Fraternally Financial

Brothers Jason and Jeremy Windham took similar paths to different destinations.

Words by Micah Harrison | Images by Al Blanton

Some afternoons after school, brothers Jason and Jeremy Windham would cross the street to First National Bank in downtown Jasper, where their mother worked. They’d wait for her in the break room, surrounded by the familiar hum of calculators and quiet conversation — a fitting backdrop for two boys who would one day dedicate their careers to banking.

Both graduates of Walker High School — Jason in 1992 and Jeremy in 1994 — the brothers chose the same college and major. They attended Troy University and earned degrees in finance, setting out on parallel paths that would eventually bring them back into the banking world, albeit in different ways.

For Jason, the decision to attend Troy came unexpectedly during a hallway conversation with coach Pat Morrison about playing football at the collegiate level. That conversation led to a leadership scholarship, and in 1996 he graduated with his degree in finance. Returning home to Jasper, he began searching for work with little success until a call changed everything. Dr. Wayne Curtis, one of Jason’s former banking instructors at Troy, had been appointed state superintendent of banks. His assistant reached out to offer Jason a position with the Alabama State Banking Department.

Jason began as a bank examiner in North Alabama for the department’s depository side, which regulates and examines state-chartered banks that accept consumer deposits. At the same time, he pursued his Master of Business Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, completing the degree in 2001. Over the years, he continued his education at the Alabama Banking School (Class of 2003) and the Louisiana State University Graduate School of Banking (Class of 2006).

In 2008, Jason returned to Jasper to work at First National Bank for a year before joining Bank Independent in 2009. He and his family relocated to Florence, Alabama, where he was hired to help develop the company’s credit risk function. Once that process was complete, he spent some time in sales management. In 2017, he transitioned to Bank Independent’s subsidiary, Interstate Billing Service, an accounts receivable management company serving businesses nationwide, where he became president the following year. After seven years in that role, Jason was promoted to president of Bank Independent, a $3 billion community bank, working with a team of nearly 700 employees.

As he continues to guide the bank’s growth, Jason remains grounded in its origins. “As a large community bank, our mission is to make a positive difference in people’s lives,” he says.

Jeremy followed a similar early path. He completed his degree in finance from Troy in 1998, and when he began his job search, Jason encouraged him to apply with the Alabama State Banking Department. Jeremy was hired into the department’s non-depository side, the Bureau of Loans, in August 1999.

He began as a state professional trainee, shadowing senior examiners and studying Alabama’s banking laws until he was ready to operate independently. The Bureau of Loans regulates thousands of financial institutions across Alabama and the country, from pawn shops to national mortgage companies to payday lenders, ensuring compliance with state laws. As a loan examiner, Jeremy traveled extensively, inspecting institutions across the state.

In 2001, he was invited to join the bureau’s central office and relocated to Montgomery full time in 2002. Over the next two decades, he advanced through the ranks from examiner to coordinator to loan examinations supervisor. Then, in July 2025, Jeremy received a letter of appointment from the state superintendent of banks and was confirmed by Governor Kay Ivey as supervisorof the Bureau of Loans. Today, he oversees the bureau’s non-depository division and its examiners and manages the licensure of nearly 20,000 financial entities nationwide.

He approaches the role with a philosophy that reflects both fairness and accountability: “It’s ‘treat our borrowers right’ or get out of business.”

Now, with one brother living north of Jasper and the other south, both have built lives and families of their own. Jason and his wife, Erin, have two sons, Brock and Brodie, while Jeremy and his wife, Amanda, have a daughter, Emmy. Despite the distance, both men remain connected to their roots and return home to Walker County whenever possible.

“I’ve come a long way from bagging groceries at Son’s,” Jeremy says with a laugh. Jason echoes that sentiment with pride: “Our roots are deep in Walker County … and I don’t think that will ever change.” 78