Failure Friday hits HOME

The Peoples Bank Main Office in Downtown Winder, Georgia

Once again, I took a month hiatus from blogging.  I know that if I’m ever going to attract an audience of readers, I must write something everyday.  Well, this time, I have an excuse.  A good excuse.

My employer, The Peoples Bank was taken over by the FDIC on Friday, September 17. That evening all of the loans and deposits were transferred to Community & Southern Bank of Carrollton, Georgia.  In short, The Peoples Bank failed. I’ve avoided that word: FAILURE.

At this point, I could go 0n about the unfairness and the mystery associated with the FDIC takeover and assisted sale to Community & Southern Bank. There were a lot more banks in Georgia and the United States that were in worse shape than The Peoples Bank.  One thing that I do know is that it is not Community & Southern Bank’s fault.  They just happened to be at the right place at the right time.  And, from all appearances and first impressions, they seem to be a pretty good organization.  I look forward to what the future may hold with this organization.

Now, back to the word failure.  Did we really and truly fail?  According to the FDIC definition of failure, we failed.  An executive with Community & Southern Bank told me early on that the way WE did things didn’t work.  That’s why you failed.  Ouch!  How can you say that an organization that existed for 84 years, survived the Great Depression, and had thousands of happy and satisfied customers didn’t work? The Peoples Bank was built from nothing into something.  Something worked and something was done RIGHT.

Again, I could go on-and-on about the unfairness of the failure, things the FDIC could have done differently, or how The Peoples Bank could have survived at least another two years without any FDIC intervention. But, I won’t go there. I’ve said my peace in my previous blogs and it won’t change anything.  You can’t unring a bell!