“We’re a small town bank with big bank services,” says Stephanie McCready, vice president and loan officer of MainSource Financial. The description is befitting of the full-service bank, founded in Greensburg, Indiana, more than a century ago.
The company has 85 branches that serve personal and business customers distributed throughout Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, and is expanding again. Yet that growth isn’t expected to impact MainSource’s approach to banking.
“We want people to know that we offer the same products and services as large banks, but we also know our customers,” McCready says.
The bank’s Hyde Park location at 3442 Edwards Road is in the heart of the neighborhood’s business district surrounded by larger, full-service competitors in each direction. In spite of this, MainSource’s competitive advantage is its ability to deliver products and services with a focus on the individual customer and the community. MainSource also makes use of local discretion in lending decisions enabled by a familiarity with the customer and their needs, which is more challenging at larger banks.
The recent merger between the MainSource and Cheviot Savings Bank will increase MainSource’s footprint in Greater Cincinnati by adding 12 branches, distributed across the area. Despite the growth, McCready emphasizes the bank’s approach to banking that combines small town familiarity with customers with a wide variety of full-service products will remain. “We do intend to grow and we’re here to stay, but that won’t change the personal commitment we make to our customers.”
One such service is MainSource’s mortgage lending business. “ We offer low rates as well as conventional mortgage products including jumbo loans. Our construction loans are notable,” she says.
This type of loan enables borrowers to finance the construction of a new home on a one-time closing basis. Following completion of the construction, the financing can be converted into a conventional mortgage loan.
“We operate under a boutique mentality,” McCready says. “We’re small enough to tailor our responses to customers based on our rela- tionship with them when needed.”
Among MainSource’s other mortgage lending products are conventional loans that offer 10-, 15- and 30-year fixed rates as well as bridge loans and refinancing options. Jumbo loans are available at both fixed and adjustable rates. Loans are also available for United States Department of Agriculture Rural Housing Loans, Veterans Affairs (VA), Federal Housing Authority (FHA) as well as mortgage assistance programs for qualified customers. Home equity loans and lines of credit are also available.
The housing crisis and economic downturn of 2008 and 2009 helped to foster a more skeptical and ultimately savvier mortgage borrower.
“Customers want personal attention,” McCready says. “They want to feel that we’ve tailored services to their needs.”
In light of MainSource’s growth, larger competitors and the dynamics of Tri-State customers, the bank remains committed to the small-bank principles that have served them well.
“We’re all about the personal relationships we have with our customers,” McCready says. “ We give them the attention they deserve.”