In 2020, longtime banker Joe Zanco left his position as chief financial officer for Home Bank — a large regional lender that ranks as the third-largest in the Lafayette region with more than 12% of its deposits, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — to take the reins of St. Landry Homestead Federal Savings Bank, a tiny community lender with a nearly century-long legacy in the Acadiana area.
In the years since, Zanco has overseen efforts to grow the bank, which changed its name to Catalyst Bank in 2021, from $177.9 million in deposits to $195 million today and taken it public.
The number of locations has grown from four locations before going public to six today, and Catalyst recently announced plans to acquire Lakeside Bank in Calcasieu Parish, which, when completed later this year, will enable Catalyst to more than double its size.
In his more than four decades in banking, Zanco has weathered the ups and downs of Louisiana’s economy and has watched the fortunes of many friends ebb and flow. These days, amid a string of recent economic development wins promising to pump hundreds of billions into the state’s economy, Zanco is more bullish on Louisiana than he has been in years.
Officials with the office of Louisiana Economic Development have announced projects in recent months that, if they call come to fruition, will total $100 billion in capital spending — and more could be on the way.
“The optimist in me says that Louisiana is due for a 10-year run. If the political will is there, we can make some incredible things happen,” said Zanco, a St. Bernard Parish native.
In this week’s edition of Talking Business, Zanco talks about the bank’s growth in recent years, its recent merger, the decision to go public and what made him leave a large regional bank for what was then a small lender from a neighboring rural parish.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Tell me more about the Lakeside Bank acquisition. That bank is larger in terms of total assets. How does this help Catalyst’s future?
We looked at a couple of deals, but they weren’t the right fit for us or weren’t the right price for us. So we’ve been on the hunt and finally found the partner that we think is culturally aligned with us, that we could get a fair price and that is a market we feel really good about entering — Lake Charles and southwest Louisiana. We are more than doubling the size of our company in this transaction.
How does this grow your bank in regard to jobs?
It means we will have the ability to add jobs to the community and start back-filling some of the banking jobs we’ve lost due to being on the wrong side of mergers and acquisitions over the last decade. We’ve been in a cycle of losing banking jobs in the last decade, and we need to change that. If you think about how MidSouth Bank occupied that building downtown and the parking lot was full, they’re gone now. When you think back 15 years — I think The Independent actually ran an article way back — Lafayette was second to New Orleans in banking in Louisiana. We had these companies doing so well, and unfortunately it turned on us.
Your bank raised $52.9 million in 2021 when it went public as St. Landry Homestead Federal Savings Bank before changing its name. How were you able to do that as a small bank in Opelousas?
Our community has a long history of a great deal of success in that space. It’s ultimately (due to) having a group of driven people come together to grow. It’s a matter of who you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with stagnant folks, you’re not going to achieve the type of growth that we’re going to see. I’m preparing our annual meeting in a couple of weeks, and I want to remind our employees of the fact that we’ve done some pretty incredible things since we got together.
Can you tell me the back story of why the bank rebranded to Catalyst?
The homestead is a term that’s kind of lost, but (the rebrand) goes back to the fundamentals of banking. Our mission is to be a catalyst for economic growth in our community. We do that most effectively by helping local businesses grow because, when they do, they give families chances to build better lives. We are ultimately in the jobs business, and if we do our job right, if we invest the deposits that customers trust us with in this community, then businesses grow and jobs are created.
Take me back to 2020 when you left Home Bank after 12 years at chief financial officer. What nudged you to leave?
I felt that I was at a stage in my career where it was time for me to make the next step, and that job was not available at Home Bank. I just so happened to meet the board of directors of St. Landry Homestead in the community over the course the years, and I personally liked them and felt like they liked me. Well, the CEO leaves to go to Washington State Bank, and they needed a CEO and wanted to go through the IPO process. It would be nice for them if they could get a guy who’d done it before. I was a good fit for them.
