Interview With The President And CEO: Old National Bancorp (ONB) - Robert G. Jones
March 2, 2011 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published Southern and Midwestern Banks Report offering a timely review of the Banking sector. This Special Report contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. Please find an excerpt below.
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Robert G. Jones is the President and CEO of Old National Bancorp and has been a member of its board of directors since September 2004. Prior to joining Old National, Mr. Jones worked for KeyCorp for 25 years. He graduated from Ashland University in 1979 with a B.A. in political science and business administration. Mr. Jones serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis board of directors, where he is a member of its executive committee and Chair of the audit committee. Mr. Jones is very active in the community, named to the boards of the University of Evansville, Evansville Regional Business Council, the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana, Deaconess Hospital, Riley Children's Hospital and Youth Resources of Southwestern Indiana.
TWST: Please begin with a background summary, a brief historical sketch of Old National Bancorp, and then tell us what the company is doing today.
Mr. Jones: We are 176 years old and the largest bank headquartered in the state of Indiana. We have branches throughout Indiana, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky. We are at our heart and soul a community bank that is focused on serving our clients, bettering our communities and providing great value to our shareholders. Our strategy is pretty basic. We focus on basic banking products and delivering them with the highest degree of quality. And as I said, we focus on making a difference in our communities. Interestingly, our headquarter building is at the same location where our bank was founded 176 years ago. We wake up every day, and we worry about the state and the communities that we serve within the state. But as with any bank you're going to talk to, we're also very competitive. We see most of the banks in the Midwest throughout our franchise. We have a lot of other very good community banks that we compete with.
TWST: From your perspective, what is the economic outlook for the communities you serve? What are the underlying businesses or industries that are a part of your region?
Mr. Jones: It's a good mix. We see agriculture, manufacturing and a little bit of distribution. But the two largest industries that we see are both the agriculture and the manufacturing industries. Indiana, as you may be aware, weathered the economic storm over the last few years better than most Midwestern states. We've been blessed to have balanced budgets. Our unemployment rates are less than our neighboring states, and we've been the beneficiary of more job creation than the other parts of the Midwest. Again, we're the Midwest, so the economy is not robust, but we're blessed in Indiana to be a little better than most.
TWST: As far as the economy is concerned, what is your outlook at this point for the area in which you're dealing, and the outlook for loan productions?
Mr. Jones: Slow recovery. I don't see a robust economy in 2011. I see a very gradual, slow recovery. Unemployment will hover above 9% in a majority of our markets. I don't see significant loan demand. I think you are going to see an increase in loan demand, but nowhere near what you would call robust. I think companies and the individuals are still trying to get comfortable with recovery, and I think that lack of comfort and confidence is going to portend in still some depressed borrowing.
TWST: Would you give us the financial snapshot, the balance sheet, P And L, asset levels of the company? What areas are particular strengths and what items are you focused on for improvement?
Mr. Jones: We're roughly an $8.8 billion institution. Our real focus over the last year and this year is going to continue to be on two very fundamental issues - how can we continue to reduce our cost base? And as with all banks, we need to focus on driving revenue at the highest level through generating loan growth and improving margins. So again, our core strategy is a fairly basic bank strategy.
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