Page 33 - BusinessWest December 22, 2021
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   Paul Scully says customers are feeling more optimistic about the future.
By Joseph Bednar
T
Banking & Finance
 Seeking a Return
Banks and Credit Unions Steer Back Toward Normalcy
While year one of the pandemic taught banks how to constantly pivot — to remote work, new modes of serving customers, and multiple phases of PPP loans
— year two has brought more stability, even normalcy, but also new challenges, particularly inflation and supply-chain disruption that has made it more difficult for customers to save, borrow, and invest. That they’re doing all these things, to some degree, lends a healthy sense of optimism to 2022.
here’s nothing wrong with normalcy, Paul Scully said.
And if nothing else, the business of banking in 2021 was more stable
than in 2020. That doesn’t mean all the economic issues individuals and businesses are dealing with have gone away, just that banks, and
businesses in general, had to do less pivoting. Or at least have learned to roll with the punches.
“With vaccination rates increasing — or at least the availability of vaccinations up — we saw business picking up and customers feeling more confident coming into the banking centers,” said Scully, president and CEO of Country Bank. “And with commercial business picking up, people were feeling a little more optimistic with what the future has in store for them — where 2020 was all about trying to fig- ure out what the heck was going on.”
What was going on last year were the early throes of a pandemic with no vac- cines available, widespread shutdowns of economic activity, and banks more involved in PPP loans than normal commercial activity. “But we started to see, probably by the second quarter of this year, a normalizing, with customers feel- ing more confident and feeling more optimistic about the future and for their business.”
 BANKING & FINANCE
DECEMBER 22, 2021 33
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