-: Hi, I'm Mike Keim, I'm President of
Univest Bank and Trust Company.
So, we're a four and a half billion dollar bank,
located in Souderton, Pennsylvania.
I'm responsible for running all facets of the operations
of the bank, from the lending side of the business to
our operations side and also on the technology side.
We have two other companies that are part
of our global company, which is an insurance business
as well as a wealth management business.
So, the technology operation that I oversee
manages technology for both the insurance and
wealth management operations as well.
So, we're broken down into our commercial side
of the business and more of a business
lender as well as the consumer side.
On the business side, we will do loans,
commercial real estate loans, which are
called commercial and industry loans.
Those are to help businesses do
what they do and continue to grow.
As well as, we do, tax exempt financing
for local municipalities, non-profits,
colleges and universities, et cetera.
So, we look at their full set of financials and we look at
their ability to cover and service the debt.
We look at the number of years that they've been in
business, the experience of the personnel, the lines of
business that they do because
that's important to us as well.
We really want to get to the point of,
are they able to repay the debt?
Are they in a business that we feel comfortable
with, if it can grow longer term?
And, is this somebody...
I have a very simple philosophy that it says,
if this was your own money, would you lend it to them?
That's the first question that we ask our lenders.
From a individual or consumer perspective,
the underwriting criteria is a little bit more
established and consistent across the industry.
On the mortgage side, we sell directly to Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, so they have an automated underwriting engine,
that says how much was my debt to income ratio,
what's the value of my property.
There's pretty strict criteria that we would lend against.
We have a little bit more flexibility when we put that
loan on our balance sheet, in terms of what we do.
And, at the end of the day, it's similar to
the commercial side of the business,
which is do we think we're going to get paid back?
Do we think we have a good customer
here and can we help them?
So, that's what we go by.
I spend more and more of my time getting out,
involved in community organizations,
meeting with folks, meeting with customers.
And, really, it's a general business development effort.
Then, when I come back into the office is, how can I work
with the folks that work for me to set strategic direction
and then give them the level of independence and freedom to
go carry those out on a tactical basis.