Local Banks in Conway, SC Have Powerful Advantages over Larger Counterparts

The banks in Conway, SC aren't all the same, no matter what your mommy tells you. Like many larger communities across the country, the financial and banking sector in the city of Conway, South Carolina is cleanly split into two and a half 'layers': the big international banks like Chase and Bank of America; and the regional and local banks that are similar in many ways - and different in a few important others. It used to be that the regional and local banks essentially scraped out a meager existence in the shadow of the 'big 5', but the economic world is changing quickly, and that's given the smaller, more nimble local, state and regional banks in Conway, SC a chance to step into the light.

First off, the banks in Conway, SC aren't as panicked about the Federal Reserve's proposed swipe-fee change. The Fed wants to put an upper limit on the amount of money the bank can charge you for swiping your debit or atm card - twelve cents. Current fees range between three and four times that amount. The big banks are shivering in their collective financial boots because that small change will cost them tens of billions of dollars over the next year if and when it goes into effect. The local banking locations in Conway, SC, however, aren't particularly worried - because they don't depend on swipe fees as a means of floating huge loans out to multinational corporations. Will the local banks suffer a little? Sure - but not nearly as much as the major banks. Mainly because their other services like checking and savings account deposits, home loans and auto loans account for a greater percentage of their revenue.

Another way in which the local banks in Conway, SC are staying a half-step ahead of their giant brethren is that they are better able to deal with the mortgage crisis. Unlike literally every single one of the major banks, many of Conway's smaller banks weren't up to their eyeballs in interlaced derivative debts - which means that the subprime mortgage bubble popping didn't leave them suffering from analysis paralysis (the inability to make loans because they were too busy trying to figure out who they owed how much money to.) Equally important, because the smaller banks in Conway, SC are still making mortgage agreements, they're still making money collecting the interest on those mortgages - something that the big banks have, in many cases, simply stopped doing as they've had to foreclose on so many homes and then sell them for less than the value of the mortgage itself.

There's also the issue of simple business practices. In the 'big 5', there is not much "personal banking" going on. Business practices are set in motion by bean counters that are far, far from the front lines - and it shows. Horror stories abound of people getting stuck in Chase's infamous 'infinite overdraft fee' loop on their checking account, or about Wells Fargo paying illegitimate bills sent to closed accounts by accessing different accounts under the same name and taking the money out of the other account to pay the bill (which wasn't real in the first place.) When you work with one of the local banks in Conway, SC, you have the powerful option of simply walking in and talking to the boss, face to face, and getting your grievances addressed on the spot - try doing THAT at Citigroup.