Your Cost of Funds Is What?!?!

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This Month in Banking is presented by Wolf & Company.
Building on a long tradition of serving financial institutions, we offer expertise designed to enhance risk management, performance, and long-term planning. Let's get started.

**Tara Wean** (0:21)
Hello, this is Tara Wean, and I'd like to welcome you to the July 2026 episode of This Month in Banking, brought to you by Wolf & Company. Our topic on this episode is, Your Cost of Funds is What?
Our guest is Wade Johnson, CEO of Durden Banking Company. Jeff Marsico, Strategic Consulting Services Principal with Wolf & Company is my co-host today. Welcome, Wade. Thank you for joining us.

**Wade Johnson** (0:46)
Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.

**Jeff Marsico** (0:49)
Well, Wade, we mentioned that we frequently go off script, so I'm going to go right at it.
I still have some sour grapes from the 2008 Sugar Bowl. Me being a University of Hawaii Rainbow Warrior, and you being a Georgia Bulldog. I thought my linemen were big because they were big Samoans. But what was the score in that game? I think it was pretty lopsided.

**Tara Wean** (1:17)
41 to 10

**Jeff Marsico** (1:19)
Well, so that's the researcher who did Tara?

**Wade Johnson** (1:21)
Tara did not.

**Jeff Marsico** (1:25)
41 to 10
And that year, I don't know, you probably don't remember because you probably weren't following it from the Georgia perspective. But Hawaii was 12 and that year. And Colt Brennan and their quarterback had passed every conceivable NCAA quarterback record that year. And during that Sugar Bowl, he ran around for his life.
Like the defense was just so suffocating. Georgia's defense, it was deflating. I think the guy ran more yards side to side than any running back north to south.

**Wade Johnson** (2:06)
Those years, I think we started the 0-7 season ranked number one per preseason. Matthew Stafford at quarterback, Noshaw Marino at running back, both future NFLers.
Stout defense led by a linebacker named Elwer Beat who also played in the NFL. And even though we won the Sugar Bowl with that group or most of that group in 0-8, still did not achieve a national championship, which was our hope. So I remember those years because of that. It was even though it was a lot to be excited for, we were hoping to get the big trophy, but did not get there. Those years that we had Matthew Stafford were really exciting though.

**Jeff Marsico** (2:51)
Well, fun fact, Wade, I'm actually a Rams fan for the NFL. Oh, you would think I would be a hater because I do have bad memories of Matthew Stafford. Even though it was your defense that clearly won that game, I think half of the points were scored by your defense in that game.
But the reason why is John Capoletti was drafted by the Rams back in 1972 or 1973, him being a Penn State guy. But when the Rams traded for Stafford, I'm like, Oh dear Lord. But you know, Stafford has been has been pretty good for the Rams.

**Wade Johnson** (3:30)
And number two, Stetson Bennett, another former dog, probably on that roster, arguably maybe the best dog ever.

**Jeff Marsico** (3:41)
So I want to give you a little chance to tell us about Durden Banking Company and I'll tell the audience what drew us to your bank. But give us a little bit on your background and the bank that you work for in Georgia.

**Wade Johnson** (3:54)
Okay, so I grew up here in Twin City, Georgia. We're a real small area, rural area, lots of, still a lot of ag, small business. We're about 30 miles outside of Statesboro. So that's where Georgia Southern University is, and that's the largest town that is most recognizable to people near us. Grew up here, went to the University of Georgia, interned with a consulting group that does bank work, and had a job opportunity back with them when I graduated the following year.
Work there, it's called Powell & Company. They're based out of Statesboro, do a lot of consulting work, safety and soundness, compliance, due diligence, stuff like that. So worked with them for about four years, stayed on the road a lot, learned a lot, couldn't have received a better learning experience than them. And had an opportunity to come back home and work for the local bank at the end of 2006 Made that move. And then we all remember what happened shortly after that with the recession years.

**Jeff Marsico** (5:04)
Yeah, great time to come into banking.

**Wade Johnson** (5:06)
Yeah. So came into banking with the mindset to be a producer, get on the production side as a lender. And then quickly, everything changed to where we were trying to, you know, save as much money as we could and handle trouble situations one case at a time. So learned a lot there.