Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / FNB Pandora's Mason, ULA's Megenhardt, on Cleveland Fed (Audio)
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Bloombo Business News twenty four hours a day. If Bloomberg
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- 1:19Speaker 1: one point six And that's a Bloomberg Business flash. You're
- 1:26Speaker 1: listening to Taking Stock with Pim Box and Kathleen Mays
- 1:30Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. We are gearing up for our very
- 1:34Speaker 1: special interview today with Loretta Mester. She is President of
- 1:38Speaker 1: the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. There's so much focus
- 1:41Speaker 1: on FED Bank presidents, but you know, it's not just
- 1:44Speaker 1: a president, It is a whole staff. It is many,
- 1:48Speaker 1: many people each of the regional Fed banks. And we're
- 1:51Speaker 1: very happy to welcome now to the show to people
- 1:54Speaker 1: who are part of the local community, the local region,
- 1:58Speaker 1: the collegian Cleveland FEDS District UH to talk about what
- 2:01Speaker 1: they do, what they do with the Cleveland Fed, and
- 2:03Speaker 1: more broadly, what they see in the regional economy, because
- 2:06Speaker 1: certainly this is one of the aspects of what Loretta
- 2:09Speaker 1: Mester is watching as she helps formulate and guide policy.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Very happy. They welcome Todd Mason. He's president and CEO
- 2:16Speaker 1: of the First National Bank of Pandora in nearbort Via, Pandora, Ohio.
- 2:21Speaker 1: A community banker. He is on the Cleveland FED Board
- 2:24Speaker 1: of Directors, uh Dave Meganheart, executive director at United Labor
- 2:28Speaker 1: Agency right here in Cleveland, and on the Cleveland FEDS
- 2:31Speaker 1: Advisory Council. Gentlemen, I welcome you both. Thank you. I'm
- 2:34Speaker 1: sure you've been here many times. It's my first visit.
- 2:37Speaker 1: So Todd start by telling us a little bit about
- 2:40Speaker 1: the First National Bank of Pandora. You know, your your business,
- 2:44Speaker 1: community you serve, and how things look to you. First
- 2:47Speaker 1: National Bank of Pandora is a small community bank in
- 2:49Speaker 1: northwest Ohio. We're only a hundred and fifty million in assets,
- 2:52Speaker 1: so we are a true community bank. We have agriculture,
- 2:56Speaker 1: small businesses, and a lot of retail business. Okay, how
- 2:59Speaker 1: is business right now? Actually, business is improving. If we
- 3:03Speaker 1: take a look at what's going on in our community.
- 3:06Speaker 1: The house market is increasing, the prices are increasing, and
- 3:11Speaker 1: a few take a look at our homes right now,
- 3:13Speaker 1: if it's priced appropriately. Thirty days when will sell Okay? So,
- 3:17Speaker 1: Dave Meginhart as executive director of the United Labor Agency,
- 3:21Speaker 1: what does the United Labor Agency do? What do you do? Sure? UM,
- 3:24Speaker 1: We're a labor based nonprofit based in Cleveland, and we
- 3:28Speaker 1: specialize in workforce development. And we like to tell people
- 3:31Speaker 1: that we're the emergency room of the economy because we're
- 3:34Speaker 1: often working with companies that are closing or experiencing layoff
- 3:38Speaker 1: or companies that are hiring. So we're sort of had
- 3:41Speaker 1: the whole cycle, the whole life and death cycle of
- 3:44Speaker 1: any kind of business transaction. So what we do is
- 3:46Speaker 1: we find uh workers or human capital for those companies. UM.
- 3:52Speaker 1: And if they you're experiencing layoff, we try to find
- 3:55Speaker 1: your work for those workers. How how is the labor
- 3:58Speaker 1: market doing here? Is specific clee in Cleveland. I think
- 4:01Speaker 1: Ohio is a pretty diverse state, but in Cleveland, how
- 4:03Speaker 1: do things look? UM? It has been It's really improved
- 4:06Speaker 1: over the past couple of years. There's a lot of
- 4:07Speaker 1: activity in the hospitality sector. There's a lot of manufacturing.
- 4:12Speaker 1: There's an uptick with that. Transportation. Commercial transportation is always
- 4:16Speaker 1: really big. UM. We have a lot of job orders
- 4:19Speaker 1: that are coming from UM. From companies UH, goods and
- 4:22Speaker 1: services UH and healthcare. Of course, as Toby cross Grove
- 4:26Speaker 1: said earlier, you know that's always a driver in Cleveland. UM.
- 4:29Speaker 1: What the people that we work with are more of
- 4:31Speaker 1: the lower skilled workers. There's a huge demand for that.
