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S.Y. Bancorp Names James T. McKenzie to Head New Correspondent Banking Division

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^{Published in Business and Finance on Thursday, January 29th 2009 at 5:25 GMT, Last Modified on 2009-01-29 05:26:28 by Market Wire}  

LOUISVILLE, Ky.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--S.Y. Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYBT), parent company of Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company, with offices in the Louisville metropolitan area, Indianapolis and Cincinnati, today announced that it will begin offering correspondent banking services in February 2009. James T. McKenzie has joined the Company as Senior Vice President and Division Manager of Correspondent Banking. He will report directly to Philip S. Poindexter, Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer.

In this new position, McKenzie, age 59, will be responsible for developing and directing the Company's correspondent banking division to offer loan and deposit services, asset management, international services, trust operations, and other services to community banks across the Kentucky/ Indiana region.

Commenting on this new endeavor, David Heintzman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of S.Y. Bancorp, said, "All banks conduct business with other financial institutions in the course of their day-to-day operations, using correspondent banking relationships to access needed resources to provide a broader range of services to their customers. In the past, many regional banks have filled this niche, but with ongoing consolidation in our industry, many historical service providers have exited this line of business or scaled back their offering. In our view, a sizeable opportunity now exists in this market for a bank such as ours, considering there are 227 banks headquartered in the state of Kentucky alone. Since our own growth objectives are aimed at large metropolitan areas and not the smaller towns across our state where many of these community banks operate, we believe the key to tapping this opportunity lies in our approach to correspondent banking as a partnering relationship with our bank customers. Clearly, they serve their communities extremely well, and our role will be to reinforce their capabilities with a broader range of products and services, backed by the strength and soundness of Stock Yards Bank & Trust."

Poindexter added, "We are pleased that a veteran banker like Jim McKenzie will join us to spearhead this new operation. He has nearly 40 years of experience in banking and correspondent banking operations and impressive management credentials. Additionally, he has life-long relationships with banks across Kentucky and Indiana. We think he will be an important addition to our management team in this new role."

McKenzie most recently served as Manager of the Correspondent Banking Department of JPMorgan Chase Bank (formerly Bank One and Liberty National Bank), where he has spent his entire career. He received a B.S. degree from Western Kentucky University and is a graduate of the Kentucky School of Banking, the School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University, the School of Commercial Lending in Norman, Oklahoma, the University of Louisville Management Development School, the Darden School of Business Executive Management at the University of Virginia, and various continuing education activities.

Louisville, Kentucky-based S.Y. Bancorp, Inc., with $1.629 billion in assets as of September 30, 2008, was incorporated in 1988 as a bank holding company. It is the parent company of Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company, which was established in 1904. The Company's shares trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol SYBT. The trust preferred securities of S.Y. Bancorp Capital Trust II also trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol SYBTP.

This report contains forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act that involve risks and uncertainties. Although S.Y. Bancorp's management believes the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, any of these assumptions could be inaccurate. Therefore, there can be no assurance the forward-looking statements included herein will prove to be accurate. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: economic conditions both generally and more specifically in the markets in which S.Y. Bancorp and its subsidiaries operate; continued economic slowdown and continued public stock market volatility; competition for S.Y. Bancorp's customers from other providers of financial services; government legislation and regulation, which change from time to time and over which S.Y. Bancorp has no control; changes in interest rates; material unforeseen changes in liquidity, results of operations, or financial condition of S.Y. Bancorp's customers; and other risks detailed in S.Y. Bancorp's filings with the SEC, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of S.Y. Bancorp.