The First National Bank of Elmer’s headquarters. –

Brian Jones, the CEO and leader of the First National Bank of Elmer, loves to point out the four cell phone numbers that a commercial customer gets when they take out a loan:

• A person at the branch
• The lending officer who is working the account
• The bank’s chief lending officer
• And Jones himself.

That’s right, the CEO of the institution is available to customers 24/7.

Jones said it’s just one way the First National Bank of Elmer, a community bank that has existed for more than 100 years in Salem County, can compete. And a big reason why the bank is growing quickly in South Jersey.

“It’s service, service, service,” he told BINJE. “That’s the difference in our industry. Every bank talks about it, but how do they really do it?

“I’m proud that I’m available to our customers. To be honest, calls don’t always get to me, because all of us make ourselves available. But, if somebody needs me, they’ll get me.”

To be sure, First National Bank of Elmer is a small community bank, one with six branch locations (four of which are in Salem County, plus locations in Cumberland and Gloucester counties).

But it is one that is growing quickly.

Its assets have nearly doubled since Jones came aboard in 2013 (from $220 million then to approximately $400 million today). It will add another location (a loan processing office, not a branch) in Burlington (Evesham Township) on Tuesday. And it already has a large customer base in Cape May County and throughout South Jersey.

In addition to providing personalized service, Jones said the bank’s secret to success is understanding who it is and who it serves.

“There isn’t a high degree of complexity in our organization,” he said. “Our main income stream is commercial lending. Our sweet spot is commercial loans between $1 million and $3 million. We can go higher. And we do go higher, but we stick to this core competency.

“We’re not an institution that, when the mortgage markets are hot, we quickly hire six people, until that goes away because of rates. Or one that jumps into SBA loans when they are hot, until they are not.

“For us, it’s about understanding who we are, who we serve — and servicing them the best way possible.”

Jones spoke with BINJE in advance of the ribbon-cutting Tuesday for the loan processing office. Here is more of the conversation, slightly edited for flow and space.

And, to be clear, Jones is on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. His thoughts are his own and not representative of the Federal Reserve Bank system.

BINJE: The financial industry brings challenges to banks of all sizes. And there certainly have been a number of mergers because of it. The First National Bank of Elmer has remained independent since it began in a small room inside a local barbershop in 1903. Talk about its philosophy.

Brian Jones: In any institution, but especially in smaller banks, there are two areas that you really have to be able to address properly. The first is compliance, bank secrecy and the regulatory environment. We have a great relationship with our regulators, one with plenty of communication. That helps us there.

The second is asset quality. Our loans are our assets. We have to keep the quality of your loans very high. You can’t change your risk profile just because the economy changes. I will tell you, when times are really good, we leave money on the table, but when times are really bad, we don’t lose it like other people do.

As long as we keep ourselves very clean in those two areas, we can continue to grow and generate income for a long time. That’s what we’ve done.

BINJE: Of course, you’ve done this while competing against the biggest banks in the region and country, whether it be TD Bank, Wells Fargo, PNC or Bank of America. How do you do that? Isn’t bigger, better?

BJ: We have advanced a lot in the last few years when it comes to electronic banking, so we now have many of the products that our larger competitors have. But we can’t offer all the products that they do. For us, it comes down to this: Can we provide more tailored service, more personalized service?

Our loan committees meet every week, not every month. So, our ability to respond to a client in a timely fashion is superior. And, since we have a good degree of liquidity, we can fund loans ourselves and do it quickly.

Plus, we really know our clients. Main Street banking is different than the money center banks. Both are needed. Both provide absolute, necessary service, but we generally are attracted to a different client base, one that is engrained in the community like we are. I think being recognized for being out in the community is an important thing.

BINJE: Your ‘community’ is growing. While you’ll soon have either a bank or a loan processing outlet in four counties, you serve all seven in South Jersey. Talk about the work you’re doing in Cape May, even though you do not have a branch there.

BJ: I personally am on a number of boards here (everything from Atlantic Cape Community College to the Cape May County Community Coast Guard Foundation to the Cape May Point Arts and Science Center).

We’ve got a really good book of business down here. And the only way you keep that is through service, service, service. You don’t have to have a branch. Nobody cares where they mail their check — every bank has green money. But you have to be there for clients. And we are.

BINJE: Even if you’re the president?

BJ: Especially if you’re the president. There are so many times when I’ll be on a call with a potential customer and I’ll say, ‘When’s the last time you spoke to the president of your bank?’ Often times, it’s never.

My being available to them is a big difference. It gives them a different feeling.

BINJE: We’ve talked about how the bank has been growing in assets and locations. What’s next?

BJ: We don’t have any defined number, like, we want to have this much in assets or this many locations by a defined date. What we want to do is continue to grow the institution organically.

Some institutions will say, ‘We’re going to buy a bank this year.’ And they put that into their growth estimate. For us, the bank is independent and has a strong desire to stay that way.

The most important thing for us is to maintain a constant risk profile and the ability to take care of the customers we have. It takes a lot more to replace a customer than to maintain a customer. So, we make sure we spend our time, energy and focus on keeping what we have, making sure we’re providing our clients with what they need, when they need it.

BINJE: Starting with your phone numbers.