2009: Lori Schneider

Lori Schneider has some perspective on financial crises. The fourth-generation Nebraska banker remembers her grandfather talking about the seven hometown banks that shut down during the bank holiday of 1933. Only Schneider's Plattsmouth State Bank reopened..Now, as then, survival—to say nothing of success—depends on what Schneider described as "pretty basic principles," especially the Cs of credit.."They were good then and they're good now, and once you get away from those pretty basic principles you're probably going to get yourself into trouble," Schneider said..Schneider started working in the bank as a teenager but had had enough by the time she finished high school. She "wanted to get out of the small town" of 7,000 people, so she moved to Tempe, Ariz., and completed a bachelor's degree and MBA at Arizona State University. She didn't expect to work in her family's bank. "I was young and didn't really appreciate what it was." Instead she moved to Houston, Texas, after grad school and started a job in commercial credit collections.."It was right after the oil crisis, so they had a lot of issues in Houston," Schneider said. "You learned really fast about the excuses for why a person can't pay.".After a year in Houston, Schneider went home, having "realized how much family and friends meant to me." Her father was beginning to plan his retirement from the bank and wanted a family member to follow him as president..Schneider rejoined the bank in 1982, in the throes of the ag crisis. Her bank was faring pretty well, and Schneider saw an approach to customers that contrasted with her Houston experience.."I don't know if we lucked out or we just did a good job of lending, but it didn't impact us as severely as it did other banks," she said. "We learned some lessons about cramdowns on payments and working with people. Things worked out a little better for us because we were able to work with some of our customers and didn't have to sell them out.".Schneider spent about seven years working closely with her father, studying the general ledger, participating in bank examinations and learning to manage the loan portfolio. She and her younger brothers David and Greg bought their parents out during that period. Today David is the executive vice president; he handles the bank's investing and runs its insurance company. Greg is the vice president, and he does lending and handles functions for the holding company. Schneider's sisters-in-law Cheryl and Carla also work in the bank..Soon after Schneider took over as president the bank bought a failed savings and loan, an acquisition "that increased our asset size maybe $10 million." The bank added "the first ATM in Cass County" in 1986 and has kept up with technological advances since then. "We do have, for our size, quite a bit of technology," Schneider said. The bank had $83 million in assets on Sept. 30, 2009, and it now has three locations in Plattsmouth..Schneider is chairman of the executive management committee for the Nebraska Bankers Association, a role that entails ongoing discussion of banker education.."It would be hard not to have ongoing education with all the changes in regulation" coming out now, Schneider said. "When you've got reg changes you've got to get trained on those; you can't let those go.".Schneider is also on the board of the Heartland chapter of the American Red Cross, based in Omaha, and a member of the Rotary Club. In her free time, she likes to visit with her son Christopher, a banker in Waverly, Neb., and her daughter Natalie, a college senior who currently lives in Texas. She also likes to learn about computers and go on wine-tasting trips to California, Italy and France with her husband Ron.