Tanya Isch Caylor

A Swiss Banker in Indiana Farm Country Tanya Isch Caylor

In early 2009, as America's largest banks were failing amid the national housing crisis, journalists came to a small town in Indiana Amish country to find out how the First Bank of Berne managed to have its best year ever. The answer, bank president Charles Isch told them, had to do with both the bank's and the town's Swiss heritage. But this was not your typical "Swiss bank." Its Anabaptist founders had no banking expertise when they came to America; persecuted in their home country, they had not even been allowed to own land. Frugal, conservative and averse to risk, this new breed of Swiss bankers learned to run a thrifty operation that trusted its own cash reserves more than government assistance. This is the story of what Isch - who grew up on a Swiss Anabaptist farm, using an outhouse as a child - learned about banking and his own heritage in 46 years at one of the nation's most efficient banks.