Banking New England Sept/Oct 2015 by The Warren Group

SEPT/OCT 2015

INSIDE: HOW BANKS CAN HELP PREVENT ELDER ABUSE

NEW ENGLAND

THE RESOURCE FOR NEW ENGLAND’S FINANCIAL LEADERS

Commercial Lending

Comes

Roaring Back

PLUS: CAMDEN NATIONAL AND BANK OF MAINE UNITE HSAs GAIN IN POPULARITY BUT REQUIRE SIGNIFICANT COMMITMENT BASEL III FALLOUT: HVCRE ON THE RISE

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A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E WAR R EN G R O U P

CONTENTS

NEW ENGLAND

THE RESOURCE FOR NEW ENGLAND’S FINANCIAL LEADERS

4 10

PROTECTING VULNERABLE CLIENTS

How Banks Can Help Prevent Elder Exploitation

RESULTS OF BASEL III

The Impact Of High Volatility Commercial Real Estate

INDUSTRY NEWS

16 COVER

Commercial Lending Comes Roaring Back

BANK PROFILE

Better Together: Bank of Maine and Camden National Merge

Commercial Lending

Comes

22 HSAs ON FIRE

Roaring Back

As Deductibles Climb, So Does Demand

PAYING THE RENT

Automatic-Deduction Product Benefits Small Landlords, Tenants

PERSONNEL FILE

COMMUNITY GOOD WORKS

TWG STAFF CEO & PUBLISHER Timothy M. Warren Jr. PRESIDENT David B. Lovins EDITORIAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Cassidy Murphy ASSOCIATE EDITORS Joe Kourieh and Malea Ritz

www.thewarrengroup.com

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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PROTECTING VULNERABLE CLIENTS

How Banks Can Help Prevent Elder Exploitation

T The Vermont Bankers Association (VBA) was established in 1909. Its purpose is to promote the general welfare and usefulness of banking institutions and discussions of subjects of importance to the banking and commercial interests of the state of Vermont.

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he Vermont Bankers Association has released a guide for banks to help prevent elder financial abuse. This is an edited version; the entirety of the guide can be found on the VBA’s website, www.vtbanker.com. The VBA and federal authorities recommended that banks train all branch/retail personnel at their time of hire, and conduct annual training for all employees.

What is elder financial abuse?

Elder financial abuse is a specific form of a more general crime – the crime of financial abuse or exploitation. Elder financial abuse is the perpetration of a crime against elder citizens and/ or adults who are vulnerable due to physical or mental limitations. Elder financial abuse can occur in many forms and via many channels. It can be perpetrated by a friend, relative or caretaker, or by a complete stranger. Consumer education is possibly the best defense to combat financial fraud. However, many elder customers either don’t hear about common scams, or are in a position where they feel they cannot speak

up. Banks are often able to spot the fraud and work with law enforcement and the state Adult Protective Services to keep customers from further exploitation.

Red flags

“Red flags” are warning signs that you may see that could indicate financial exploitation. Presence of one of the signs listed below doesn’t always mean fraud is taking place. However, they are signs that may indicate the need to follow up. The red flags have been broken down into four groups of warning signs: diminished capacity; abnormal account activity; changes in behavior; and abuse by friend/relative/caretaker. Examples of diminished capacity include: • A power of attorney executed by a confused older person. • Unaware of or does not understand recently completed financial transactions. • Concerned or confused about missing funds in his or her accounts. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

BANKING NEW ENGLAND

PROTECTING VULNERABLE CLIENTS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

