The History of Athens State Bank

Athens State Bank has a long history of serving the local community. Athens State Bank first opened on May 21, 1910 in downtown Athens after being acquired from a local individual. The original bank was located at the corner of Jackson and Main Street in Athens until January of 1982, when the current Athens facility was built at 200 N. West Street, one block east of the original building.

Eleven years later on July 14, 1993, Athens State Bank expanded again by breaking ground on another full-service facility located at the intersection of State Route 29 and Andrew Road. This location is known to many in the local community as "Bud's Corner". Originally opened in March 1994, by 2001 there was an expansion of this facility to better serve the growing customer base located south of Athens or communting on State Rte. 29 to Springfield. This secondary expansion project was completed in August of 2001.

Another milestone in our bank history was reached in June 2007 with the opening of our Petersburg facility at 420 E. Sangamon, next to Kent's IGA and Family Video. This expansion brought the convenience of our deposit services to the Petersburg market that was already using our loan services at our Athens facility.

Our most recent expansion project is aimed at improving our operational efficiency and setting the stage for future growth. In early 2008, the Route 29 Building in Athens was acquired with the goal of creating a Datacenter to consolidate and streamline our operation and data processing functions. This facility went live in July 2008. Although it is not designed for customer traffic, it supports the deposit and loan processing activity at our three retail locations. It also has a backup electrical generator which will allow us to continue to operate all the bank locations in a variety of scenarios when power loss is an issue in our local communities. We have also equipped this facility with state of the art Audio/Visual presentation equipment for shareholder and director meetings as well as employee training purposes.

Athens State Bank is locally owned and operated. Our main objective is to provide a high-level of service to our customer base in Menard and Sangamon counties. We are constantly striving to meet our customers wants and needs with their future in mind. Our major strength is that our employees are readily available for one-on-one interaction.

All of our retail bank facilities are full service, offering a wide array of products and services. If you are looking to open a deposit account or needing to obtain a loan from one of our qualified employees, we will be there to help you. Please feel free to navigate our site to check-out our competitive products and to find contact information for all of our locations.

As we celebrate 100 years of banking service to our local community in 2010, you can count on us to be here for you in the future.

Timeline:

• 1910- Athens State Bank is founded.
• 1982- Growth leads to new banking facility in downtown Athens.
• 1993- Ground-breaking ceremony is held for first branch location.
• 1994- Springfield facility opens (Rte 29 and Andrew Road).
• 2001- Springfield facility expansion completed in August 2001.
• 2003- Athens State Bank is first bank in Menard County to offer Internet Banking.
• 2005- Check Imaging is added and integrated with Internet Banking.
• 2007- Petersburg facility is opened June 2007.
• 2007- Athens State Bank is the first bank in Menard County to offer Free Bill Pay with E-Statements.
• 2008- Rte. 29 Building acquired in Athens to create a DataCenter/Administrative hub for all retail banking facilities.
• 2008- Bill Pay volume reaches over $1,000,000 in less than 1 year of offering the service.
• 2008- DataCenter location opened July 2008.
• 2009- Athens Driveup ATM on Hargrave opened September 2009.
• 2009- Acreage acquired for New Salem location south of Petersburg December 2009.
• 2010- Athens State Bank begins celebrating 100 years of operation.