Brian Love, Travillian’s Head of Banking and Fintech, recently set his executive search, talent strategy, and succession planning skills aside to temporarily embody a new role: game show host.
Love brought a creative edge to Travillian’s traditional content stream by proposing a financial services twist to the well-known show Name that Tune.
Rather than pitting contestants against each other to name musical selections based on a certain number of notes, Love thought it would be fun to test bankers’ knowledge of their industry by having them identify banks from a series of clues.
How to Play Name That Bank
Love then explained the rules: Over the course of five rounds, each contestant would bid on how few clues — factual data about a U.S. bank — it would take him or her to identify it. Whoever could name the financial institution based on the fewest number of details would earn a point. Best three out of five wins the game.
The Contestants
Love chose two bankers who agreed to compete:
With the particulars taken care of, Love began the game, with Simpson being designated to go first.
Name That Bank: Round One
Brian: Mandi, I have a bank in the Southeast that’s $4–$8 billion in assets. I have ten clues. What is the minimal number of hints that you think you’ll need to name that bank?
Mandi: I’m to start conservative and say six.
Brian: Chris, do you think you can name it in five or less? Or would you like Mandi to name that bank?
Chris: I could name it in less.
Brian: He’s coming right out of the chute.
Mandi: That was part of my strategy. I wanted him to go first to see how this works.
Brian: Okay. Here we go. I already told you the asset size is $4–$8 billion in assets.
- Clue One – 47 branches.
- Clue Two – I’ll narrow down the geography: Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia.
- Clue Three – The actual asset size is $6.5 billion.
- Clue Four – Just over 1,000 employees.
- Clue Five – It is publicly traded on the NASDAQ, with the ticker RBCA.
Chris: Republic Bank.
Brian: That is correct!
Chris: Of all the banks I thought it could be, when you said Kentucky, that got it to a pretty short list.
Brian: One point for Chris.
Name That Bank: Round Two
Brian: Mandi, How many clues will you need on this one?
Mandi: I’m going to say six.
Brian: Okay. Now I will tell you it’s under $25 billion in assets.
- Clue One – 79 branches; they’re shrinking into their range.
- Clue Two – They’re in either Alabama, Georgia, or Florida.
- Clue Three – Asset size is $10–$20 billion.
- Clue Four – They are public, on the NASDAQ with the ticker SBCF.
Chris: The CEO’s name is Chuck Shaffer. And they’re based in Steward, Fla., on the Southeast coast.
Brian: Oh! He’s jumping in!
Mandi: Seacoast!
Brian: There we go!
Name That Bank: Round Three
Brian: Chris, back to you.
I’m going to give you a bank that no longer exists. This is a trip down memory lane. So how many clues do you think it’ll take for you to get this bank?
Chris: Let’s go with six, given they’re not currently in operation.
Brian: Here we go.
- Clue One – This bank size was just under $5 billion in assets. Not way under; it was right around that $5 billion mark.
- Clue Two – 65 branches.
- Clue Three – Headquartered in Georgia.
- Clue Four – Its sale was announced just before Christmas 2018 and was completed in 2019
Chris: State Bank
Brian: Oh, no! That’s not correct! Mandi now gets to steal. And she gets the remaining three clues.
- Clue Five – Based in Atlanta, Ga.
Mandi: Fidelity Bank
Brian: Correct! And for extra credit what was the ticker?
Mandi: LION
Brian: Wow! This is getting dramatic. Mandi goes up two to one.
Name That Bank: Round Four
This is going to be your clue, Mandi, because Chris started the last round. How many clues is it going to take for you to guess this?
Mandi: I feel pretty good about six again.
Brian: Okay, six. This is a southeastern bank again.
- Clue One – This one is between $1–$3 billion in assets. It has seven branches, which may count as a clue but may not, so we won’t count it as an “official” clue.
- Clue Two – States it could be in are North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
- Clue Three – They are public, but on the OCTQX.
- Clue Four – They were recapitalized in May 2019.
- Clue Five – The CFO’s name is David Therit.
- Clue Six – The actual asset size as of 1Q 2024 was $1.4 billion
Do you have a guess?
Mandi: I’ll guess Queensborugh National.
Brian: That is incorrect. Chris, you have a shot to steal. I will give you one last clue: The city and state is Raleigh, N.C.
Chris: Is this Dogwood State Bank?
Brian: There we go! Tied game going into the last round!
So here we go: Mandi steals one; Chris steals it right back. And we go to sudden death, the final round.
Name That Bank: Round Five
Brian: I’m just going to name clues. And the first person to put a hand up gets to guess. If he or she doesn’t get it right, the other person gets a chance.
This is a bank in the southeast.
- Clue One – They are under $5 billion in assets.
- Clue Two – They have 30 branches.
- Clue Three – They could be in one of these three states: South Carolina, Georgia, or Florida.
- Clue Four – They have 453 employees.
- Clue Five – The actual asset size is just over $3 billion.
- Clue Six – They are publicly traded.
Mandi: Is it Metro City Bank?
Brian: It is not, Mandi. Nice guess, though. Chris, here’s another clue.
- Clue Seven – Their state is Georgia
Chris: Colony Bank
Brian: Boom! That’s it! Chris Mihok is the winner of the first and probably only episode of Name That Bank! Well done!
I’ve got to tell you, Mandi. You were awesome. You got a steal in there; you had momentum pushing over to your side. You were a great contestant.
Mandi: Well, Chris kind of gave me the first one. So thanks for making it competitive.
Brian: Chris, what do you have to say for yourself, winning this amazing achievement?
Chris: This was a ton of fun. Thank you for organizing it and getting us together. Mandi, I look forward to finding a way to work together from a transaction-service standpoint.
Mandi: Absolutely
Watch Name That Bank
The production value of Travillian’s Name that Bank—the music, the special effects, the drama—makes this game show well worth watching. And if enough readers believe they can face Brian Love and his clever clues, “Name that Bank” may return for a second edition.
