North Florida Mortgage Lender Discusses Market
In his 12th year at AmSouth, Jim Schmitz held the top position of Northwest Florida executive at the mortgage lender that had the leading market share in the Pensacola area.
Then big news came in May of last year: Two Alabama mortgage giants would become one as Regions Financial Corp. struck a $9.8 billion stock deal to acquire AmSouth.
As the dust settles from the mega merger, Schmitz, 48, remains in charge of the North Florida region, which extends to Jacksonville.
It’s the largest geographic territory of Florida’s fourth-largest bank and the only Florida territory where Regions has top market share.
Born and educated in California, Schmitz moved to Pensacola in 1985. He’s become active in community issues, including, most recently, efforts to consider a strong-mayor form of government.
“I have to be careful to make it clear I’m representing myself personally and individually. That’s just the individual Jim Schmitz talking. Just a concerned citizen of the area,” he said.
Back in his banker role, the Florida mortgage lender answered questions about his first job, Regions’ stock, the housing market and the Regions merger — which took 500,000 hours of technology workers’ time just to combine the two banks’ computer systems.
Q: Despite advances in the broader markets, many bank stocks, Regions included, have lost value over the past several months. What are your thoughts on this and what effect do you see the merger having on the company’s stock performance?
A: Banks are facing a challenging environment right now, driven mainly by the interest rate environment, and many bank stocks, are in fact, down for the year. You’ll hear bankers talk about a “flat yield curve.”
What this means in its simplest terms, is that there isn’t much margin between what we pay in interest for deposits and what we can make lending that money to customers or investing in securities.
In addition, the demand for real estate-secured lending, such as commercial real estate and Florida home equity loan lending, has slowed. To a large extent, these are cyclical market issues that are beyond our control.
However, many things are in our control, and we are actively managing them.
Q: Despite the fact that Regions acquired AmSouth, you and other AmSouth employees fared well. Did that have to do with AmSouth’s strong market position locally before the merger and has there been any tension with Regions employees?
A: This may sound self-serving or whatever, but we really tried to make choices based upon merit. There are folks with Regions who are still in leadership positions, and AmSouth folks in leadership positions.
I don’t know that there were decisions made on market presence. The one thing that may have had to do with that is that in this region, AmSouth had a bigger presence and our headquarters were in Pensacola.
Q: Your area of Florida is the largest, geographically, of the company’s five and the only one with markets in which Regions has top market share. What are the benefits and challenges this brings?
A: Our combined longevity in the [North Florida mortgage] market and being well-known are a benefit in attracting and retaining customers. This also makes recruitment of good associates easier, as people want to work for a market leader.
Continue reading this Pensacola News Journal interview here …
