Community Focus

There are people who don't believe community banks will survive in the coming years. Cathy Swanson is not one of them.

“A good community bank still has a place in the market,” Swanson says. “People still want a bank where they feel they are important, and they can come in and sit down and talk to their banker, and when they call, they can get right through to them.”

Swanson is Freedom Bank of America's new chief executive officer. She was promoted to the post in March, after helping the bank turn a profit for the first time in its eight-year history as its senior lending officer.