you know, some you know,
working capital for for those small businesses. Uh. And I'm
excited about for them to sort of learn our secret

(18:17):
that you know that we're a really really great bank
I mean, what happens with a lot of these small
banks because we can't do you know, the traditional marketing.
You know, like you know you're not going to see
the capital one guy. We we can't have one of
those guys, right, you know, we can't have the colors
of a P and C or a Wells Fargo or
you know, you don't even have to see the letters.
You just know you know who they are because of

(18:38):
that billboard or whatever it is, so that that's not
something that we can do. We can't afford those kind
of things. So we we kind of sometimes can be
the best kept secret in our neighborhoods. And what we
really want to do is get out there and talk
to people and say, hey, come come talk to us.
You know, it doesn't cost you, doesn't cost you a thing.
Comes sit with one of us, Come sit with me.
My doors are always though. I love. I was just

(18:59):
talking to one of my people in Brooklyn and they
said this, and I don't remember her name, but she's
really involved in some charity organizations and she and I
was told she wants to meet you. I'm like, yeah,
we're to call me, but says an appointment, Come on
in my door is always open. I love to talk
to her. How can we help, what can we what
can we do better in Brooklyn? You know, And so

(19:21):
you know, that's that's what I'm really excited about. And
I think I think once people start to realize like
what we can do for them, I think the sky's
the limits for us. We have a great local board,
we have some really really great directors that are also
one hundred percent behind our initiatives to to really re
engage our communities, to make sure that they know who

(19:42):
we are, whether it's philanthropic or if it's small business
or just just getting your mortgage, you know. I mean
there's some things that we really have done well. And
then we, like I said, we've done mortgages for one
hundred and nineteen years. We're really good at it. So
when you're thinking about getting your mortgage, you know, give
us a call again, caution, nothing to give us a call.
We'll help you no matter what.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
That's great. I love it. I love your excitement, man, Yeah, excited.
I love it. On the other side of things, what's
keeping you up at night?

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Well, that's a that's a great question. You know, there's
it's definitely been a trying couple of years in terms
of in terms of the interest rate environment. And I
don't want to get too far into the weeds there,
but it's definitely been difficult to sort of navigate those waters.
Right now, it looks like things that again become a
little bit more stable. You know, you can watch the

(20:34):
financial news one day and you're like, oh, the Fed's
going to cut rates, and then the next day, you know,
the FED might hype rates. It's a really unpredictable time
right now. If I knew what they were going to do,
then I would you be making millions of dollars on
loss Street probably, But I can't answer those questions. So
there's a little bit of that I tell you. You know,
I think for us, it's really about attracting and retaining

(20:57):
I think really strong employees as community as community banks,
you know, you know, just like I talked about on
the marketing side, we may not always be the highest
paid place there. There might be a bank that's going
to be able to pay a little bit more, but
you know what we have here as a family, so
you know, we know, you know, if your kids sick

(21:17):
and you have to stay home, like we'll we'll figure
out a way to help you. You know, if you're
if your elderly, you know, parent has some issues and
you know you need to go home to make sure
that you know, the care between the person that comes
in the morning and the afternoon, there's you know, there's
a bridge there. We'll work with you and and you know,
so what we have to do is make sure that

(21:38):
on the sort of in terms of retaining talent or
attracting new talent, that people know what we're about. And
one of the things we're trying to use is maybe
a little bit of social media, not so much to
promote product, but just to show, hey, this is a
fun place to work, you know. I mean we you know,
it's a serious job, but you know, we have a
good time doing it. And so I'm working with my
marketing group to kind of roll out some new things,

(21:59):
some things or maybe for us would be cutting edge,
you know. I we we used to joke it's like
new to us, right, It's not new to like maybe
some like you know, fancy marketing firms, but for us,
you know, putting out some short videos about you know,
the fun things we do and how we engage community.
I think it really helps them attract from the young
new talent to our business and then also keep some

(22:20):
talent here. I mean, we've got some great people, and
you know, there's that gravitational pool to make more money
and have you know, a better title is always going
to be there. How do we figure out how to
keep those people here, compensate them as well as we can,
and really give them a career path. I mean, those
are the those are the probably the things that kind
of give me the most. Hey, just you know, what,

(22:40):
how do I how do I square that circle?