Resources Before you donate, check to see if the charity is legitimate at www.charitywatch.org/charities Check your credit at least once a year; one free credit report can be obtained annually at www.annualcreditreport.com The National Center on Elder Abuse ncea.aoa.gov or 1-800-677-1116 Administration on Aging, the federal agency that advocates for seniors: www.aoa.gov. • Disorientation – a person may come to the bank when it is closed or have difficulty finding the bank, or once inside, have difficulty remembering why he or she is there. • Paranoia – accusing employees of mismanaging money (charges that require review by a professional agency to determine whether they have merit or are distortions of reality). • Hoarding behavior, such as carrying all of their paper and/or valuable items in large bags all the time. • Frequently forgets items such as personal effects (purse, wallet, coat, umbrella, etc.) and/or items necessary to do business with (checkbook, deposit slips, etc.). • Frequently asks the same question over a short period of time. • Changes in eye contact and/or vocal qualities, such as stammering, whispering, or brief answers when those qualities are different from the elder’s normal manner of speaking. • Falling victim to a scam (see examples below) Examples of abnormal account activity include: • Unusual money withdrawals. • Bank activity that is erratic, unusual or uncharacteristic of the older person. • Bank activity that is inconsistent with the older person’s ability (e.g., the person’s automatic teller card has been used by a homebound elder or an elder in out-of-home care). • Frequent overdrafts when none occurred in the past. • A declining credit score or debt the individual doesn’t seem to know about. • Suspicious activity on credit cards or line of credit accounts. • Forged or suspicious signatures on documents. • Increased frequency of checks payable to caretakers or family members. • Missing documents for the elder’s financial items, such as pension, stocks or government payment documents. Changes in behavior may include: • Changes in the older person’s property title, will or other documents, particularly if the person is confused and/or the documents favor new acquaintances. 6

BANKING NEW ENGLAND

• Lack of amenities when the older person can afford them. • Failure to receive services that have already been paid for. • Eviction of the elder from his or her residence, or disconnection of utilities. • Untreated medical or mental health problems, including but not limited to frequent physical injuries such as bruising, burns, or lacerations. • In isolation from friends or relatives. • Giving implausible explanations about what he or she is doing with his or her money. • Changes in mood. • Changes in stance or mobility. • Changes in physical distance between the elder and the bank employee. • Cringing or withdrawing. • Sudden expressions of fear. • Reluctance to engage in normal conversation. • Noticeable changes in grooming and appearance. Warning signs of abuse by friend/relative/caretaker: • Recent, new acquaintances, particularly those who take up residence with an elder person and/or who accompany the elder to conduct bank business. • Redirection of the elder person’s mail to a new address. • Accompanied by a stranger who encourages him or her to make large cash withdrawals • Accompanied by a family member or other person who seems to coerce the elder into conducting transactions. • Not allowed to speak for them self, or make decisions. • Nervous or afraid of the person accompanying him or her. • Fearful he or she will be evicted or institutionalized if money is not given to the caregiver • Bringing strangers with him or her to the bank.

Employee Response

If you have reason to believe that an elderly person is the victim of financial abuse, there are steps you can take. Learn the reason for large transactions or withdrawals: Make small talk with the customer. “Oh, Mrs. Smith, are you purchasing something new?” Obtain permission to ask additional questions. “Mrs. Smith, if it is ok I’d like to ask you some questions. We frequently see fraudulent checks and for your protection I’d like to make sure yours isn’t one of them.” Ask if they know the person who sent them the check or if they were expecting the funds. “Mrs. Smith, may I ask if you know the person who sent you this check?” Check the authorization and documentation of persons who are acting for elderly customers; for example, confirm the validity of a POA. People without authorization often ask you to bend the rules for them, or get angry when you try to verify. Be sure all CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

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PROTECTING VULNERABLE CLIENTS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

authorizations are valid and all signatures match. You can always contact the customer by phone if they are not with the person trying to access the accounts. Make notes of the physical description of the subject. Consult with your supervisor. You may ask the elder to step inside your supervisor’s office to discuss the transaction. This provides more privacy and the ability to stall the transaction. Ask the elder to speak with security. If the elder insists on withdrawing large amount of cash, or under suspicious circumstances, have them fill out the fraud alert form (examples available on the VBA’s website). Banks cannot block the customer from their request to complete a transaction; however, providing the fraud alert form and asking them to sign off may make them think twice.

