Southside Bancshares: Customer Loyalty Built on Consistency, Transparency and Trust Since 1960
In this Spotlight on Community Banks article, we spoke with Lee Gibson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Southside Bancshares. Mr. Gibson discusses SBSI’s commitment to its customers and the active role it plays in the communities it serves over the last 6 decades.
Southside Bancshares, Inc., the holding company for Southside Bank is headquartered in Tyler, Texas. Tyler has a metropolitan area population of approximately 210,000 and is located 90 miles east of Dallas. The Company has assets of approximately $7.56 billion and operates 55 branches in East, North, Central, and Southeast Texas. Southside Bank is a community-focused financial institution that offers a full range of financial services to individuals, businesses and nonprofit organizations. These services include consumer and commercial loans, loans to municipalities, deposit accounts, trust, personal banking, safe deposit boxes, brokerage services, credit cards, ATM's and an array of electronic services. Southside Bancshares has been listed on Nasdaq since 1998 and trades under the symbol “SBSI”.
How has your mission evolved over the last 62 years?
Since we first opened our doors in 1960, our steadfast commitment to helping our customers thrive and communities prosper has remained unchanged. What has evolved over the last 60 plus years is our geographic footprint and technology advancements. Southside was founded in Tyler, Texas in 1960 and now spans East Texas, Southeast Texas and the greater Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin and Houston areas. The use of innovative technologies has evolved our business model and strategies, helping to deliver efficient solutions and exceptional service to our customers.
Learn more about the history of Southside Bancshares
How important is community involvement for a regional bank? What are some of the ways you’re working to better the communities you serve?
The communities we serve have always been at the heart of Southside and at the center of our success. That is why we are proud to take an active role in our communities, providing leadership and investing time, money and resources to make each community a better place to live, work and conduct business. We have enjoyed 8 consecutive “outstanding” ratings for our Community Reinvestment Act activities. In 2022, team members volunteered over 6,000 hours, benefitting more than 250 organizations in the communities we serve. These volunteer hours benefit our communities and the connections among our team members. This translates into stronger communities, stronger team members and a stronger Southside.
Learn more about Southside Bank in the community
You’re coming up on 25 years as a publicly traded company, what’s been the biggest surprise?
The current financial landscape and operating environment are vastly different from 25 years ago. Technological advancements and innovations continue to transform the world and the financial industry at a rapid pace. Innovation is critical to the success of companies in today’s world. We have made significant investments in innovation over the past few years and recently created an innovation department, the sole purpose of which is to stay current with the rapid changes in banking, identify innovative solutions and enhance our ability to provide the best service for our customers.
Who is the ideal Southside Bank customer? How do you build customer loyalty?
We pride ourselves on being relationship bankers, focused on building strong customer relationships, getting to know those customers, their needs and potential solutions. Our “ideal” customer desires to build a relationship with us as well. We build customer loyalty by being consistent, transparent and trustworthy, continuing to be here each time we can help and providing sound solutions and expertise.
Connect with Southside Bank:
About Lee Gibson:
Lee R. Gibson has served as President and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of the Company since January 2017. He has served as President of the Company since December 2015 and as an executive and Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) of the Company from 2000 to 2015. He joined Southside Bank in 1984 and has served as a director of Southside Bank since 1999. He currently serves as a Director and Chair of the Investment Committee for the Tyler Junior College Foundation and serves as a Director and Executive Committee Member of the Tyler Economic Development Council. He previously served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas for six years and Council of Federal Home Loan Banks for two years. Mr. Gibson is a CPA and has over 35 years of banking experience.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Michael Spector
Nasdaq
Michael is responsible for managing relationships with Nasdaq listed companies in the South Central and South Western U.S.
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