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, I hear that a lot I think too, But
a lot more people are look at more quality of
life and you know, and then climb the corporate ladder.
Not not to say that it's not out there, It
definitely is. I see a lot of very hungry people
out there. But at the same time, there's a lot
of folks that, you know, really want the culture, you know,
and you'll you'll attract those folks that really want to

(23:04):
you know, be in that type of culture, and that's
those are the folks that you want. I want to
work hard, but I also want to have fun and
and have a little bit of flexibility. But that's that's
pretty And I.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Can't I can't take credit for the I can't take
credit for that culture. That culture was here before me,
the previous presidents on the board and the management leadership
team here, they've really done a really good job of
trying to create that family culture. And I'm just gonna
look to try to make sure that I continue that
same that same mentality, that same culture going for maybe
maybe tweak it a little bit here and there, but uh,

(23:35):
you know, this is something we really believe in and
and we're going to continue to do that.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
That's great. That's great. Well, want to wrap things up.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Is there anything else.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
You'd like our listeners to know about you and rontal
federal savings?

Speaker 1 (23:49):
No? I just again, you know, we're you know, come
come talk to us, you know, just you know, visit
one of her branches. Give us a call. My cell
phone is on every one of my big cards, it's
on the it's on our website. You can call that
anytime you want. I might regret saying that, I might
get a bunch of calls from a lot of people. Uh,
but please give us a call, talk to us. You know,

(24:12):
hear what we have to offer and give us a
give us a test drive. I think you're going to
be really happy when when you actually experience it. It's
a different level when you walk in and someone say,
hey Joe Smith, Hey Hey Julie, Hey Kathy. You know, uh,
you're not numbers to us, your your people. We really
really value your business. You know, it's you know are

(24:35):
you know we have we're fully staffed, you know a
lot unlike some other institutions. We want you to visit
our locations. We want you to walk in, you know,
we want to hear about you know, what you did
over the weekend. I mean, we really it's it's a
little bit of some old school banking but with some
with some new school touches.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Awesome. I love it. And lastly, tell us how to
find more information about Ronald Teddrill Saman's.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Bank, so you can go to go to our web
Rendel Federal dot com. We have we have a Facebook page.
I think we have an Instagram page. You know, we're
we're we're everywhere on social media. But you know, our
website is probably the best place. And it has all
of our locations, all our hours and has you know,

(25:17):
see the management team on there and you'll see our
our board of directors is on there. Again we have
they're all these are all local people, all local decisioning.
I always joke like, if you know, with if I
need a loan approve that I can just or somebody
a loan approval. They can just yell really loud, I'll
probably hear it. If I need to talk to the CFO,

(25:38):
I can just sort of, you know, hit a little
chip shot down the hallway and I can get you know,
hit you know, hit his door and he can come out.
So I really think that matters to to you know,
your customers where they know, hey, look you're not calling Buffalo,
or you're not calling Spokane, Washington like it's it's here.
It's happening in glen Burney, it's happening in Saverna Park,
it's happened in Pasadena, like we're right here, we're in

(25:59):
your backyard. So I think it really is important for
customers to know that. I think they might not realize
it when they don't have a need, but when they
have that need, it really will help. I agree.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Well, Matt, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Matt.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
I really appreciate taking the time to talk. Learned a
lot about it, and really really nice meeting you as well.
So I appreciate your time and thanks for being here.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Awesome, that sounds great. Thank you for inviting me. This
has been a lot of fun, Dick has been iHeartMedia CEOs.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
You should know Arounbo Federal Savings Bank is member FDIC
Insurance and an equal housing lender.