Brian Young Of The Union Bank Company On The Future of Money and Banking

An Interview With David Liu

Passion — Pursue the important things in your life with intensity. Often, the most important things in life are hard.However, if you believe in what you are doing, it is worth the effort.

The way we bank has changed dramatically over the last decade. It was not too long ago when you had to wait in line in a bank to deposit money. Today things are totally different. You can do your banking without ever walking into a bank. Additionally, the whole concept of money has changed. In the recent past, “money” usually meant bills and coins. But today, the concept of money has expanded to include digital currency and NFTs. What other innovations should we expect to see in banking in the short and medium terms?

To address this, we are talking to leaders in the banking, finance, and fintech worlds to discuss the future of banking and money over the next few years. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brian D. Young.

Brian D. Young gained his experience in agriculture as well as being keyed into market strategy and forecasts throughout the banking industry. He started at The Union Bank Company as CFO and was eventually promoted to CEO.

Brian has helped develop a small-town community bank with the features of national banks by bringing in the right team to lead. He actively recruited one of the top SBA lending specialists in the region. During the first round of the PPP loans The Union Bank Company was able to turn around hundreds of loans in less than 48 hours to help meet the needs of our business clientele. Brian launched a brand-new program of having developed a key role focused on client experience to act as a concierge to help support all aspects of customer interactions and community needs. Finally — he launched a free financial university to help educate the general public and provide tools for financial health. Brian truly understands banking both past and present and can offer much to contribute to this article.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started in this industry?

I would consider myself an accidental community banker. I am a CPA by trade and was contacted by the bank’s former CEO about an opportunity to work at our bank as its CFO. Despite my relentless comments that I knew nothing about banking, I joined the team in October of 2001. The decision to become part of The Union Bank Company was a coming home for me, as I was raised on a family farm only 5 miles from the bank’s operations center in Northwest Ohio. I have the privilege of enjoying my job at the bank while also continuing to farm. Being a farm kid from a small town, raised by two faithful parents was a great way to understand the importance of integrity, hard work, compassion and need for community. I am thankful for everyone who has invested themselves in my life over the years.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

My shortest professional job lasted only four hours. In my first day on this new job, hortly after I sat down and began acquainting myself with the company’s finances, I realized that things were not as I was led to believe during the interview process. I promptly stopped by the CEO’s office for an explanation, and he indicated that he avoided the disclosure of the situation in fear that I would not join his team. At the conclusion of the meeting, I offered my resignation. It still makes me chuckle that I had a job that did not even last until lunch.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Honesty is not just the absence of deception but also the presence of truth.”

As I journeyed through my career, I saw how many situations were handled as “just business.” There have been many who defined “just business” as their reasoning to do whatever is permissible by the letter of the law or business practice and take advantage of a situation to benefit themselves, often financially. I also realized that a person could make numerous statements that were not “lies” yet left me believing something that was untrue. They would later explain they never lied to me. I believe that at the foundation of everything in our lives is the need for truth, and that honesty and integrity needs to be proactive and not merely the absence of “lies.” As a result of that belief, the pursuit of truth has continued to shape every aspect of my life. As I began to uncover my own internal desires, entitlements, and pride, the pursuit of truth has been humbling, but also a blessing as it has more clearly defined my purpose.

Ok wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell our readers about the most interesting projects you are working on now?

There are always several interesting projects going on at the bank, which is the result of our talented, creative team members. We are in the process of developing a strategy around Interactive Teller Machines, which allows our clients to have an in-depth, personal, video experience with one of our team members at a remote kiosk. Through these units, our clients can accomplish anything they could if there were at any of our full-service locations, except handle coins. We are also developing Robotic Automation Processes to eliminate as many routine tasks as possible. I think that smaller banks are often overlooked because it’s assumed that we are behind when it comes to technology. However, I would argue that many smaller community banks compete well with much larger banks.

The most interesting project at our company is our endless desire to nurture relationships and to serve others. As a small company we had to come to terms with the reality that if our clients were simply seeking convenience, prompt services, quality products and pricing, our ability to compete was limited. As a community bank, we continue to compete effectively because we understand that clients come to us for the aforementioned services but most importantly, they come to us for the relationships that they develop with our team members. This is of little surprise to anyone, but somehow, we find that we forget the most basic things about ourselves: human beings were created to be relational.

We try to keep relationships with our community in the forefront of our team members by creating an environment within our company that is consistent with those beliefs. This is one of our core values, and we challenge our team to live out those values. What still amazes me is the more we focus on: who we are, why we do what we do, and how we do it, we see improvement in financial performance, clarity in decision making, increased participation in community outreach, improved client engagement, and more interest from those outside our company to join our team. It truly is a win-win situation for all that are involved. We succeed through serving others.

How do you think this might change the world?

Seeing people where they are and truly caring for them is a very powerful concept. I may never know the total positive impact that our team had in our communities, counties, state or nation, but I do know that change has to start somewhere, so why not me, our team or you. This idea gets me energized to do more- and do more better.

What most excites you about the banking industry as it is today? Can you explain what you mean?

It is a privilege to help someone improve their financial situation and, in turn, improve their life. Whether it is working with them to buy their dream home, start up their business, or find funding to help them through a tough spot, we try our best to make their lives better.

