One day the signs switched from Wayne-based Penn Liberty Bank to Delaware’s WSFS Bank, and on the next its customers found themselves at the forefront of banking technology.

WSFS’ people-first philosophy and quiet leadership has subtly elevated it to the cover of the March issue of American Banker magazine, where President and CEO Mark Turner is celebrated as an old-fashioned forward-thinking risk-taker who has navigated the regional player through the financial crisis and positioned it for growth and innovation.

“Our core is basic banking operations. It’s 80 percent to 90 percent of who we are, and we have to be able to do it really well,” Turner said in the American Banker feature. “But we also have to be willing to take 10 to 20 percent of our executive mindshare, our balance sheet and our capital to do novel and forward-looking things.”

The WSFS commitment to conservative excellence is only paralleled by its tactical investment in the future, namely a behind-the-scenes collaboration with cutting-edge mobile-only multi-currency bank account provider Zenbanx.

“Every day we are working with (Zenbanx), we are learning what the future of deposit accounts will look like, what the future of payments will look like,” he added. “The best way to avoid being disrupted is to disrupt yourself.”

WSFS has done that in the past with its CashConnect ATM service as well. It has also built on existing profit growth of 150 percent and a stock price surge of 128 percent over four years with new acquisitions and new market leadership as Delaware’s largest local bank.

“What it boils down to is that WSFS has better growth prospects than many of its peers,” Sandler O’Neill & Partners Analyst Frank Schiraldi said in the article.

And a key tenet of that success has been limited exposure to the financial crisis and a reliance on employee engagement, which has garnered WSFS top rankings in customer service and workplace quality.

“When times get tough, people either split apart or they band together to protect what’s valuable,” Turner said in the article. “People in this organization knew what we had here was something valuable and they willingly accepted no pay raises, no bonuses and the cuts we needed to make to avoid laying people off.”

And that make-a-difference mindset is what brought Turner to WSFS in the first place.

“I got to a point in my career working for a large bank where I could have worked 24/7 or not come in at all and it wouldn’t have mattered,” he said. “When I came to that conclusion, I decided I wanted to find something where I could make a difference. That led me to WSFS.”

And eventually to the strategic decision to come to Chester County.

Read much more of Turner’s journey and its very selective move into the Chester County market in American Banker, then check out previous VISTA Today coverage of WSFS news here.