- 4:35Speaker 1: I think as Ohio's population is aging, there's a lot
- 4:38Speaker 1: of health healthcare, there's a lot of state UM UH
- 4:41Speaker 1: nursing assistance, medical assistance that cand you know what we
- 4:44Speaker 1: look at that. We look at that for people that
- 4:46Speaker 1: can get into a career and come up a career ladder.
- 4:50Speaker 1: So it's a good first step for people. UM. Todd Mason,
- 4:53Speaker 1: President and CEO, First National Bank of Pandora. How long
- 4:56Speaker 1: have you been on the Cleveland FEDS board and what
- 4:59Speaker 1: exactly ta listeners? What does a director do at a
- 5:03Speaker 1: at a regional bank. I'm in my fifth year and
- 5:06Speaker 1: we run for a three year increments on a term
- 5:09Speaker 1: and there's two term limits. And at first at the
- 5:12Speaker 1: Cleveland FED we have two main things that we do.
- 5:14Speaker 1: Number One, just like any other director, we oversee the
- 5:17Speaker 1: operations of the bank. We look at UM strategic planning,
- 5:20Speaker 1: budgeting and all those type of items just like any
- 5:23Speaker 1: other director. On the other side. Our second main idea,
- 5:25Speaker 1: Our second main topic that we talk about is what's
- 5:29Speaker 1: going out in our regional community. Each board member has
- 5:32Speaker 1: a diverse background, different professional background, and we get that
- 5:36Speaker 1: information because the FED is data driven and sometimes that
- 5:41Speaker 1: data is a little bit slow to come. So all
- 5:44Speaker 1: the directors, one of the things that we do is
- 5:46Speaker 1: get that regional information, grab it, get it to our
- 5:48Speaker 1: meetings and help Loretta with her monetary discussion. So do
- 5:52Speaker 1: you have any influence over policy? You give Loretta Master
- 5:56Speaker 1: a snapshot of what you're seeing in your business in
- 5:58Speaker 1: your community. Are you allowed some input and will you know?
- 6:01Speaker 1: I think if you raise the key rate that be
- 6:03Speaker 1: pretty good. I'm a community banker. I could use a
- 6:05Speaker 1: little more net interest margin. We are all free to
- 6:08Speaker 1: give our opinions on what is going on in our
- 6:11Speaker 1: regional communities and how it is impacting us. Then Loretta
- 6:15Speaker 1: will make her decision on what she feels she should do. Okay, Well, similarly,
- 6:19Speaker 1: Dave Megan Hurt, your executive actor, United Labor Agency. You're
- 6:23Speaker 1: on the Cleveland Fence Advisory Council. So how does that work.
- 6:27Speaker 1: I know there's been a lot of people and there's
- 6:29Speaker 1: more and more focus on the fed around diversity. Do
- 6:33Speaker 1: they pay enough attention to the community. Are they paying
- 6:36Speaker 1: enough attention to the labor market when they consider raising
- 6:38Speaker 1: interest rates? Again? Sure? So the Business Advisory Council we
- 6:42Speaker 1: meet twice a year, uh and it's a you know,
- 6:45Speaker 1: it's made up of small businesses from it could be
- 6:47Speaker 1: anything from UH tech startups to more of established manufacturing
- 6:54Speaker 1: businesses and people like me, which are you know, we're
- 6:57Speaker 1: from labor. Um. We work obviously with you know again
- 7:01Speaker 1: with people that are experiencing displacement or looking for work.
- 7:06Speaker 1: We A'm very tight in with the local area unions. UM.
- 7:10Speaker 1: You know, our job is to take all this information
- 7:12Speaker 1: about what we see on the street and bring it
- 7:14Speaker 1: to UH Loretta and also bring it to our staff.
- 7:17Speaker 1: They listen to us, they want to they want to
- 7:19Speaker 1: know that. I think it. I think it really helps
- 7:21Speaker 1: to hear what we're experiencing every day. UM. I think
- 7:25Speaker 1: they have nine of these Business Advisory councils across the
- 7:29Speaker 1: district in all the major cities throughout Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania,
- 7:34Speaker 1: and Kentucky, parts of all those states, all of Ohio
- 7:37Speaker 1: and parts of the other states. UM. So, I think
- 7:39Speaker 1: that if you think about all of that information, all
- 7:42Speaker 1: of those different businesses and labor leaders and community leaders,
- 7:46Speaker 1: and you know you can aggregate that. I think that
- 7:48Speaker 1: helps then bring it up into the president. Okay, well,
- 7:51Speaker 1: uh something aside from monetary policy. The FED Reserve oversees
- 7:56Speaker 1: lots of banks. At a regional bank, you are involved
- 7:59Speaker 1: in exam examinations, all that kind of thing for a
- 8:02Speaker 1: community banker though, Todd Dodd Frank. We have a lot
- 8:06Speaker 1: of community makers on our show depending on what's in
- 8:10Speaker 1: the news and what they're doing, and they say over
- 8:12Speaker 1: and over it's Dodd Frank, is is put uh made
- 8:16Speaker 1: a very heavy compliance burden. It's raised costs. Community banks
- 8:20Speaker 1: didn't cause the Great Recession or the Great Financial crisis.
