With July 4 Independence Day celebrations behind us and Colorado Day just ahead on August 1, we asked Alpine Bank Vice Chairman and President Glen Jammaron to share his thoughts on the importance of Alpine Bank’s commitment as an independent community bank which has grown to 40 locations across Colorado.
“We have five core values at Alpine Bank—independence,
integrity, communities, compassion and loyalty. Without independence, we are
limited in our ability to deliver on the other four. Can we put community at
the front of the line like we do, if we’re not independent? Can’t guarantee
that. All our other values—including compassion and communities, are subject to
someone else’s decisions if we’re not independent.”
“Are earnings more
important? Is growth more important? Without independence, we don’t get to
decide that. As long as we’re independent, a Colorado bank, and an
employee-owned community bank, we get to make those decisions ourselves. And we
know what’s best for our community, not somebody from out of state.”
Can Alpine Bank
compete with the mega out-of-state conglomerate banks?
“We absolutely can and do. We’re a nearly $4-billion-dollar Colorado bank. We have the scale to compete with anybody. We are large enough to offer our customers basically anything that other banks can. We have the technology, the people and the resources to offer the service, but most of all, we have the focus on our own communities and our own customers, who we live and work with every day.”
Can Alpine Bank grow,
while staying an independent community bank?
“When Bob Young founded the bank in 1973, his
goal was to be an independent bank. Independence is part of our DNA. It is
baked into who we are. It is a core value, and it is the one I put on top of
the list because it makes all the other values possible. Alpine has achieved
substantial growth during our 46 years, and we’ve always grown on our terms,
and that means growth that benefits our customers and our communities, as well
as our employee owners.”