Ways To Help

As you are speaking with the customer, justify your concern and emphasize the bank’s commitment to protecting customers; empathize with the customer and validate his or her feelings. Ask clear, non-threatening and factual questions, and tell elders they are not alone. People are often reluctant to reveal exploitation or abuse, because of the embarrassment that they are the only victim of such scams. Do not say that you are concerned simply because the customer is elderly – cite objective deviations in the customer’s standard transaction patterns, changes in mood/appearance, etc. that are of concern. Don’t let anyone else speak for the elder. This is a red flag that something is wrong. It is important to remember that time is the enemy of the financial exploiter. Delaying a suspicious transaction may rattle the perpetrator enough to cause him or her to abandon the scam. It is advisable for every bank to establish a written reporting protocol. The protocol should include the following: 1. Who the teller should speak with when a concern exists, and how quickly it should be reported; 2. Who makes the report to state/local authorities; 3. The role that the bank’s security officer has in these situations; 4. What information should be gathered and provided to state/local agencies- names, account numbers, dates, times, descriptions of suspected perpetrators, etc. Note: The bank staff does not need to prove that elder financial exploitation is occurring. Suspicion, not proof, is adequate and acceptable. It is the job of Adult Protective Services and law enforcement to investigate and determine if exploitation is occurring. The more quickly a report is made, the faster the financial abuse can be stopped. BNE The Vermont Bankers Association thanks its Security Committee for the committee’s work in compiling this guide.

BANKING NEW ENGLAND

Other Ways Banks Can Help Develop and distribute educational materials alerting customers to scams and how to recognize the potential for exploitation. Conduct senior seminars or other presentations on elder exploitation. Generate media attention highlighting financial exploitation. Stay aware of current trends in scams and financial abuse and also the techniques being used for stopping it. Sensitize employees to abuse so they can recognize and report it. Train customer service specialists in techniques for interviewing older customers. Offer older customers banking services and products especially designed to meet their special needs. (Duplicate statements, limited access to accounts, dual signatures.) Conduct regularly scheduled visits and limited banking services at places convenient to older people, including senior centers and long-term care providers. Take a proactive approach to developing new procedures and product lines, including mechanisms for detecting unusual account activity; alerts on accounts; procedures for verifying suspicious transactions; and protected accounts for seniors. Print copies of brochures for elder customers. Place on the brochure your bank’s logo and contact information. Post fliers and posters. Train bank’s community relations staff to conduct elder financial abuse seminars for presentation to civic groups, faith-based groups, neighborhood associations, elder residential community groups, and other appropriate audiences. Partner with others in your community to plan and sponsor these events. Promote public awareness of elder financial exploitation with special local news advertising or by sponsoring information distribution efforts at local events; have bank officers appear on local television/radio talk-format programs to discuss the topic of elder financial abuse; finally, work with local watchdog groups, or the State’s Attorney’s office, to sponsor local public awareness campaigns.

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PROTECTING RESULTS OF BASEL VULNERABLE III CLIENTS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

The Impact of High Volatility Commercial Real Estate BY MATT WEILAND

Matt Weiland is marketing coordinator for Ardmore Banking Advisors, specializing in risk management consulting for community banks. He can be reached at mweiland@ ardmoreadvisors.com.

HVCRE Matt Weiland

10 BANKING NEW ENGLAND

ast December, James Nigro, senior vice president and credit risk manager of Provident Bank, attended what he thought was a fairly routine meeting. “Someone from our finance department came to me and said, ‘By the way, Jim, in the next quarter, we’re going to start reporting something new on the call report called ‘high volatility commercial real estate,’” Nigro recalled. “When I read the call report definition, my first thought was ‘This is going to change the way we make loans.’” The new high volatility commercial real estate (HVCRE) classification was passed as part of new Basel III capital rules last fall, but reporting requirements went into effect as of March 31 call reports of this year. The new rules state that acquisition, developmental and construction loans that meet certain criteria are classified as HVCRE, and carry a 150 percent capital risk weighting. “What this required was a lot of education for our lenders and underwriters, coaching them about HVCRE, how it can affect their deal structures, how to potentially avoid this type of classification and the ramifications and cost to the bank if they make loans that are classified HVCRE,” Nigro said. “We also created a resource guide that laid out definitions and key terms of the HVCRE rules, new reporting and tracking procedures, steps that had to be taken to implement them and a form that was used to qualify every potential HVCRE credit.”

