Synovus CEO insists bank can’t rest on its laurels

Simply the place where Synovus Financial Corp. held its annual meeting of shareholders Thursday sent a distinct message.

“We thought we would take our savings and invest it in some food outside,” Kessel Stelling, the regional bank’s chairman and chief executive officer, joked in his opening comments in Blanchard Hall at Columbus Bank and Trust.

For several years prior, the meeting had been held at the historic Columbus Convention and Trade Center and the posh RiverCenter for the Performing Arts. The Columbus-based banking firm’s decision to gather its faithful inside the hometown bank that represents its more than century-old roots is one indication times have changed.

“I’m excited about what our company has accomplished. We went through some very tough times,” Stelling said after the annual meeting. “But we know in this industry you’ve got to continue to push every day to be better, to be better for your customers, to make sure you’re delivering what they want and need.”

Those hard times, spun out of the U.S. housing and financial crisis nearly a decade go, forced Synovus into unprecedented cuts in employees and bank branches. The company didn’t taste a profit for three straight years at one point. Despite being on much more stable footing today, there’s a persistent feeling within the company to be leaner and ultra-efficient so that there’s much less chance of such financial calamity happening again.

“Look, it’s a tough industry,” Stelling said of the lingering uneasiness throughout the banking arena in which Synovus plays. “A lot of regulation, the economy is still somewhat soft, there’s concern over politics, and we stay concerned over cybersecurity. We’re very well invested. You read about the massive fraud that takes place all across our country every day. You just can’t sleep too easy at night with the challenges facing our industry.”

As he routinely asserts, the CEO said he’s got the team — the people — in place to build upon the recovery that Synovus has experienced over the last few years. It’s paying off, the numbers show, with the bank growing its loan portfolios and deposits in 2015. It ended the year with a $215.8 million profit, which was up from $185 million in 2014.

“Steady progress” is what what Stelling called it on a first-quarter analyst call Tuesday and then again on Thursday. But he talked like someone who doesn’t see a finish line nearing anytime soon for a company that has been investing heavily in new technology to keep pace with consumers who demand fast, round-the-clock banking at the tips of their fingers via computers, tablets, smartphones and much-enhanced ATMs.

“I’m very pleased with 2015, and we did have a solid quarter to start the year off,” he said. “But every quarter you have to get better. I think any leader who ever accepts anything less than that is probably not focused on the right priorities.”

The road ahead for Synovus will be without one of its veteran executives, however. Chief Financial Officer Tommy Prescott is retiring from the company after a replacement is found and he and the company are confident that the bank won’t miss a beat, Stelling said.

Prescott, 61, has been with Synovus nearly 30 years, the last two decades as its top financial officer. The plan is to step out of the bank’s front door by the end of this year and move on to more time with family, traveling and perhaps becoming involved in some way to help other people, he said after the annual meeting.

“It’s been great to be involved with a company like this one that’s really been incredible with the culture and the people that are here,” Prescott said in his distinctive Southern drawl, calling the moments he spent helping guide Synovus through the Great Recession very tough.

“It really took us through a valley that, I think in some ways, really taught us a lot, and we’ll move on from here,” he said.

Stelling said Prescott will be hard to replace because he’s been “a fixture in our company” and someone he leaned on heavily from the start of his stint as CEO in late 2010. He noted an investment banker said recently it has become rare for someone to have such a long career and leave a company in a positive way.

“He’s been a rock in the management team,” Stelling said. “If you think about what about our company went through and how Tommy had his steady hand on our financial reporting for all of those years, I think it’s just a great testimony to Tommy as an individual, as a leader and as a CFO.”

Routine business at the annual meeting included a vote to elect a dozen directors to the Synovus board for another year. Longtime board member Nat Hansford said goodbye to the group. Measures also included approving an advisory vote on executive compensation, as well as the renewal of auditing firm KPMG to monitor and advise the company financially.

Synovus handles about $29 billion in assets through its 28 locally branded divisions scattered throughout Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Synovus CEO insists bank can’t rest on its laurels."