Click this link to read The Post and Courier article >> that begins, "As First Reliance Bank celebrates its 25th anniversary, Chief Executive Officer and Founder Rick Saunders reflects on how far the bank has come, from its early days in a double-wide in Florence to being ranked in the top 25 banks by asset size in South Carolina.

"I never had any ambition to start a bank," Saunders admits when asked how he first started the company. During a time when many banks were going through mergers and acquisitions, Saunders, his brother Paul and their colleague Dale Porter began noticing trends that were creating not only a negative customer experience but also a negative employee experience. They saw a need to build a bank that would improve the lives of its customers and associates and better the communities that it served. In 1999, the idea of First Reliance Bank was born."

First Reliance's purpose statement says the bank exists to improve the lives of our customers, associates, and communities. We are in the experience business, not the banking business. Bank with us and experience our slogan, "There's More to Banking Than Money®," lived out by every team member committed to treating each customer with the utmost care and attention and providing the highest-quality service. These are team members who take to heart the significant impact their service may have on improving people's lives. Simply said, they are those who are helping families finance a new home, assisting local entrepreneurs in starting their businesses, advising fellow community members on how to save to send a child to college, or planning for retirement.

Happy Anniversary, First Reliance Bank.

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