Education of Provident’s staff took place almost immediately, with the bank’s commercial real estate lenders receiving the most rigorous training. “The people in that group are the ones who originate the largest volume and dollar exposure of construction loans within the bank,” said Nigro. “Keep in mind, HVCRE doesn’t just apply to construction; it can apply to interim acquisition loans and land deals, but most of the transactions that might trigger an HVCRE classification would originate in our CRE group.” More intensive training was also provided for the bank’s commercial underwriting staff. Provident’s other groups, such as middle market, business banking and asset-based lending received remote training on the new classifications so that they were aware of the new rules. Nigro and his team noticed an immediate impact when they began to track the new HVCRE classification, most noticeably in the way regulators chose to calculate the equity requirements of loans. “The method the regulators chose to assess project equity isn’t consistent with the way that most bankers structure deals,” said Nigro. “The regulations look at equity as a percentage of the ‘as complete’ appraised value of the project, which a lot of banks don’t use. Typically, we’ll look at LTV and the percentage of the project cost being contributed as upfront capital in the deal. Because CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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PROTECTING RESULTS OF BASEL VULNERABLE III CLIENTS

CONTINUED CONTINUED FROM FROM PAGE PAGE 10

of the different factors, some of our deal structures and the ways that we’ve approached underwriting and structuring loans have been tripped up.” He went on to describe an issue that arose when one of the bank’s borrowers was in the process of acquiring a distressed property to be renovated, repositioned and re-leased. The project’s as-complete appraised value was higher than anticipated, which raised some unanticipated issues. “We had 25 percent cash equity and 55 percent LTV, but the loan still triggered the HVCRE classification because the cash equity contribution was shy of the 15 percent of the ascomplete value, as that valuation came in so high,” said Nigro. “We had a deal where we had strong cash equity and a low LTV, and under the new rules, it was being classified as high-risk.” Provident went ahead with this transaction, despite the fact that it triggered the HVCRE classification. “We felt very confident in the risk of the deal, so we decided that, rather than penalize the borrower with more equity or re-pricing it, we would bite the bullet,” said Nigro. “We didn’t want to risk renegotiating the deal with the borrower because of a regulatory requirement that’s going to require us to hold a little bit of additional capital.” Provident’s supply of additional capital also played a part in the decision to green light the transaction.

“We have an advantage due to our excess capital,” said Nigro. “It doesn’t really hurt us as much because we don’t have to commit additional capital that costs us incrementally more money. We already have the capital on our books. Other banks that are not as wellcapitalized are going to find it very costly to make HVCRE loans.” One issue that seems to be taking place throughout the banking industry is that some bankers are unaware of either the new rules, or the impact that they have upon their lending practices. “I was talking to other banks in mid-February about this, reaching out to them to ask them how they looked at certain types of situations,” said Nigro. “It was interesting that a lot of the banks under $10 billion (in assets) hadn’t even heard about it yet. When I shared with them what I had learned, they had the same reaction as me, which was ‘Holy cow, this is a really big deal.’” Nigro theorizes that the disconnect in attention might be a result of the new regulations being included in capital language. “I think most people on the lending side weren’t focused on this because it was part of the capital rules,” he said. “You normally don’t think about capital requirements in terms of how you structure your credits. Another problem that I see is that the definition is very atypical with the way banks lend money. It’s a change of habits, a change in the way you look at transactions and a change in the way you structure your deals.” BNE