- 8:23Speaker 1: How is it affecting you? And is this something that
- 8:25Speaker 1: the Fed and other people oversee banks need to be
- 8:28Speaker 1: more mindful of shoreviews and changes made in Dodd Frank
- 8:30Speaker 1: for example, a great point, Dodd Frank. The regulators that
- 8:35Speaker 1: are writing the rules over ten thousand pages now and
- 8:39Speaker 1: it's not completed yet after seven years. I know in
- 8:42Speaker 1: our small community bank, what we're seeing is we've had
- 8:44Speaker 1: to go higher. A compliance officer, compliance consultant, yet a
- 8:49Speaker 1: third party vendor to come check our double checkers, higher
- 8:52Speaker 1: software and do more things. Everything that Dodd Frank touches
- 8:56Speaker 1: in our small bank, it's now more paper, more time
- 8:59Speaker 1: cons atarter of fact, we're doing research right now taking
- 9:03Speaker 1: our two thousand and seven income statement compared to two
- 9:06Speaker 1: thousand fifty, trying to say what kind of impact does
- 9:09Speaker 1: it have. It looked like God Frank is going to
- 9:11Speaker 1: take a brown ten percent of our net income away
- 9:15Speaker 1: when you compare that time frame. So as a community banker, UM,
- 9:19Speaker 1: we are not a fan of God Frank. Well, we
- 9:21Speaker 1: know that the FED is itching two or some people.
- 9:23Speaker 1: The FED it seemed to be itching to raise the
- 9:25Speaker 1: key rate at least once more this year. Now, Ohio
- 9:29Speaker 1: and this whole region in the several states that the
- 9:32Speaker 1: Cleveland Fed encompasses a lot of manufacturing here, Starker dollar
- 9:35Speaker 1: hurts manufacturing. Would you prefer not to see Dave Um
- 9:39Speaker 1: the U FED make a move like this. If it
- 9:42Speaker 1: makes the dollars Tragle will hurt you the workers here
- 9:44Speaker 1: in this area. I think it will. I think that
- 9:46Speaker 1: Um we're on the rebound. I think it's been a long,
- 9:49Speaker 1: hard slog from the Great Recession. I think there's uh.
- 9:54Speaker 1: You know, for the first time in many years, the
- 9:56Speaker 1: poverty rate has gone down in h in Cleveland, so
- 10:00Speaker 1: we've seen traction. And I'd hate to have anything that
- 10:03Speaker 1: could influence jobs and productivity and profit. Well, Todd Mason,
- 10:09Speaker 1: it may be inevitable. Whatever people want or don't want
- 10:11Speaker 1: to see, uh, in terms of the region you serve,
- 10:15Speaker 1: in terms of the bank, would an interest rate increase
- 10:17Speaker 1: help you because of your profits or hurt you because
- 10:19Speaker 1: it's going to slow down business. I think it's a
- 10:21Speaker 1: little bigger than just profits. We have to take a
- 10:23Speaker 1: look at our retired individuals that's in our community. They
- 10:27Speaker 1: have had a very low rate of return for his
- 10:29Speaker 1: long time, and with this low interest rate they're starting
- 10:32Speaker 1: to reach out and do investments. That's probably not as wise.
- 10:36Speaker 1: And I'm telling you that in our community there anybody
- 10:39Speaker 1: that wants a job has a job, and our houses
- 10:42Speaker 1: are going up and the economy is improving. We really
- 10:45Speaker 1: in our community bank point of view, see, there's no
- 10:47Speaker 1: reason to keep rates at a at a stressed level.
- 10:50Speaker 1: What a trade groundtable, gentlemen, thank you so very much
- 10:52Speaker 1: for joining us. That was Todd Mason, he's president CEO
- 10:54Speaker 1: of the First National Bank of Pandora and p Door, Ohio.
- 10:57Speaker 1: David Meganheart, Executive Director, Unitedly Agency in Cleveland. Davis on
- 11:02Speaker 1: the Cleveland FEDS Advisory Council, Todds on the Border Directors
- 11:06Speaker 1: coming up, Loretta Messer, President of the Cleveland FED. I'm
- 11:08Speaker 1: Kathleen his and this is Bloomberg M