President and CEO
Patricia Husic knew it would be more complicated for Centric Financial to make Paycheck Protection Program loans to noncustomers. It would take more time to verify the identities of business owners and open new accounts, all while handling the high demand from customers.
But Husic also believed that Centric, where she has been chief executive since 2007, should be there for all the businesses in its community — and she rallied employees to the idea after they had a chance to express their concerns.
“I laid out the choices and asked my team to get on board. After hearing my ‘Why,’ everyone was ready to forge ahead,” Husic said.
More than a year later, at least 52% of those noncustomers have become customers, leading to increases in deposits, commercial loans and new checking accounts for Centric, which is based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Overall, the $1.1 billion-asset bank added 1,253 customers last year.
Among the keys to converting noncustomers was helping them identify other sources of aid available during the pandemic, Husic said. “We continually communicated and stayed in touch via email or calls.”
In June 2020, Centric hosted a roundtable on PPP lending for small businesses in the area, attracting some big guests. Jovita Carranza, at the time the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, attended, as did Eugene Scalia, then-Department of Labor secretary, along with a team from his agency. The event, which took place at a local coffee shop, featured five local female business owners, who shared their stories.
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Husic has long taken pride in promoting female leaders at Centric. But over the past year, she has taken steps to give more structure to the bank’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. She connected with human resources students at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., to help develop a formal DEI initiative for Centric.
Conversations about DEI often focus on the personal. And Husic has been intent over the past year on opening up more about her own life. On a local podcast, for example, she talked about her pre-college career goals of becoming an event planner or a pediatrician.
“That’s something I’ve rarely shared outside of close family members,” Husic said. “Our futures take twists and turns, and every challenge in the last 14 months has helped me be more authentic.”
