Daniel R. Minick
Vice President, Leadership GBA Executive Committee
Vice Chair, GBA Agriculture Committee
Executive Vice President
The Citizens Bank of Americus
Americus
Q: What has surprised you most about having a career in the banking industry?
A: When I began my career in banking, I had no idea how rewarding it would be help customers achieve their financial goals. Whether the assistance has been to help a customer pay for their child to go to college, buy a house or start their own business, the job has been extremely rewarding.
Q: What is a favorite memory or experience in your career?
A: Now that I have been in banking for 20 years, I really enjoyed generational banking. I am now banking some of the children of the customers that I have worked with over the years. It has been a really neat experience to see how the children view their financial future and the way they conduct business as compared to their parents.
Q: When it comes to the future of banking in Georgia, what makes you worried and what makes you hopeful?
A: What makes me worried is increased competition for banking products from non-regulated institutions. We have insurance companies offering loans and deposit products. Also, PayPal and other payment providers really concern me. I am hopeful for community banking because of the attention we pay to providing superior customer service to our customers. Also, I think most community banks have done a good job of incorporating technology into their product mix to secure their customer base for the future.
Q: If you weren’t working in banking, what would you be doing instead, or what would your life be like?
A: If I was not banking, I would definitely be working on the family farm. Banking has allowed me to use my agricultural background to help many different farmers in our community and farmers in different farm segments.
Q: When are you happiest?
A: My happiest moment in my job is when I can work with a customer hand-in-hand to reach their financial goal.
Q: You represented GBA and accompanied a group of agriculture interests to Washington back in December advocating for quick action on a disaster relief package to help recover losses due to Hurricane Michael. What did you learn from that experience?
A: Going to Washington really gave me an idea of how the process truly works. I did not understand all the different layers of the process has to get legislation passed.