How One Bank Turned a Cycling Hobby into a Line of Business

It’s summer cycling season, and the Tour de France is in full swing. Barry Allen of Tower Community Bank joins the ABA Banking Journal Podcast to talk about biking adventures closer to home. Tower Community Bank leaders organize their own informal cycling team with other members of their southeast Tennessee community. Allen discusses the bank’s support for projects like mountain bike trails in Monteagle and Chattanooga, Tennessee, as well as sponsoring races like Gran Fondo Hincapie and the River Gorge Omnium.

“We enjoy the lifestyle around cycling and the seeing the country that cycling affords us,” says Allen. “Indirectly, it’s helped us with business,” he adds, noting that many of the other riders who join the informal team result in business referrals for the bank.

And with the cost of bicycles continuing to grow, Tower Community Bank also makes unsecured personal loans for bikes, and Allen discusses what goes into making a bike loan.

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