Pub. 11 2021 Issue 1

26 www.azbankers.org “One of the early chal lenges we had of having this statewide footprint and very l i t t le capi tal was that we weren’t going to be able to bui ld branches everywhere. We were an early adopter of technology.” said, ‘Let’s resist the temptation to become a traditional bank.’” For example, the bank offered an ACH conversion product before remote deposits were an option to scan checks and convert them to ACH payments. It offered clients an overnight deposit service through fellow Tennessee-based FedEx. While Insbank offers clients an up-to-date tech suite, the pandemic helped it capitalize on those investments. “The pandemic has taken that trend that was already happening and forced it on everyone,” Rieniets says. Even after some semblance of normal returns, “the day-to-day banking transactions will remain in the digital space,” he adds. “Our bank might be a decent example for what that looks like. Our bank doesn’t handle cash or have an ATM. Our bank doesn’t have a drive-thru.” Technology can be advantageous for community banks, and Rieniets is positive about the work-life balance benefits of work-from-home policies. He wants to bring Insbank’s team back together eventually — “we’re a firm believer in getting people together in teams to work on projects” — but Insbank employees have appreciated getting “hours back in their week to do things they want to do rather than spending time on the road” commuting. And Rieniets has another reason to get employees and clients back together: Insbank’s next film premiere. Rieniets doesn’t only shoot PPP PSAs. Several years ago, he produced a 20-minute video for an Insbank event spoofing pre- crisis excesses in the financial sector. The next video, a parody of The Hangover that spoofed the financial crisis’s regulatory reaction, had higher production values and was even more popular. Eventually, Insbank was renting out a local theater with multiple showings for its productions. “It became an outlet to connect with clients,” Rieniets says, adding that it tells them: “We take our work seriously — but not ourselves too seriously.” w For bankers looking to get involved in advocacy, Rieniets says to go for it — but for the right reasons. “Do it to the extent you have a passion for it, and you care for it,” he explains. “Don’t do it to try to put it on a resume. It won’t do you or your industry well.” He adds that bankers should put their unique expertise within the bank to work in advocacy. “Bringing that expertise to the group is beneficial,” he says. “How can you be most effective? Pick the things that you know best and lever that expertise.” Building Expertise After graduating from Vanderbilt, Rieniets began building his expertise as a management trainee at the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis (since merged into SunTrust Banks, now Trust Financial). He became a commercial lender and then ran the small business group and correspondent lending group there. One of his clients in correspondent banking was a board member of a joint venture working on starting up a new bank for insurers throughout Tennessee. Initially known as Insurors Bank of Tennessee — “a post- Gramm-Leach-Bliley idea that independent insurance agents would like a bank to call their own and refer clients to” — the de novo brought Rieniets on as head of credit and lending. Rieniets relocated to Nashville with his wife, Susie, and their growing family. (Jim and Susie today have three children; two college-aged and one in high school.) With $6 million in capital, the bank’s original business plan soon required a pivot as the much-vaunted integration of banking and insurance never saw the fruition envisioned by many in the late 1990s, Rieniets recalls. “If we’re going to do something for our shareholders, we’re going to need to shift our business model.” The bank was reborn in 2007 as Insbank, expanding its focus to businesses in the about-to-explode Nashville market. “It’s really become a melting pot,” says Rieniets of the growth in Nashville, which helped fuel Insbank’s rise to more than $600 million in assets. But even as Insbank capitalized on the Music City, it retained its statewide market serving insurers. “One of the early challenges we had of having this statewide footprint and very little capital was that we weren’t going to be able to build branches everywhere,” he says. “We were an early adopter of technology. We continued from page 25