Nicole Lorch started a marketing job at an online-only bank when only a quarter of U.S. households had internet access. Twenty-five years later, she's the president.
In 1999, she was working for David Becker, a serial tech entrepreneur who decided to launch a branchless, digital-only bank. "It was a radical idea in 1999," said Lorch, who became the new bank's marketing director. "I was still renting VHS tapes from Blockbuster."
Becker raised money from investors to start the de novo bank based in Fishers, Indiana. "Normally, a bank our size has to have $5 million to launch a bank. But there was some concern about this crazy internet direct-to-consumer idea, so we launched with $15 million in capital," she recalled.
The business plan at launch was to have customers in all 50 states and have $100 million in assets. But Lorch said First Internet Bank "blew through every five-year milestone in about 90 days."
"We started with about a dozen employees, most of whom were in a call center," she said. And since the internet was so new to a lot of customers, after they filled out an online application, many of them would call "to make sure they were dealing with live human beings and that the bank was in the United States," she said.
Lorch recalled receiving a letter in the mail written in "very shaky handwriting that reminded me of my grandmother's," inquiring about the bank's CD rate. "My rotary phone will not allow me to get through your bank or use your touch tone system," the note read. "If you're interested in my money, please call me at this phone number."
As the bank grew, Lorch ascended through its ranks. After three and a half years as the director of marketing, Lorch was promoted in June 2002 to be the vice president of marketing and technology. She kept moving up as she learned the business side of banking. She was the vice president of retail banking for six years, and in 2017 was promoted to chief operating officer. Three years ago, she was named First Internet Bank's president while continuing to serve as its COO.
Today, First Internet — the first state-chartered, FDIC-insured bank to operate entirely online — has grown to have $5.34 billion in assets. The bank now offers personal and business banking, including SBA lending, commercial lending and commercial real estate lending.
"I think of us as a 25-year-old startup," she said. "We've always been growing and launching new lines of business. There's always been something new and different, and it really invigorates me to be part of it. I've just never had a reason to leave."
Changes to the industry
Lorch said that generally, she has seen a lot more diversity and inclusion in the industry since she started. "I'd like to think that being a woman in leadership, I'm helping to change viewpoints about what that looks like. You know, I'm just not a woman wearing a man's suit and coming to work, which women had to do at one point," she said.
Technological advances have obviously changed how bankers operate, she noted. "I heard that in community banking, back in the day, there was the 3-6-3 rule. You'd pay 3% on deposits, you lend it out at 6% and you're on the golf course by 3 p.m.," Lorch said. "Today, the hours have changed because technology means that things will go bump in the night, so at 3 a.m. you could be getting phone calls that the server's down," she added.
Talent recruitment has also changed over the years. While Lorch got into financial services largely by accident, banks are much more focused on getting young people interested in the industry. "We work with the Indiana Bankers Association, and they realized, as did our CEO, that people aren't choosing banking as a career like they used to. And so we're coming at that from a number of angles," Lorch said. In addition to a longstanding summer college internship, the bank is working with the IBA, the state, and local employers to start a high school apprenticeship program. "Getting into the [banking] profession is a great move not just for an individual, but for an entire community, she said.
Women in leadership
When Lorch was growing up, her parents told her at a young age that it wasn't enough to be as good as the boys; she had to be better than them. "And I think that led to, also for others who were hearing the same message, to a generation of perfectionists. So I was focused on the work and not on spending time networking and building relationships," she said.
Lorch said parenthood helped strengthen her relationship skills. "I think becoming a mother was probably one of the greatest things that I could do for my own professional development, because I developed a sense of empathy deeper than I had previously had," she said.
"But I think also that being a woman in leadership gives me an opportunity to demonstrate that families come in all shapes and sizes. In my own family, my husband now is the at-home caregiver while I work full time, so we've really taken the gender norm and flipped it on its head. And I'm showing my daughter and her friends that this can work too," she said.
Lorch believes that one of the most important characteristics a leader should have is being passionate about their work. "I take my work very personally, and it's truly been a labor of love. I have a passion for what I do, and for being able to see others grow in their careers. I get to see the rewards of lending money so that businesses can get off the ground so that they can employ people who in turn can then feed their families. I truly believe that what we do is a service that's helping our community. And so yeah, I kind of love it," she said.
