The CEO of Synovus Financial Corp., parent company of Sea Island Bank, said the company will continue cost-cutting measures as more consumers shift toward mobile banking.
Kessel Stelling’s comments came at the bank’s annual shareholder’s meeting in Columbus late last week, a few days after the company posted first quarter profits of $42 million.
Stelling thanked investors for their loyalty through “tough times” and said the company would be looking to eliminate $30 million more from its annual budget, according to the Columbus Ledger-Herald.
The newspaper noted that the bank, at its height, posted profits of $617 million in 2006 before the economic downturn hit and resulted in staggering losses, branch closures and restructuring. Since 2008, Synovus has reduced its employee headcount by nearly 1,700 to roughly 4,700.
Stelling said Synovus would also be investing in new talent even as it looks at expense reductions. Now that more people are interested in banking from their smartphones and tablets, he said, traffic has shifted from traditional branches.
Synovus is preparing to roll out new full-service ATMs at many of its 28 individually branded subsidiaries.
Sea Island Bank Marketing Director Jenna Lawson said the new ATMs will arrive at most Savannah, Statesboro and Metter locations starting in May.
The new machines will include upgrades that allow customers to make deposits without envelopes and get emailed receipts with check images.
Darron Burnette, president and CEO or Sea Island Bank, said he recently returned from a leadership meeting and did not come away foreseeing any major shakeups or closures in the Savannah area.
Sea Island Bank just promoted its commercial lead manager, Ken Rabitsch, to replace retiring city president Jerry Barton.
Synovus is in the midst of preparing a reverse stock split, effective May 16, giving shareholders one share for every seven they own. A reverse stock split is used to increase the share price. As part of the split, Synovus will also increase its number of common shares from 1.2 billion to 2.4 billion.
Before the recession took hold, Synovus stock regularly traded above $20 a share, but now trades below $5.The company’s stock closed at about $3.15 Monday afternoon.
Stelling said the anticipated increase in price would make their common stock more attractive to a broader range of investors.
