The Customers Bank Reading Tree has returned at the Reading Fightin Phils’ First Energy Stadium this season. Angie Lattanzio, Vice President, Sales Office Manager, enjoyed reading to some younger Fightins fans during a recent home game.

Day of Caring

Our Team Members recently participated in United Way of Berks County’s Day of Caring event at Bethany Children’s Home in Womelsdorf, PA. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help Bethany with a little spring cleaning!

Project Freedom, Inc.

Customers Bank is proud to support Project Freedom, Inc., a non-profit organization that develops, operates, and advocates for accessible and affordable housing for individuals with disabilities! We recently donated $5,000 to help support their important work.

Veterans Coalition of Pennsylvania

The Veterans Coalition of Pennsylvania has been assisting local Veterans and their families for years. During Military Appreciation Month and beyond, Customers Bank is honored to support its mission of connecting these heroes with much-needed resources. On Saturday, May 8, we presented the organization with a check for $20,000 during its monthly Reading Stand Down event to feed and clothe area veterans.

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In the loan approval process, understanding the full picture is essential. We take the time to learn about your business. For those who don’t meet the financial and credit requirements to qualify for traditional small business lending, we can offer suggestions such as government-guaranteed loans, community and economic development assistance, or credit enhancement strategies to help improve the chances for approval at a later date.

Our team reflects our communities

We strive to serve the banking needs of minority-owned businesses and have a diverse, multilingual team who is able to communicate with customers in their preferred language—as well as understand the various cultures within our community.

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Additionally, we made $850,000 of investments in educational programs and other community initiatives through the Pennsylvania Education Investment Tax Credit (EITC) program. Many of our corporate leaders serve on community and statewide boards of non-profits, service organizations, and charitable organizations. Their time, talent, and personal contributions further enhance our communities.

Funding requests

Local 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations that are committed to improving educational opportunities, children and youth, and community health and wellbeing are eligible for contributions and scholarships from Customers Bank.

Applications for funding or scholarships should be submitted in writing to CharitableGiving@customersbank.com and must include:

1. Name of requestor and their contact information
2. Brief description of the organization, including its legal name, history, activities, purpose and proof of registered 501(c)(3) non-profit status, mailing address and email address
3. Organization’s contact name, title, phone number and email address
4. History of previous support from Customers Bank, if applicable
5. Description of how the funding will be used
6. Measures that will be used to assess the success of the funded activity
7. Permission of the applicant to use the name of the organization, its logo, and photos from the event in the Bank’s marketing, internet website, and/or social media

The deadline for applications is at least four weeks prior to either the date of an event or the due date of the contribution payment. Incomplete or inaccurate applications will not be considered for funding. Customers Bank reserves the right to deny funding any application submitted.

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At Customers Bank, we don’t just see CRA as a regulatory requirement, we see it as the right way to do business. We provide a wide range of loans, investments and services designed to meet the needs of our low- and moderate-income customers, as part of this mission.

Building and rebuilding

In addition to making mortgages more affordable for homebuyers, we work with small businesses to provide the financial and business support they need for start-up and long-term growth in their neighborhoods. We also provide crucial capital and credit to diverse local partners including community development financial institutions (CDFI), landlords and other community developers.

Making housing affordable

The backbone of every neighborhood are the families that live there and the homes they live in. At Customers Bank, we are committed to making safe, decent housing affordable for low- and moderate-income seniors, families, veterans and people with disabilities. Our lending philosophy includes consideration of participation in private-public partnerships, government loans and affordable mortgages. We offer USDA, FHA and VA loans, as well as state programs, that make owning a home a reality for first-time homebuyers, veterans and other qualified borrowers. We also participate in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh’s First Front Door program.

Supporting small business

Customers Bank understands that businesses located in the communities we serve are essential to community development and revitalization, and we support those businesses by providing affordable commercial financing. Additionally, we have made a substantial commitment to be a leader in lending programs tied to the SBA as another means of financing small businesses with reasonable terms and conditions.

Service to our community

Our community efforts are not limited to banking. We encourage our employees to volunteer their time and expertise to organizations that serve low- and moderate-income communities. At events ranging from reading readiness drives to health fairs, you will likely find Customers Bank employees rolling their sleeves up and getting involved. In addition, our team members teach free courses on spending, saving, borrowing and banking, sharing knowledge that can help people throughout our geographical footprint make sound financial decisions.

