Member Perspective: Lauren Flowers

Guest Commentator: Lauren Flowers, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Corporate Secretary, Hyperion Bank @HyperionBankPA

How can banks increase financial literacy and inclusion in underserved communities to support Greater Philadelphia’s inclusive recovery?

We have found that one of the simplest ways to increase financial literacy is by using plain language, including taking care not to communicate solely in “banker-speak.” It’s easy to forget when you work in banking that not everyone knows or understands banking terms or the acronyms common in our industry.

This can mean taking care to not abbreviate everything to an acronym and to explain words and products and alternatives. It also means not assuming people know exactly what they need. After all, we’re the bankers, so a potential customer should not be expected to understand everything we do or all of the financial alternatives available to them.

A key part of this is listening. For example, is the challenge or goal a customer is telling us about in sync with the banking solution they are asking for or would a different alternative serve them better? By listening and asking good questions, we often help them in a way they didn’t expect or solve a problem they didn’t even know they had.

This more interactive, tailored approach in which we can very naturally roll a bit of financial education into most every interaction is part of the relationship-oriented stance of community banks. Banks like ours are smaller by design, so this is a hands-on way for us to address financial literacy, whereas larger big-box banks may have the resources to have bigger, more formalized financial literacy programs.

Likewise, even though banks are mandated to not exclude potential customers in their service area, that can look a lot of different ways depending on many factors, like the size and management of a bank. For a smaller bank like ours it’s important for DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – to come from the top down, cascading from the board through our workforce and through the communities we serve (and back up through the various levels as a check/balance). And we know such efforts are an ongoing, moving target.

In a recent interview with American Banker magazine, our CEO Charlie Crawford noted that, for a small organization like a community bank that is doing board recruitment without external guidance/support, it’s important to ensure selection criteria are not inadvertently creating bias. He also noted that boards should ideally mirror customer and community bases, in addition to looking at customers and community leaders to find a diversity of board candidates, also look to community organizations (like your Chamber!) for an assist.

It also helps to have secret weapons on your board and in your leadership as you continually evaluate and re-evaluate DEI efforts. In his service as a board member of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers, Crawford serves on that organization’s Diversity Task Force. Similarly, fellow Hyperion Board Member Bobby Nix, a minority serial entrepreneur who not only has served on the board of community banks but has led one as its President, helps keep us in check in terms of inclusion efforts.