Availa Bank names Mitch Kay Council Bluffs market president

Availa Bank has named Mitch Kay as its Council Bluffs market president, putting the longtime southwest Iowa resident in charge of the bank’s local market as it looks to expand its presence in Council Bluffs and surrounding communities.

Kay brings about 10 years of previous banking experience to the position along with five years in Pottawattamie County government, where he served as chief financial officer and worked with county leaders during the distribution of federal pandemic relief funds and a number of capital projects. He said the opportunity to lead a banking market in Council Bluffs was unusual enough that it immediately caught his attention. “When the Council Bluffs market president role comes available, which does not happen very often, I’m going to do this,” Kay said.

The Underwood native has remained closely connected to the area throughout his career. He now lives in McClelland, where he has served as mayor for about nine years, and also serves on the Underwood Community School board. Kay said those roles have reinforced his interest in working with smaller communities and local businesses, particularly in places where limited resources require officials and business owners to make decisions efficiently. “We have to be extremely efficient,” he explained. “Being nimble and being able to make changes and decisions quick, I see those overlap each other too with my role as market president.”

Kay’s responsibilities will center on Council Bluffs and the surrounding southwest Iowa market, including Pottawattamie and Mills counties. One area he wants to develop further is agricultural lending. Availa Bank has a business banking operation in Council Bluffs, while Kay’s previous banking background includes agricultural lending and another member of the local staff also has experience in that area. “I’d like to try to maybe diversify our portfolio a little bit and try to get out to some of those ag customers and start serving them as well,” Kay said.

Another priority will be increasing awareness of the Availa name in Council Bluffs. The local bank was previously known as Council Bluffs Savings Bank before becoming part of Availa, and Kay believes some residents still have not fully connected the former institution with the current name. He said part of his job will be reinforcing that connection while introducing himself to customers and businesses that may not already know him. “There’s some out there that haven’t connected those dots necessarily yet,” he noted.

Kay also expects much of his work to revolve around relationships with existing and prospective customers. Council Bluffs has a large number of banks and credit unions offering many of the same basic financial products, which he said makes personal relationships increasingly important when customers decide where they want to do business. “The relationship is what makes the difference,” Kay said. “My challenge is really just to reestablish relationships that customers already have with Availa Bank, to reinforce and let them know who I am.”

Community events will be part of that effort, but Kay said he does not view those appearances primarily as opportunities for a sales pitch. He has attended local fairs, golf outings and other gatherings for years through his community involvement and expects to continue doing so in his new position. The goal, he said, is to remain visible and accessible so customers and business owners know whom they can contact when a need arises.

Kay’s move into the Council Bluffs market president position also keeps him working in the same area where he grew up and has spent much of his professional and public-service career. Rather than taking a banking position elsewhere in the Omaha metro, he said the Availa opening gave him an opportunity to remain on the Iowa side of the river and continue working with people and businesses he already knows.

As he settles into the new role, Kay said his priorities will include strengthening existing customer relationships, increasing the bank’s visibility and developing additional opportunities in areas such as agricultural lending throughout southwest Iowa.