Central Bank is a full service, independently owned Minnesota bank that specializes in serving the banking needs of small businesses. Central Bank was chartered in April of 1988 when Oak Park State Bank failed and John Morrison, Central Bank’s owner, acquired the failed bank’s assets. In April 1991, the Bank, then called St. Croix Valley Bank, formally merged with Cosmopolitan State Bank and became Central Bank. Morrison has been in the banking business in Minnesota and other states for the past 40 years.
Since 2009, Central has acquired Mainstreet Bank of Forest Lake, Jennings State Bank of Spring Grove, Riverview Community Bank of Otsego, Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida of Fort Myers (FL), Rosemount National Bank of Rosemount, The RiverBank of Wyoming, Bank of Naples of Naples (FL) and First National Bank of Barron (WI). Central now has 22 locations including Barron (WI), Centerville, Chisago City, Coon Rapids, Eden Prairie, Elk River, Forest Lake, Fort Myers (FL) Golden Valley, Hudson (WI), Minneapolis, Naples (FL), Newport, North Hudson, Osceola (WI), Rice Lake (WI), South St. Paul, St. Croix Falls (WI) (2), St. Michael, Stillwater and White Bear Lake.
The overall strategy for Central Bank is to be an independent community bank providing a higher level of personalized service than is generally available from larger banks. To facilitate this, the Bank has committed to keeping employee turnover low so customers are familiar with those serving them and customer relationships are serviced in a more personal manner.
Central’s low turnover rate also complements the objective of maintaining a high level of credit quality. Most of the lenders have been with the bank for a number of years and have a deep understanding of the credit culture and desired type of loan transactions. The majority of the business of Central Bank is relationship based, meaning most customers will have multiple account relationships, especially loan customers.