Putnam 1st Mercantile Bank

Putnam 1st Mercantile Bank was founded on November 28, 2005, by a group of Putnam County residents with a specific goal: to create a bank with genuine local ownership and local decision-making at a time when most banking in the region was being absorbed by national corporations. That founding intent is still the operating philosophy, and it remains one of only two banks in Putnam County that is both locally owned and locally operated.

The distinction matters practically. At a locally operated bank, the people with authority to make lending decisions are people who live in Cookeville, know the local real estate market, and have skin in the community's economic outcomes. A small business owner who needs a loan isn't waiting on approval from a regional committee in Nashville or Atlanta. They're talking to someone who banks at the same places and coaches their kids' soccer teams.

The bank has grown from a single-location startup to three branches, including locations on W Jackson St (main), E 10th St, and in Baxter. As an ICBA member community bank, it adheres to independent community banking standards while building a product set including checking, savings, personal and business loans, mortgages, online banking, and mobile banking that competes directly with the national banks it was founded to be an alternative to.