Washington banker works to help individuals and small businesses succeed

To realize how important a local bank is in a community, Janelle Escher only has to take a walk around town.

'There are countless times we'll be out in public and hear, 'Hey, I've got a question for you,'' said Escher, 37, assistant vice president at Federation Bank in Washington, Iowa. 'To me, as a community banker, you're never off duty.'

Escher's office window overlooks the tidy Main Street park square and the historic buildings that surround it in downtown Washington. It's just a few blocks from the bank's drive-up location, where she started her career as a part-time teller in 2002.

After graduating from Iowa State University, Escher, a native of Washington, was considering a position in human resources. But she has found she truly enjoys her role as a local banker.

'I enjoy working with people. I have great co-workers, I have a great management team and I think that's half the battle in any job.'

With about 35 employees at its branches in Washington, Wellman, Brighton and Richland, Federation's size has afforded Escher the opportunity to learn every aspect of its operation. She has worked with new accounts, independent retirement accounts, proof operations — the process of confirming and supporting the bank's accounting practices — interest rate reviews, and automated clearing house (ACH) operations, the basic network for electronic transactions such as direct deposits. Early this year she moved to loan operations.

'That's my main focus right now, working with our mortgage loans,' she said. 'I've been able to learn a whole other side of the business. I can look at both sides of the bank, the assets and liabilities, and see more of that whole picture.'

Looking back over the past 15 years, Escher began her banking career in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Soon after, the Patriot Act placed strict requirements on banks to more closely monitor financial transactions for illegal activity. The 2008 collapse of mortgage-based securities brought another round of regulation, although Escher says the banking crisis itself didn't hit community banks as hard.

'Even though we weren't involved in some of the lending practices that larger banks were, we are not excluded from some of the regulations they're forced to follow.'

In addition to increased regulation, Escher also has seen a major evolution in banking technology.

'When I started, our office in Brighton was still manually pulling checks, paper checks, and putting them in a statement to mail out,' she said. 'Now, we don't have any (paper) copies of checks. If a customer wants something, they get an image back.' She notes that a great deal of focus now is on online banking, 'getting it on your phone.'

Technology's unintended side effect: When's the last time you actually went in to your bank?

'It is harder to make contact with new customers,' Escher said. So she and her fellow bankers work diligently to build a personal relationship with each customer.

'When someone comes in, we don't ask what their number is. We try to greet them by name, and for the most part, you get to know the customers you deal with,' she said.

What advice would Escher offer to one considering a banking career?

'Don't be afraid to start at the bottom,' she said. 'You get to know the fundamentals doing that. You get a grounding, and you get respect. So don't be afraid to start at that. It doesn't mean you have to stay there forever. If it's something you're interested in, don't be afraid to give it a try. But don't assume it's going to be the old banker's hours.'

With Iowa's sizable agriculture economy, Federation Bank does 'a really large portion of ag lending,' with its attendant concerns.

'I fear for some that are farming,' she said. 'I'll be curious to see how the ag industry looks once we get through the next couple of months and the effect that has on the local businesses.'

Escher can in some ways relate to her clients who farm. She and her husband, Don, run a 60-acre farm north of Washington.

'We have 25 acres of corn, 25 acres of beans and we have cattle. We say it's a hobby farm,' she said. 'We'd love to have it full-time, but we both work and we farm on the side.'

Even a small farm affords Escher a certain amount of perspective on issues faced by farmers with larger operations.

'I understand when we start talking farm values and those huge swings we had in land values,' she said. 'You get to see that whole picture: 'It assesses at this value, even though people are willing to pay this. What are you going to do on the lending side?''

Challenges like that keep Escher motivated in her work.

'It's the importance of community,' she said. 'I find that really important. It's not just the bank we want to succeed, we want that for the community as a whole.'

*This article was originally published in the fall 2017 issue of The Gazette's HER: Women in Business magazine.*