New bank short on merit

This past month has been less than perfect in the customer service department of the new FirstMerit Bank in Oberlin. Formerly PremierBank and Trust, FirstMerit has experienced some growing pains from the old mainstay of Oberlin.

Customers waited in line for up to 45 minutes on many regular business days at the Oberlin branch this month. Needless to say, people were enraged.

"That goes with the conversion," President of FirstMerit/Elyria Bill Lamb said. "Whenever you have a conversion, people come in that wouldn't normally and that ties up the lobby."

FirstMerit Bank merged with PremierBank and Trust and Elyria Bank and Trust last May. The operational transfer happened on Labor Day. Lamb attributed the increase in traffic to customers who were members of Elyria Trust coming to Oberlin.

"No matter how hard you try to anticipate it, you still make mistakes," Lamb said.

Other problems with service arose from the conversion of files from Premier's computer databases to FirstMerit's.

The changes that were most problematic involved the newness of the products. Lamb said, "We've hired a lot of the Premier personnel and we are training them right now. There is a learning curve there. There is a lot of work going on. Premier people are excellent employees."

Aside from the trouble the bank has experienced with customer service, the larger question of the new bank's involvement in the community was also a problem. Chaplain Fred Lassen chairs the Zion Community Development Corporation that called into question the bank merger when it was just beginning in February.

The coalition was concerned about the effect the merger would have on the southeast quadrant of Oberlin. The group focused on issues surrounding housing in low-income and moderate income areas. When the merger was first being worked out, the group joined up with the Coalition for Reinvestment in Lorain County. That coalition was comprised of 18 organizations which confronted FirstMerit bank because they felt it had less of a commitment to community development than they deemed acceptable.

The banking issue is a very crucial one," Lassen said. "They are getting bigger and bigger and they shuffle resources around without looking at the long-term impact on communities."

The coalition expressed their concerns to FirstMerit about the problems they saw with the bank's commitment to lending in low-income communities and with the services that were to be offered, such as the availability of a bilingual staff.

The bank responded with its Lorain County Investment Initiative. The agreement included a $120,000 fund to be kept for grants to community organizations that aim to aid in developing housing. The agreement also provides $3 million in construction loans or permanent financing of neighborhood development projects.

Lassen said, "At Premier there was more money set aside for this [before the agreement]. Now they're at least on par. The impacts on minority communities are real and not easily articulated."

Changing of the guard: With a less than smooth transition, FirstMerit Bank has replaced PremierBank and Trust. (photo by Heidi Good)