My great-great grandfather was a founding partner of the bank back in 1877. He was the first of an unbroken string of five generations to lead Carrollton Bank, and he had some pretty sound ideas. So sound, in fact, that they're still around for you to take advantage of today.

Throughout these many decades, through wars, depressions and even the constant change in today’s banking industry, there remains—and will always remain—one constant: the solid values, passed down from generation to generation, which govern how we treat our customers. Here are some examples of how these values have shaped our actions:

Do whatever it takes. We've made whatever sacrifices were needed to remain independent. After the Bank Holiday in 1933 we arranged a private loan to re-open. Here's the amazing part: everyone who worked at the bank agreed to take a 10% salary cut to pay it back. And they did so, until the loan was repaid 18 years later.

Be a friend and neighbor. After my Great Uncle John died in 1960, we found something amazing. A drawer with a big stack of personal notes in it – loans ranging from $100 to $1,000 that added up to almost $50,000. The Depression made it almost impossible for banks to give families the loans they needed. But when a Carrollton family desperately needed financial help, Uncle John would quietly take them into his office and make them a loan out of his own pocket. He never told anyone about this. He just helped his neighbors.

Less for the bank, more for the customer. We work hard to control our costs to provide better value for our customers. The key to this is hiring great people—versatile people with a can-do attitude. This means you get better service and we can run more efficiently, so you earn more when you save, pay less when you borrow.

The owner should be at the bank. This flexible, hard-working approach comes right from the owners. And I don't mean just me. The fact is that our senior officers own 90% of the bank. They've invested their own money, with the knowledge that there’s no quick payoff. So they go the extra mile to make Carrollton Bank faster, more efficient, more responsive.

This approach has also helped us attract and keep some of the very best bankers in the area. Many of our officers joined our bank because they wanted stable careers, where they can build long-term relationships with the business leaders in their communities. They appreciate the fact that we don't answer to outside shareholders or absentee owners. We answer only to our customers.

Our new customers come to us mostly through referral from existing customers, and we thank them for their confidence in us. I promise that we will "do whatever it takes" to be the kind of bank you would recommend to a friend.

Today you can come back to banking the way it used to be. Our heritage of five generations of family values is being carried forward into the future by every employee who serves you at Carrollton Bank.

Sincerely,

Tom Hough, CEO, Carrollton Bank