If a business client of Exchange Bank needs help processing payroll with the bank’s software, a bank employee drives over to help. Personal banking customers can do all their business by mail if they prefer.
As the new president of Exchange Bank of Alabama, Catherine Ray Martin promises that things that make her bank special won’t change.
They compete aggressively against big banks “because we offer pretty much all the same services that they do,” Martin says, but also a personal relationship. If a customer has an issue, he or she “can walk in here and talk to somebody about it.
“You can call on the phone,” she says, and “someone answers.”
Another advantage is that bank officials don’t have to consult with someone in another state on loans.
“All our decisions are made right here,” she says. “When I say right here, I mean literally in this building where I sit; any loan decisions made — every single last one. That’s where I think we don’t just compete. We thrive as a community bank.”
Exchange Bank’s home office is in Altoona, where it has been since the early 1900s, but the financial center is in downtown Gadsden. “We’ve never moved a branch,” she says.
When Martin took over the presidency earlier this year, she says she was honored to follow in the footsteps of those who came before her. Some of those footsteps were from members of her own family.
Martin’s great-grandmother Mary Lou Ray was a banker. Grandfather Jack L. Ray, who died in 2006, was CEO and chairman. Her father, John Richard Ray, is the current CEO and chairman of the board. She works with uncles William Allen Ray and H. Daniel Ray. Her cousin, Christopher Ray, is CFO.
Catherine Martin has been married to her husband, Jeff, for 29 years and has two adult children. Son Harrison Martin is a loan officer at the Gadsden branch, making him the family’s fifth generation at the bank.
“I’ve basically been with the bank my entire life,” says Martin, 52, who has been with the bank since her college graduation in 1995.
A native of Gadsden, Martin earned a bachelor’s in finance from the University of Alabama. She also graduated from the Alabama Banking School at the University of South Alabama and the National Commercial Lending School at Southern Methodist University. She completed the Alabama Bankers Association Bank Executive Leadership Certification Program as well.
Martin worked at Exchange Bank as a teller while still in high school. After college, she started in the credit card program, then later in loan compliance, collections and as a business manager — “a little bit of everything,” she says.
“The majority of my career has been in some form of marketing,” Martin says, calling it “where I needed to be.
“I’ve been in the marketing department since around 2002. For the past several years, I was the senior vice president of marketing, but I was also on the loan committee and many policy committees,” she adds. “I was doing managerial work for the whole bank while I was still also doing the marketing.”
Exchange Bank has assets of $375 million and operates five branches in Etowah County: Altoona, Attalla, Gadsden, Noccalula Falls and Rainbow City. It started in a rented tin building at the turn of the 20th century and is now the largest locally owned bank in the region.
Altoona citizens met to organize the much-needed bank in 1909. The Dwight-Cone cotton mill had opened in Gadsden in 1895, followed by a steel mill in 1902. Early depositors received a small metal bank. By 1922, construction was under way on the Main Street location, now a historic landmark.
Gadsden businessmen James B. Allen and Jack L. Ray bought controlling stock of the Gadsden Corp., the holding company of First State Bank of Altoona. Ray modernized operations and even personally sang the slogan, “Later or sooner, you’ll bank in Altoona,” in early advertising campaigns.
In 1990, Duke University graduate Jack Ray decided it was time to merge First State Bank of Altoona and Exchange Bank of Attalla. The three-story financial center at Third and Locust streets opened in Gadsden in October 2000.
New President Martin will still serve as chief retail officer and supervise the marketing and retail branches.
“I’m still over commercial services, the branches, the branch managers, the advertising, the marketing, all of that. If you see it out in the public, it came from someone that reports to me basically,” she explains.
The bank has survived for more than a century, “so we have a good thing going,” she says of the legacy operation. Some customers are grandchildren of original clients.
“We’ll just keep running the bank the way we know how and the way that has worked in the past, the way that we can best serve our customers and our community,” says Martin. “I think we do a pretty good job of that now. I mean, there might be a few internal things that get tweaked, but nothing that our customers will see change drastically.”
Business customers want advice, she says, and a friendly ear.
“They want somebody to talk to about their business and help them in their business — especially a new business,” Martin says. “Even businesses we’ve had forever, the principal owners will still come and sit in here every other week and talk to their banker about things. I think that’s invaluable in this day and time.”
One advantage for smaller banks is the ability to pivot to address local needs.
“Basically, in my office, I decide what the CD rates are by looking at the people around us and by looking at what we need, and the bigger banks,” she says.
Martin has held several leadership positions in the community with United Way, Habitat for Humanity, Cultural Arts Foundation and Industrial Development Authority, as well as statewide leadership roles.
“One of our biggest things is serving our customers, but also serving our community,” Martin says. Bank employees donate hundreds of volunteer hours in Etowah County.
In addition to strong family ties, Martin brings a great deal of experience, said one bank executive.
“She will undoubtedly excel in this position and has started out doing an excellent job bringing new ideas to grow the bank,” adds Exchange Senior Vice President and Chief Lending Officer Kevin Phillips.
Bank board member Marie Akin agrees.
“Catherine leads with a servant’s heart and has always been selfless in volunteering her time while staying engaged in the community,” Akin says. “Catherine has always displayed leadership qualities, even when she was still in school and working part-time at Exchange Bank.”
Deborah Storey and Joe De Sciose are freelance contributors to Business Alabama. She is based in Huntsville and he in Birmingham.
This article appears in the May 2025 issue of Business Alabama.
