John Ferrarese, Vice President & Banking Center Manager, Seacoast Bank
Seacoast Bank is growing rapidly and looking forward to a promising future, according to John Ferrarese, the bank’s vice president and banking center manager. “Investors like the company. They like the direction that we’re going in,” he told Invest: in an interview.
What have been the main highlights and key milestones for the bank in the last 12 months?
We’ve been in tremendous growth mode, especially in South Florida, but also in other markets in Jacksonville and Tampa. We will soon celebrate our 100-year anniversary. We started as a small community bank in Stuart, Florida, and have grown to 75-plus locations, primarily in the state of Florida. In particular, we see Broward County as a tremendous growth market, and we are investing heavily in the county. We have two new locations that are set to open in 2025, and we’re excited about the opportunities in Broward.
Why is Broward County a good place for your business?
It’s a business-friendly market. The political environment and social environment in Broward welcome business growth. It’s just a tremendous opportunity, and it’s a beautiful place to visit with the beach, great hotels and restaurants. It’s just a great place to live and to work.
What is your overview of the Broward economy?
Broward is a mature county, but we’re seeing a resurgence here. If you look at locations like Victoria Park or Franklin Park, they’re revitalizing the whole community. There’s a lot of development going on and businesses coming in. We’re seeing a lot of growth and development, with new businesses and multifamily units. Broward is a great market, and that’s why we’re excited about it.
Which services do you expect to be the main drivers of growth moving forward?
Technology and healthcare are probably the two main drivers in the area. As we see the economy improving and as interest rates come down, businesses tend to get off their seats and do a lot more investing in their own businesses and within the community.
Is the bank looking to expand further in terms of new branches or even into new service areas?
We are growing. We’ve invested in some really talented people. In South Florida, our regional president, Tony Coley, has come on board within the last year, and Eddy Rodriguez is our market president in Broward County. They’ve been focusing on developing the commercial banking team. We’re looking to expand in that area because we just see tremendous growth and opportunity. We’re growing the team and personnel. We’re growing brick and mortar. We’re investing heavily in Broward County.
How is the bank working from a technology innovation perspective to improve customer experience and make overall daily operations more efficient?
We have invested quite heavily in that area through our online banking platform. Last year, we improved the operational and visual aspects of the platform. We’re looking heavily into AI now and how that’s going to integrate into banking in the future. That’s an area that we are getting in front of. We think it’s going to be a tremendous opportunity to help our clients and businesses by providing a smoother experience.
What makes your bank different from other players in the market?
I worked for over 20 years for the bigger banks. I started my career at First Union in the late 1990s. It became Wachovia Bank and ultimately Wells Fargo Bank. I have a lot of experience with bigger banks. What attracted me to Seacoast Bank is its culture. The bank is heavily invested in its employees, clients, and community. When you have employees who feel valued, that reflects on the experience. We’re always looking at things like JD Power scores, and focusing on making sure our clients are happy; whether it’s walking into a branch and just making a simple transaction, or being involved with our commercial banking team on large development deals, lines of credit, construction projects, or whatever it might be. We want to make sure that our clients feel valued and happy from the beginning of their experience to fruition. I would say culture is the most important factor with Seacoast Bank.
What are the primary challenges affecting or influencing the banking sector?
When we talk about technology and the improvements in technology and platforms, unfortunately, what goes hand in hand with that is fraud. In general, we’ve seen a tremendous uptick in fraud and situations that we’ve never seen in the past. Fraud is rampant in so many areas. We really had to tighten up our infrastructure and pay a lot of attention to that. That’s always been a challenge.
Before 2008, you could say it was the Wild West of credit. Anybody with a heartbeat could get a fairly substantial credit facility. That’s not the case anymore. We’re making sure that the clients we lend to have good character and have the capacity to pay back the debt. We’re very selective. We have strengthened our underwriting and credit departments as well. We have some real talent there that does a tremendous job of evaluating opportunities.
To what would you attribute to the bank’s stock price growth?
Investors like the company. They like the direction that we’re going in. We have a tremendous CEO, Chuck Shaffer, who is just a fantastic advocate and a great mind. I think investors see that, and they see that we’re doing a good job. Generally, we’re well respected and well thought of in the marketplace by investors.
What will the next few years look like for Seacoast Bank?
The bank has grown quite a bit in the last few years through the acquisition of smaller community banks and organic growth. We anticipate that growth to continue. We’re investing not only in physical locations, but also in people. The talent pool is the most important factor, so the major challenge is finding the right people. This harkens back to our culture and retaining our employees. When people in the community hear the buzz about the bank, the direction we’re going in, and the way we value our personnel, it attracts talent. They want to come into the bank. We’re doing a really great job of bringing some fantastic people into the marketplace who are going to do really great things.