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PROTECTING INDUSTRY NEWS VULNERABLE CLIENTS

More Takeovers Seen for Small U.S. Banks as Rates Stay Low Consolidation among U.S. banks, particularly capital-squeezed small- and mid-cap lenders, is set to rise in the next year or two due to persistently low interest rates, RBC banking analyst Gerard Cassidy said. The increase in deal activity will also be driven by expense pressure from the new regulatory environment, Cassidy wrote in a note to clients. Cassidy said acquisitions by bigger banks, however, are unlikely until late 2016 or 2017 due to the heightened regulatory scrutiny. Most banking buys so far have been by lenders with less than $5 billion in assets. Cassidy said lenders that had strong takeover appeal included Republic First Bancorp Inc., Cascade Bancorp, Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin Inc., Capital City Bank Group Inc. and Heartland Financial USA Inc. More than 2,800 deals worth a total $240 billion have been announced this year in the global finance industry, an increase of 8 percent in value terms from the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Fed Senior LO Survey: Some Banks Easing Covenants, Cite Increasing Competition Some banks have somewhat eased underwriting standards and terms on certain types of residential and commercial loans, according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent senior loan officer survey. In its July senior loan officer survey, most domestic respondents reporting eased standards or terms on commercial and industrial loans over the prior three months cited more aggressive competition from other banks or non-bank lenders as a major reason for doing so. Smaller numbers of banks cited an increased tolerance for risk or a more favorable or less uncertain economic outlook. A few large banks told the Fed they had eased their standards for credit card loans, while standards for auto loans and other types of consumer loans were largely unchanged on net. The Fed said that a moderate net fraction of banks reported stronger demand for auto loans in recent months, and large banks reported stronger demand for credit card loans on balance, while demand for other types of consumer loans was largely unchanged at large banks and stronger at smaller banks.

ABA Report: New Credit Card Accounts Up 14 Percent in Q1 New credit card account volume increased 14 percent year-over-year in the first quarter across all risk categories, according to a report released this month by the American Bankers Association (ABA). The industry’s total 314 million credit card accounts hit a peak not seen since late 2008 and while most of the growth was driven by increases in the prime and super-prime categories, the number of subprime accounts hit 60 million for the first time in more than three years, according to the ABA’s Credit Card Market Monitor. While outstanding credit card credit as a share of disposable income increased 0.1 percent in the first quarter, it remained near historic lows, the ABA said in its report. Monthly purchase volumes declined about 8 percent across all three risk categories in the first quarter. Average credit lines for all accounts fell on a quarter-over-quarter across all risk categories, with a 2.1 percent decline among subprime accounts leading that trend. The average subprime credit line was $3,536, the average prime line was $7,076, and the average super-prime credit line was $11,006.

CoreLogic: Home Prices Up 6.9 Percent From Last Year Home prices are up 6.9 percent nationwide, according to a new report from property information provider CoreLogic. CoreLogic’s chief economist Frank Nothaft provided some context for the numbers. “Home sales continued their brisk rebound in July and home prices reflected that, up 6.9 percent from a year ago,” Nothaft wrote. “Over the same period, the National Association of Realtors reported existing sales up 10 percent and the Census Bureau reported new home sales up 26 percent in July.” CoreLogic President and CEO Anand Nallathambi explained some of the factors influencing the gains. “Low mortgage rates and stronger consumer confidence are supporting a resurgence in home sales of late,” Nallathambi wrote in the report. “Adding to overall housing demand is the benefit of a better labor market which has provided Millennials the financial independence to form new households and escape ever rising rental costs.” The report goes on to predict home prices nationwide are expected to rise 0.5 percent between July and August 2015, and 4.7 percent between July 2015 and July 2016. BNE

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Commercial Lending

Comes

Roaring Back Banks See Double, Triple Digit Growth in Loans Amid Concerns in a Red-Hot Market

By Scott Van Voorhis Commercial lending is back in a big way across New England, with community banks and global powerhouses cashing in on soaring demand for loans on everything from new office buildings to new plant equipment. But even as they scramble to make the most of this lending boom, some bankers, like Bruce Potter, executive vice president of Salem Five Bank in Massachusetts, are also growingly increasingly nervous that the good times, especially in the red-hot real estate market, can’t last forever. Office buildings are fetching unprecedented numbers and apartment rents have gone through the roof, while the price of condominium and single-family homes are shattering records in many Boston area suburbs and neighborhoods. Meanwhile, Potter and others are watching warily as their competitors start taking greater risks to land construction loans on the seemingly ever growing number of new high-rise buildings and other projects taking shape across Greater Boston. “Do I feel there is an aggressiveness out there? I do,” Potter said. “Do I think it could become a problem in the industry? It certainly could.”

