3 original employees still work at Cassville-based bank
Twenty-five years ago, 23 investors were awarded a bank charter and, within a week, funded a community bank intent on meeting customer needs at a local level.
On Nov. 22, Freedom Bank of Southern Missouri will celebrate a quarter-century in business, having grown from one location in Cassville to seven in Barry and surrounding counties.
While Freedom’s reach and processes, especially related to technology, have changed, three faces at the business have not: Loan Operations Specialist Jennifer Larson, Vice President of Compliance Beth Hudson and President and CEO Stan Kelley.
“Our goal when we started with the original investors was that we wanted to make a community bank that’s long-lasting and would not sell or merge with a larger holding company,” Kelley said. “We wanted to stay in and serve the community we were part of, and we’d seen the needs of those community members had been hurting for a long time.”
Kelley said the larger banks in the area at the time had a loan system heavily based on the applicant’s credit score, which in Kelley’s view, left out a personal touch.
“Some of our best customers may not have a credit score because they don’t use loans that much,” he said. Being a community bank, that allows us to consider some other factors and still be able to make good-quality loans. We can provide those quality loans without that credit module using a system that works.”
Kelley said Freedom is equipped for small, medium and large loans, and they do them all.
“We have maintained that objective of making quality loans, and we have an array of customers we serve,” he said. “A big plus is people here check with who their friends and neighbors bank with, and we receive a lot of good referrals. We’re very fortunate for that. We also have a tremendous amount of experience within our officers and associates. It’s a benefit to bank with Freedom Bank because we want good joint relationships where both we and the customer benefit.”
In its 25 years, Freedom has expanded not only in locations and staff — starting with just nine in one location in 1999 to more than 100 now at seven — it has kept up with expansions in technological ability.
“We were worried about Y2K when we were opening, but that of course was not of consequence,” Kelley said. “The biggest change overall has been technology with mobile banking and so many ways for people to do what they need without having to come in, and that mobility is even more prevalent today than five years ago.
“But, we like to see people one-on-one, and a good percentage of our customers still come into the bank.”
While technology is ever expanding, Kelley said there are no immediate plans for the bank to grow in locations or staff.
“About every 3-5 years we’ve expanded to a different area or community,” he said. “It’s been four years since our last, but there are no plans to do more at this time. We like to see any expansion prove that it pays for itself.”
Kelley said as proud as he is of the bank and its customers, the biggest factor in its 25 years of business has been the staff. “I am very thankful for 25 years, starting in Barry County and expanding to adjoining counties,” he said. “I thank the customer base and investors for that, but I am most thankful for our employees because what makes you is your people.”
On Jan. 1, 2025, Kelley will move to a CEOonly role, with Willard Branch President Taylor Robertson taking over as Freedom Bank president and Kelley Mills moving to Cassville Branch president.
“We’ll be making the transition of sharing responsibilities at the first of the year, but I will continue on as CEO and be in the office a considerable amount of time, still working with and serving most of my existing customer base,” Kelley said. “I may take some extra time off on occasion, but I will still be involved with Freedom Bank and seeing what I can do to help Freedom grow.”
Freedom Bank of Southern Missouri has branch locations in Cassville, Seligman, Willard, Shell Knob, Golden, Monett and Aurora.