What most concerns you about the banking industry as it is today? What would you suggest needs to be done to address that?

My biggest concern is the current federal regulatory agencies’ public negative characterization of the banking industry. The promotion of this perception and their intention to establish additional regulatory burden is harmful. To add injury to insult, this burden is often disproportionate to smaller community banks and will hinder their ability to serve their communities, which is their primary goal.

Banks have deep roots and are in communities for the long haul. They acted as the delivery mechanism for the billions of federal dollars pushed out to small businesses as a part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which illustrated the importance of banks to their communities.

I suggest the federal policymakers focus on holding the “bad actors” accountable, and not making it more difficult for our smaller banks to take care of our communities. Our industry must continue to bring clarity to our elected officials and regulators about the importance of fair, right-sized regulation, and the value that a diverse banking system has brought to our country.

How would you articulate how the concept of money has changed in recent times? Is it really a change? How is it still the same? Can you explain what you mean?

Crypto currency comes to mind as it has had a significant impact on the way we talk about money today. While the perceived value of Crypto has changed over time and the way it travels from one person to another is different, in the end, it is simply the transferring of wealth via electronic means, like any other currency. The real conversation is the perception of value in what is being transferred.

Since it was developed to bypass the banks and the related rules and regulations, Crypto will continue to receive high scrutiny from governments. This is simply because there are no tracking mechanisms to collect taxes, ensure stability, or reduce fraud. While I am not speculating how it will ultimately affect the value of Crypto, I think we are quickly approaching a time when governments will be trying to significantly control it.

Based on your vantage point as an insider in the finance industry, what innovations should we expect to see in banking in the short and medium term?

I think the finance industry will continue to see technology innovation that will enable consumers to accomplish their financial transactions quicker through AI, easier with apps, and more cost efficient as a result of the process improvement. We are seeing those innovations in everything that is done today in our industry, I believe that will continue.

In your particular experience, how has the pandemic changed the way you interact with, and engage your customers?

I have been fascinated by the changes that have taken place as the result of the pandemic. Initially it was pushing more of our clients to drive-thru banking and online transactions. Those trends were already happening prior to the pandemic, but it increased them to warp speed. Our bank and the industry as a whole were prepared for such a drastic stress to our system. I saw little or no negative impact to our clients’ service levels.

We understand that our clients will continue to use those services more, but a dynamic that I did not foresee was how much our clients and team members missed their personal face-to-face interactions with each other. As a result, I believe it solidified what our bank believed all along: community banking is relational at its very core. Because of this reassurance we are more focused than ever on making sure every human interaction valuable as it can possibly be for our clients.

In my work in the telecom space, I’m very interested in the importance of user experience. How much of your interactions have moved to digital such as chatbots, encrypted messaging apps, phone, or video calls? How has this shift impacted the user and customer experience? What challenges do these apps present when used as a customer engagement tool? If you could design the perfect communication feature or system to help your business, what would it be?

I believe there is space for chatbots and video calls, but we quickly heard from our clients the importance of face-to-face interactions. So as soon as we could, we returned to this form of communication with our clients. When it comes to their financial questions, our clients aren’t looking for a canned response. They are looking for a unique solution that best fits their unique situation,and we find the best way to do that is with a live person.

Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Modern Finance, Banking and Fintech industries?

To answer that question fully, I think the first step is to define success. My vision for success in my career is to have a positive impact on as many people as I can while bringing value to our shareholders, clients, team members, and communities.

1. Integrity — Interact with the highest possible degree of integrity in everything that you do and say. This is the foundation that will allow you to build a successful career over the long run and allow you to sleep well at night. The failure of so many companies and careers can often be linked back to a lack of integrity. Always remember that integrity is a proactive process, work hard at your personal integrity, because it always matters.
2. Passion — Pursue the important things in your life with intensity. Often, the most important things in life are hard.However, if you believe in what you are doing, it is worth the effort.
3. Creativity — Never stop creating, innovating, or being willing to change. The most valuable part of you is your ability to make things better through creative solutions to problems. We always look for individuals who are problem solvers because they simply make everything better. And remember, nothing needs to be wasted, especially failure.
4. Humility — Frankly speaking, it is not all about you. When we focus on putting others’ needs ahead of our own, we inspire others. We make the world a better place. Just because you are in a position of authority, have more money, or you have some abilities others may not have, it does not mean you are a better person or deserve to be treated differently. I admire those who do not care about your status, but they simply care about you.
5. Balance — Make sure you take the time to be available for your family and try not to miss the small opportunities to be a mom, dad, friend, or brother. One of my biggest regrets early in my career in finance is not being home for supper or having time to tuck my kids in bed. Fortunately, today you can work from your phone anywhere and at any time. The industry did not have that option early in my career. Make this a priority; your family will be and your team will collaborate better..

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would want a movement for the relentless pursuit of truth. It seems like many have convinced themselves that all truth is subjective, which is essentially saying that nothing is really true, but that truth is simply based on a one’s perception. Without truth, there is no foundation for the good in this world. If we would start seeking truth instead of focusing on our own comfort, the world would be a better place.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Readers can find us at www.theubank.com. We are a publicly traded company under the ticker UBOH and post information via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Thank you so much for the time you spent doing this interview. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success.