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Regardless of your industry, without this hunger, you will be left behind as the nature of business is predicated on the need to develop advantages over your competitors in the marketplace. This also holds true with distinguishing yourself from your colleagues to advance within an organization.

Team Members who demonstrate this leadership competency have a mindset of continued growth, innovation and the constant pursuit of excellence. They challenge themselves to keep learning, to discover new opportunities to improve and are open and receptive to feedback. The characteristics they display include advocating for collaboration, adaptability and strategic thinking. Team Members who develop these skills and attributes also take a greater sense of ownership in their work and their contributions to the organization, thus making them more valuable to their employers.

To develop your own skills, start by always striving to learn more, improve your skill set and challenge yourself to keep growing. You and you alone are responsible for either moving forward or backward; you are never just sitting still. Remember, continuous improvement is a journey that will last your entire life, not a destination to be reached.

There are various models for continuous improvement, but to get started on your journey, it is helpful to examine several of the core components consistent in each variation.

Identify
Continuous improvement begins with identifying opportunities. This could be something you want to learn more about to further your knowledge or develop greater skills. It could be identifying a process that could be improved. One of the most crucial aspects of the identification process is to analyze and quantify the desired outcome.

Plan
Planning is the key to success. Once you know your desired outcome and how to get there, you have to create the steps to follow to achieve the desired result. This could be a long-term plan to learn a new instrument or a short-term plan to create and implement a new process that creates greater efficiency or enhanced value to customers or the business.

Execute
With your plan finalized, you know the optimal solution and are ready to take action. Implement your plan and make adjustments as you progress. Evaluate each step to determine if improvements can be implemented along the way or if additional considerations need to be taken into account.

Evaluation
The evaluation process is a critical component of continuous improvement. This is the time to study the results and recognize adjustments that can be instituted to improve outcomes. If your result did not generate the desired improvement, what needs to change? If your plan was successful, take the time to celebrate the win and then start the process over again. If you improved a process, what other process could be improved? If you learned a new language, what skill are you going to learn next?

The advice I offer to colleagues beginning their careers is to pursue what they are passionate about. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, it is extremely challenging to find opportunities for improvement and the continued desire to grow and learn. The good news is that continuous improvement is much easier today than it has ever been. Any information you want to learn is literally available at your fingertips.

You can type a specific word into the Google Chrome browser* and access all the information you need. If you want to understand financial statement analysis or any ratio used in banking, or common acronyms, if you have the initiative to Google those terms, you can learn exactly what they are. The YouTube video community* is another great resource that can be used to learn just about everything.

Most importantly, don’t sell yourself short. Take the initiative and push yourself to keep improving in every aspect of your life. Remember, if you say you could have done better if only you tried, you have wasted a lot of your valuable time and natural abilities. Be passionate about what you strive to do and be the absolute best that you can be.

* Customers Bank has no association with Google or the YouTube video community.

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Adapting to and managing change is one of several core leadership competencies we look for in Team Members. This ability is often referred to as Adaptability Quotient (AQ). Adaptability is about accepting change, while agility is about managing and driving change.

When you look at the banking industry, as well as every other industry, everyone was suddenly challenged by the pandemic to change how we work. Customers Bank went from about a five to ten percent remote workforce to approximately a 90 percent remote workforce.

Team Members had to adapt. We were all challenged to work remotely, collaborate remotely and predict future changes. Having a high AQ enabled Team Members to adapt to the changes while continuing to produce at high levels. As we evaluate Team Members to identify our future leaders, we seek individuals with a high AQ, as we rely on our leaders to drive change, not just manage it. Another attribute of adaptability is speed. In an agile environment, the speed at which you can implement change sets nimble banks apart from larger financial institutions bogged down by bureaucracy.

Individuals interested in understanding AQ and developing their own skills may want to consider reading The Oz Principle. The book’s authors introduce the Steps to Accountability model that consists of four steps that can help you improve your AQ. The steps include: See It, Own It, Solve It and Do It.

Mastering your AQ skills will help you identify what needs to be changed and empower you to charge forward to lead that change. Oftentimes, it is the fear of failure that stops employees from acting. Failure, if used as a tool, can be a great learning mechanism that breeds agility and the ability to accomplish tasks quicker. If a change does not work, adjust to the circumstance and drive forward.

This is an example of the principles we use to create change faster to improve operational efficiency and, most importantly, impact our customers’ journey. Challenge yourself to continue learning and constantly improve your skills. Being the champion of your own professional development will set you apart from your colleagues and distinguish you as a more valuable asset to your employer.

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