Centier stresses growth, community
Item
Title
Centier stresses growth, community
Creator
Post-Tribune
Date
December 9, 1995
Identifier
SN.02.611
Subject
Community, Michael Schrage, Henry Schrage, Walter E. Schrage, Jr.
Original Format
newspaper
Text
Centier Bank Chief Executive Michael Schrage is pictured in the bank's office on 119th Street in Whiting.
Centier stresses growth, community
Centier Bank's Chief Executive Michael Schrage knows that small banking firms like his are becoming rare.
This is the era of mega bank mergers, but Schrage said he has no intentions of combining his institution with another. Though celebrating its centennial this year, Schrage said 100 years of history will not prevent him from changing the way the company operates.
Schrage, 47, and his bank are rooted right where he wants to be: Northwest Indiana.
"We perceive ourselves to be the community bank of choice," Schrage said. "As we see the disappearance of community banks to regional and national banks, we feel there is a strong segment of the population that is desirous of having a community and locally based bank. And that's what we are."
Schrage's great-grandfather, Henry Schrage, opened the institution, then known as the Bank of Whiting, with $35,000 earned from the sale of property to an oil company.
Schrage joined the bank as an assistant branch manager in 1972. He said he told his father, then president Walter Schrage Jr., that he would give it five years and he wanted to concentrate on growth.
"I was very uncertain about coming into the bank," Schrage said. "But with the things we were able to accomplish during those five years, I was able to make the decision to stay."
Those included three new branches in Lake County - growth spurred by Schrage. Since being named chairman after his father's death in 1982, he has changed the firm's name and opened seven additional branches in Lake County and eight in Porter County.
Now Schrage is concentrating on customer service and helping the communities where branches are located.
"I think today I have a greater appreciation of shared corporate and personal values, of the people I work with and the communities we are in," he said.
Banks like Centier are becoming valuable to their communities, said Sugato Chakravarty, a Purdue University professor of consumer economics who researches financial services and the banking industry.
"Most of these banks have been bought out by larger banks," he said. "I have found in my research that customers are not very happy with the national trend. The smaller, community banks are-sort of welcomed because they know their customers, and the customers know them. Communities love that dimension of small banks. There's just not a lot of them still around."
THE NEXT CENTURY
These are the changes Centier Bank's chief Michael Schrage has planned.
■ Renovation of many of the smaller branches, including expanding the branch at Lakes of the Four Seasons and completely remodeling the downtown Crown Point office.
■ Expanding. Under consideration are several geographical sites including Munster.
■ More emphasis placed on financial service, including larger counseling areas.
Centier stresses growth, community
Centier Bank's Chief Executive Michael Schrage knows that small banking firms like his are becoming rare.
This is the era of mega bank mergers, but Schrage said he has no intentions of combining his institution with another. Though celebrating its centennial this year, Schrage said 100 years of history will not prevent him from changing the way the company operates.
Schrage, 47, and his bank are rooted right where he wants to be: Northwest Indiana.
"We perceive ourselves to be the community bank of choice," Schrage said. "As we see the disappearance of community banks to regional and national banks, we feel there is a strong segment of the population that is desirous of having a community and locally based bank. And that's what we are."
Schrage's great-grandfather, Henry Schrage, opened the institution, then known as the Bank of Whiting, with $35,000 earned from the sale of property to an oil company.
Schrage joined the bank as an assistant branch manager in 1972. He said he told his father, then president Walter Schrage Jr., that he would give it five years and he wanted to concentrate on growth.
"I was very uncertain about coming into the bank," Schrage said. "But with the things we were able to accomplish during those five years, I was able to make the decision to stay."
Those included three new branches in Lake County - growth spurred by Schrage. Since being named chairman after his father's death in 1982, he has changed the firm's name and opened seven additional branches in Lake County and eight in Porter County.
Now Schrage is concentrating on customer service and helping the communities where branches are located.
"I think today I have a greater appreciation of shared corporate and personal values, of the people I work with and the communities we are in," he said.
Banks like Centier are becoming valuable to their communities, said Sugato Chakravarty, a Purdue University professor of consumer economics who researches financial services and the banking industry.
"Most of these banks have been bought out by larger banks," he said. "I have found in my research that customers are not very happy with the national trend. The smaller, community banks are-sort of welcomed because they know their customers, and the customers know them. Communities love that dimension of small banks. There's just not a lot of them still around."
THE NEXT CENTURY
These are the changes Centier Bank's chief Michael Schrage has planned.
■ Renovation of many of the smaller branches, including expanding the branch at Lakes of the Four Seasons and completely remodeling the downtown Crown Point office.
■ Expanding. Under consideration are several geographical sites including Munster.
■ More emphasis placed on financial service, including larger counseling areas.