In just a few months, Oklahoma City’s Quail Creek Bank will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. In those nearly five decades, QCB has grown significantly and is now recognized as one of the top-performing banks in the nation. At the same time, it has also retained its local ownership, its welcoming atmosphere and its commitment to serving the community on a personal level.
In other words, “We’re not a local branch of a national bank, but a local bank built for those in our community,” said Erin Batey, QCB’s chief communications and innovations officer. “Our employees work here and live here and genuinely care about what happens around us.”
Erin, who herself joined the team 15 years ago, added that she’s a “short timer” compared to many of her fellow employees, who’ve been with QCB for 20 to 30 years. “It just reflects the family atmosphere that has been our mission since we opened in 1974,” she said.
Helping at the Holidays & More
Integral to Quail Creek Bank’s mission is a long list of holiday and other outreach programs designed to assist people across the metro area year-round. Erin noted that 26 employees now serve on the boards of charities across the metro area, including United Way of Central Oklahoma, Heartline, Hearts for Hearing, Community Literacy Centers, OK Baptist Homes for Children and Mercy Health Foundation.
For instance, Alan Webb, senior vice president and manager of the Quail Creek Bank Investment Center, is the co-founder of “Santa’s Cause,” which works with the Oklahoma City Public School District to identify children who will not be receiving any gifts. Fellow bank employees, along with 650 outside volunteers, assist with the distribution of toys, clothes and food, dressing in Santa suits and delivering the presents in person.
Teaching Kids the Finance Basics
Long-term, Quail Creek Bank’s efforts are helping multiple generations of Oklahomans through its purchase of financial literacy curriculum materials for Oklahoma City high schools and middle schools. Erin created the financial literacy program 12 years ago and describes it as her “passion.” The bank’s help in underwriting the cost of these materials has been a godsend for the schools, she added, in the wake of the State of Oklahoma mandating such classes in order to obtain a high school diploma.
“We do much more than just buy the materials, however,” Erin said. “We work in partnership with the school district, and we have a bank liaison who is assigned to each individual school. We help them however they want—whether it’s speaking on career day, setting up a booth at school events, doing presentations, giving advice on choosing curriculum, or whatever other ways we can.”
In all, the bank provides curriculum materials and expertise to 10 local schools currently and has supported as many as 37 schools since the program’s inception. Currently, they assist seven high schools, two middle schools and one elementary school.
“This program has always been my passion,” Erin added. “I was taught the basics of handling money by my parents, but when I got to college and as a young adult, I made a lot of mistakes and got into a lot of debt. My hope is that through this program we can prevent many of these students from making those same mistakes.”
If you’re already out of high school, the bank’s website offers a blog that can answer many of your financial questions. It contains up-to-date information on topics such as healthy budget habits and estate planning, plus more targeted topics like how to protect yourself financially from “romance” scammers who prey on victims via the Internet.
Honoring Those Who Help
Working with several local television stations, Quail Creek Bank also established, and continues to fund, monthly recognition programs, including Hometown Heroes with KWTV-Channel 9’ Proud to Serve, which recognizes first responders and front-line workers with KFOR-Channel 4; and Teacher of the Month with KOCO-Channel 5.
Recipients of the monthly awards are featured on the news and receive a cash award from the bank. (You can nominate a hometown hero at https://www.news9.com/hero, a first responder or front-line worker at https://kfor.com/sponsored/proud-to-serve/nominate-a-first-responder-for-proud-to-serve/#// or a teacher at https://www.koco.com/article/submit-your-teacher-of-the-month-nominations/35814629.)
“There are so many people out there who help others in the community, in so many ways, and we feel it’s important to recognize them and all they do for others,” Erin said.
One of the other unusual options offered by the bank is a travel club, consisting of bank employees and customers who are passionate about traveling.
Finally, the team at QCB are also active in the Quail Creek Homeowners Association—a natural partnership since the bank’s location, at 12201 N. May Ave., is immediately adjacent to the neighborhood, Erin said. The bank is the signature sponsor for the association’s events and also underwrites the QC Yard of the Month program.
Why QCB?
Since Quail Creek Bank is locally owned, it offers some advantages that large branch banks do not.
“We have remained at a single location by choice, which means we can act as a one-stop shop and decisions can be made quickly,” Erin said. (Questions about Quail Creek Bank can be answered on its website, QuailCreek.Bank, or by calling 405.755.1000.)
“Also, every bank says they have great service, but what is special about us is that we’re locally owned and we pride ourselves on going the extra step,” she added. “As just one example, we literally still have a switchboard operator, so that callers are always directly connected to a person. Things like that might seem like a small detail, but they have a big impact on how welcome customers feel.”
“... every bank says they have great service, but what is special about us is that we’re locally owned and we pride ourselves on going the extra step. As just one example, we literally still have a switchboard operator, so that callers are always directly connected to a person. Things like that might seem like a small detail, but they have a big impact on how welcome customers feel.”
