Paducah Bank

Private banking

The bank's Private Banking Division services include:

Deposit services

Credit services

Other banking services

Trust Division

Paducah Bank's Trust Division provides investment management and financial assistance in estate planning to aid in reducing estate taxes, financing educations, charitable bequests, distribution of income to beneficiaries, and many other trust-related products and services. Trust services include:

Paducah Financial Consultants

Paducah Financial Consultants is the bank's investment division. Licensed brokers work through LPL Financial to provide customized solutions to help customers build, protect, and transfer wealth. Paducah Financial Consultants services include:

Notable achievements

Paducah Bank was named one of the Top 15 Small Workplaces in North America by The Wall Street Journal and Winning Workplaces in 2008. The Wall Street Journal partnered with Winning Workplaces, a nonprofit company whose mission is to help the leaders of small and mid-size organizations create better workplaces. Over 800 companies were selected to submit an application. A team of judges reviewed all the material and named 15 winners who were featured in the October 13 issue of The Wall Street Journal's Report on Small Businesses and honored at a Top Small Workplaces Conference and Celebration sponsored by Winning Workplaces in Chicago, IL. Paducah Bank was the only business in Kentucky and the only bank in the United States to win this honor in 2008.

In 2002, the bank's directors and management had the foresight to purchase 3 acres (12,000 m²) of land with the plan of building a three-story, 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m²) building to replace the West Park Banking Center. On June 16, 2008, the West Park Banking Center was relocated into the new facility in Strawberry Hill.

Paducah Bank's internal culture

In 2002, the bank developed an Owners' Commitment. Employees participated in the creation of 15 basics designed to put Service, Behaviors, Credo, Motto, and Vision (to be the premier provider of financial resources) in place. In order to permanently cement this new culture into the organization, "Owners' Meetings" were created. Every day at 8:30 a.m., every employee at every location attends a five-minute stand-up meeting.

During 2002, the management team began an initiative to take the bank from "good to great." This concept, as outlined in the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, is consistent with the bank's Owners' Commitment. All employees received a copy of the book, and discussion groups determined how to apply the book's recommendations to the bank's culture.

Artist Relocation Program

Few projects have had both the local and national impact as the bank's involvement with the revitalization of Paducah's historic Lower Town neighborhood. A feature on the bank and the revitalization program in The American Banker told the story like this:

In the 1940s and 1950s, Paducah, Kentucky, was a destination for jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington; the thriving port city at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio rivers was an important stop on the 'Chitlin' Circuit,' a safe set of performance venues for African-Americans.

However, like many other small Midwestern cities, Paducah fell on hard times in recent decades. Lower Town, one of the first neighborhoods settled, became a center for local drug trade and historic Victorian houses there were cut haphazardly into low-rent apartments, accelerating the neighborhoods decline.

The bank partnered with the city to bring artists from all over the country to Paducah's Lower Town neighborhood to revitalize and restore early Victorian homes. The idea was that artists would purchase homes at discounted prices and, with low-interest Paducah Bank loans, would then renovate them—typically by creating a gallery on the street level and living quarters above. The concept caught on so much that the Artist Relocation Program has won numerous state and national awards and has been featured in national news broadcasts and in national newspapers around the country.

Community partnership

In 2010, Paducah Bank partnered with the Paducah Rotary Club to commit funds toward the organization's Community Scholarship Program. A scholarship to West Kentucky Community and Technical College will be funded for all students of Paducah/McCracken County schools who meet the criteria. Students must maintain a 2.5 GPA throughout high school along with a 95 percent cumulative attendance record. Designed to provide "gap funding," the scholarship will make up the difference between the amount a student receives in other scholarships and grants and the remaining tuition costs at WKCTC.

Getting a head start

Paducah Bank partnered with Paducah Head Start/Preschool in the funding for the purchase of 100 picture books for preschool students in June 2010. Paducah Head Start/Preschool serves Paducah's most vulnerable children and their families. The books are being utilized to develop language and build cognitive skills that will better prepare local under-privileged children for the classroom.

Social media

In the summer of 2009, Paducah Bank entered into the world of social media by being the first bank in Paducah/McCracken county to create a Facebook page. Since that time, the bank has created numerous interactive elements to engage its customers and the public from a "WOWopoly" game, wherein participants collected cards from all of the bank's offices to win a MacBook computer, to daily trivia questions with gifts that ranged from savings bonds to gift certificates from local businesses. The bank's Facebook page currently has approximately 4,000 friends.

WOW! Magazine

Paducah Bank publishes its WOW! magazine twice a year. The feature magazine highlights many of the bank's customers and/or their businesses as well as local programs, events, or projects. Each publication also includes information about many of the bank's products and services.

History

On January 24, 1948, The Paducah Bank opened for business at 522 Broadway with assets of $100,000, thus becoming the third bank in Paducah, Kentucky.

Growth continued at such a pace that by mid-1955, the bank was forced to relocate to a newer and larger facility at 529 Broadway.

On January 1, 1964, Paducah Bank opened its first branch location, the current Mid-City Banking Center located at 2401 Broadway.

The official name of the bank was changed to The Paducah Bank and Trust Company in 1968, reflecting the decision to offer trust services to customers.

In the summer of 1973, a hole was knocked in the bank wall facing Broadway, which created the first walk-up teller position. It was operational during non-traditional weekday hours and Saturday mornings. This service was so well received that, two years later, all Paducah Bank facilities were open for full service each Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon. Saturday banking hours ended in 1986 as customers' habits were changing and ATMs were becoming ever more popular.

Paducah Bank was the first bank in Paducah to elect female board members: Frances Hougland and Dolly McNutt were elected in January 1976.

Paducah Bank was a leader in new technology known as ATMs. The first ATMs were installed in late 1977 and early 1978. By 1978, a committee of directors was charged with developing and implementing a plan for relocation. That plan culminated on February 14, 1981, when the bank moved into its present facility located at 555 Jefferson.

In mid-1984, a newly formed holding company, Paducah Bank Shares, Inc., purchased controlling interest in the bank.

Paducah Bank exceeded $100 million in assets in 1987.

In 1991, the holding company board of directors created a stock plan to give Paducah Bank employees an ownership position in Paducah Bank. The bank's 401(k) and Employee Stock Ownership Plan (KSOP) has continued to grow, and today it is one of the larger shareholders.

In 1995, the bank installed a state-of-the-art, full-service ATM network at nine locations around McCracken County.

Paducah Bank converted its entire database to an in-house system in 1996, thereby creating new technological efficiencies and allowing for even greater growth.

The following year Paducah Bank made its first-ever acquisition of another financial institution. The McCracken County assets of Republic Bank and Trust were purchased in November 1997. This purchase allowed Paducah Bank to move its Lone Oak Banking Center to a newer, more accessible location at 2635 Lone Oak Road and reinstate Saturday hours at that location.

At the end of 1997, two of the largest banks in Paducah announced that they were selling to even larger, out-of-state banks; neither sold until 1998.

The beginning of 1999 saw the advent of Internet banking at Paducah Bank, as well as a refining of the marketing and sales approach.

Management began to work diligently to position the holding company for a Subchapter S election, which was finalized in December 2001. Under the tax code, the election allowed the holding company to make distributions to its shareholders on a much more favorable tax basis than the former Subchapter C Corporation. The ability to make distributions to shareholders on a tax-favorable basis is attractive to investors, thus encouraging them to retain their investment in the holding company, which is a key to the bank's strategic goal of remaining an independent, locally owned bank.