From Macon to Mergers

The sole bank headquartered in the Golden Triangle grows from its modest beginnings to More than $1 billion in assets

As it is with any business whose history extends over generations, there are years that are considered as milestones.

For BankFirst, there is 1888, the year the bank opened as Merchants and Farmers Bank in Macon. There is 1994, when the bank expanded into the Golden Triangle by opening three branches in Columbus and 1997, when it opened a branch in West Point. There is also 1999, the year the bank opened two branches in Starkville and changed its name to BankFirst.

Rivaling all those years in significance is 2010, the year Moak Griffin took over as the bank’s president and CEO and, with his management team, declared it “a 125-year-old startup.” Four years later, BankFirst moved its headquarters from Macon to Columbus, a strategic move based on the new vision Moak’s team had created.

BankFirst Board Chairman David Barge, whose family has been shareholders in the bank for more than four decades, said the decision to relocate the bank’s headquarters was years in the making.

“My father was also the bank’s chairman at one point,” said Barge, a lifelong Macon resident. “I remember him saying years ago that the Columbus bank would be bigger than the Macon bank someday. There may have been a stigma in moving the headquarters to Columbus for a while, but it just made sense when Moak became CEO.”

In many respects, Moak Griffin embodies the qualities required to keep the delicate balance of honoring the banks traditions while pointing toward an ambitious future for the bank.

By the time he was named CEO after the retirement of Jerry Wilson, Moak was just 42 years old and had been with the bank for only nine years.

Affable and informal, Moak leaned on the experiences of some veteran senior bank officials – Mary Ann Gray as CFO, Gray Flora in investments and Charlie Holmes in credit. With more than 75 years of combined experience, Griffin said the group sat down and plotted the course for the bank’s future.

“I didn’t come into the job knowing everything I needed to know,” Griffin recalled. “So we sat down and talked it out and figured out who would be best in each role. We weren’t worried about hierarchy. I just got lucky and got the best title, but titles aren’t that big a deal around here. We all play different roles and they’re all equal.”

With the team in place, BankFirst’s board began its first large-scale expansion since the 1990s.

“Our whole board had been involved in that,” Barge said. “We devised the strategic plan and our primary goal was to reach $1 billion (in assets). We had hired a management team for the future and not the present. We knew we had the team in place that would allow us to grow.”

Since 2010, BankFirst has easily surpassed its goal, with $1.3 billion in assets. It has also added branches – Jackson in 2014 and, in April, five branches in Alabama after acquiring First National Bank of Central Alabama. BankFirst now has 22 locations in Mississippi and Alabama.

“I think we’ll keep growing,” Griffin said. “There are several good markets out there and if we can find the right banker, we’ll keep opening branches. There’s no reason to grow just to grow, but we feel there are opportunities for us.”

Despite its growth, in many respects, BankFirst sees itself playing many of the same roles it did when it was a single bank serving Noxubee County.

“Every bank has its own goals and different things it is trying to achieve,” Griffin said. “For us, its being a community bank with the focus on small-business lending and that’s something that’s always really appealed to me.

Griffin said local business lending is the bank’s sweet spot.

“Steel Dynamics is going to do their lending through one of the big banks,” Griffin said. We’re not equipped for that. But we feel like we’re in a great position for local businesses, from Waters Truck and Tractor to Graham Roofing right down to Noweta’s Flowers and everything in between. Locally-owned business lending is what we do.”

Small business lending isn’t necessarily unique; the Golden Triangle has numerous well-run banks that serve the area, but BankFirst is the only one headquartered here. Of the roughly 150 shareholders, the vast majority are in Lowndes and Noxubee counties.

One piece of their strategy that does set them apart is being aggressive in establishing footholds in small, rural communities, something that keeps faith with the bank’s small-town roots.

“We’re not afraid of rural communities,” Barge said. “In fact, we like rural communities.”

Griffin said acquiring small rural banks with dedicated customer bases helps provide BankFirst with funds it can lend in other markets where there is growth.

“It makes sense for us, if we can find the right people with the right customer base. Those banks don’t have the assets to be lenders, so often they’ll invest those deposits in the bond market. They may get 2.5 percent, where if that money is lent they could get 5 percent. So when we acquire a bank in a small town, we’re able to do what they can’t because we have those assets that allow us to be lenders.”

Indeed, in addition to opening branches in larger markets – Tuscaloosa, Jackson and the Golden Triangle – BankFirst has also moved into small towns such as Hickory, Lake, Louin and Newton.

Those small towns help to keep the growing bank grounded in its small-town past.

“In those smaller towns, the local bank is such an important part of the community,” Griffin said. “Those may not be growing. They may even be getting smaller, but if there’s a core base of customers there, we feel like we can not only provide the banking services they need, but add to what we’re doing in other places.”

Despite its growth, maintaining that sense of being the neighborhood bank remains an important part of BankFirst’s identity.

“If we lose that, we’ve lost everything,” Barge said.

Story by Slim Smith

Opening photo from BANKFIRST Archives

All other photos by Jennifer Mosbrucker