Springs Valley Bank promotes Christopher Manship to vice president, mortgage loan officer

Dubois County homebuyers and refinancers will keep a seasoned mortgage lender in a front-line role at Springs Valley Bank & Trust Company after Christopher Manship was promoted to vice president and mortgage loan officer. The bank’s move reinforces a lending strategy built around local service, fast mortgage processing, and one-on-one access for borrowers trying to move quickly on a home.

Manship joined Springs Valley in 2022 as a mortgage loan officer at the Paoli location, and the bank said he was promoted to assistant vice president in 2024 before receiving the new vice president title. Springs Valley said the step recognizes his work since coming aboard and his role in helping clients work toward homeownership, one of the biggest financial decisions many families in Dubois County will make.

The promotion also highlights the kind of relationship-based lending local banks still use to compete for mortgage business. President and CEO J. Craig Buse said Manship has shown strong commitment to clients and communities and described his knowledge, dedication and passion as assets to the organization. For borrowers, that matters because mortgage decisions are often shaped as much by responsiveness and local judgment as by interest rates alone.

Springs Valley’s own lending pitch underscores that point. The bank says its online mortgage center can pre-approve or approve applicants in 20 minutes or less, a feature aimed at buyers who need speed in a tight housing market. With Manship in a vice president role, the bank is signaling that its mortgage work remains a priority, not an afterthought, for customers in Paoli, Jasper, French Lick and the other communities it serves.

That regional footprint is broad for a community bank. Springs Valley Bank & Trust is headquartered in French Lick, has administrative offices in Jasper, and operates in Dubois, Orange, Daviess and Gibson counties. It markets itself as a full-service lender for personal, business and mortgage banking in Indiana, making the mortgage desk one of the bank’s most visible touchpoints for local households.

Manship brings more than two decades of banking experience to the post. He is a 1992 graduate of Crawford County Jr./Sr. High School, earned a bachelor’s degree in sport and recreation management from Indiana State University and completed an MBA at Nova Southeastern University in 2005 after moving to Tampa, Florida.

He lives in Salem with his wife, Lydia, and their children, Layla and Sawyer, and attends Mt. Tabor Christian Church. Springs Valley lists him at the Paoli Banking Center and says he can be reached there by phone at 812-936-5652, giving borrowers a direct line to a lender whose role now carries more weight inside the bank.