“There are so many ways we can bring banking to people,” says Ryan James, president and CEO of Surety Bank in Deland, Fla. “Community is not bound by geography. I look at community as shared interest.”

James became one of the youngest bank CEOs in the country when he took the helm of Surety Bank in 2009, in the midst of the fallout from the financial crisis, Florida's economy was hit especially hard. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Money Concepts International — James explains how he and his team led Surety Bank through the post-crisis period and positioned it for success in 2019 with a focus on digital transformation.

James talks about Surety Bank’s transition to an emerging cloud-based core provider and the launch of the company’s Booyah! Bank digital brand, which enables Surety Bank to serve a customer base well beyond its Florida brick-and-mortar footprint.