Commercial Lending Comeback

The good news, of course, is that commercial lending is back after a number of lean years following the Great Recession. Banks across the region are posting double or even triple-digit increases in commercial loans in 2015 compared to last year, according to data collected by The Warren Group, publisher of Banking New England. It’s a roster that includes Connecticut powerhouse People’s United Bank, as well as national banks with a regional presence like Santander, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. “I would say commercial real estate activity has been pretty active,” said Ken Martin, executive vice president at Santander, citing loan demand from small and mid-market businesses, manufactures and real estate developers. Greg O’Brien, manager of Wells Fargo’s commercial banking New England division, said Eastern Massachusetts has always been the bank’s “core market.”

MA Commercial Lending, Volume of Loans

Commercial purchase loans by volume, minimum $2 million in 2014 to qualify

“We have had almost record growth in this region year after year,” O’Brien said. “The Eastern Massachusetts market has been driving some of the double-digit growth.” Smaller banks are also getting it on the action. Suburban banks in Massachusetts seeing double-digit growth or stronger in their commercial loan portfolios include Walpole Cooperative Bank, Belmont Savings Bank, Reading Cooperative Bank, Westfield Bank, County Bank for Savings and First Ipswich Bank, The Warren Group reports. East Cambridge Savings Bank and Cambridge Trust Co. led the charge in the Boston area, while Brockton’s Commerce Bank & Trust Co. was a top performer on the South Shore and Salem Five Cents Savings Bank on the North Shore. James Dunphy, CEO of South Shore Bank, said he has “definitely seen an uptick” in commercial lending. The biggest area of demand has been from investors or developers looking to either build or buy apartment buildings. South Shore Bank is now trying to generate more business in equipment financing or doctors looking for a loan to renovate their medical practice or buy the building they operate out of. Potter said Salem Five Bank has seen a 6 percent rise in its commercial loan business so far this year, with commercial and industrial loans up 16 percent over 2014. Small and middle-market companies are seeking financing to acquire other firms and expand their plants and facilities, he said; companies “are feeling more comfortable about the economy in general and they are more willing to open the purse strings.” Meanwhile, bankers say demand for business loans is also on the rise in Western and Central Massachusetts, Northern New England, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Demand Growing Across New England

With the economy on the upswing, Wells Fargo is now hoping to tap into growing loan demand in other parts of Massachusetts and in other states across the region. CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

MA Commercial Lending, Number of Loans

Commercial purchase loans by number of loans, minimum three loans in 2014 to qualify

Lender

2014

2015

Percent Change

Lender

2014

2015

Percent Change

Santander Bank NA

$8,978,550

$397,598,960

4328%

Peoples United Bank

250%

Peoples United Bank

$19,007,696

$560,888,920

2851%

Mortgage Network Inc

167%

HarborOne Bank

$2,779,800

$28,350,500

920%

Walpole Cooperative Bank

167%

Wells Fargo Bank NA

$11,392,817

$106,925,828

839%

Santander Bank NA

120%

JP Morgan Chase Bank

$24,608,696

$148,230,002

502%

Belmont Savings Bank

100%

Reading Cooperative Bank

$2,450,500

$13,474,750

450%

JP Morgan Chase Bank

100%

Commerce Bank & Trust Co

$11,760,000

$55,032,500

368%

Reading Cooperative Bank

100%

Cambridge Trust Company

$2,593,500

$11,740,000

353%

Westfield Bank

100%

Salem Five Cents Mortgage Corp

$5,070,250

$22,895,275

352%

Country Bank for Savings

100%

Chicopee Savings Bank

$3,955,550

$15,941,000

303%

First Ipswich Bank

100%

East Cambridge Savings Bank

$3,458,250

$13,910,260

302%

East Cambridge Savings Bank

100%

BANKING NEW ENGLAND

PROTECTING VULNERABLE CLIENTSCONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 COVER To that end, O’Brien’s group is now planning to open offices in Providence, Worcester, Springfield and either Portland or Manchester over the next few months. The bank’s commercial lending groups are “generalists,” O’Brien noted, cutting loan deals in companies ranging from manufacturers and wholesalers to retailers. “We see Southern New Hampshire and Southern Maine as growing markets,” he said. Christopher Pinkham, president of the Maine Bankers Association, offered a similar assessment, noting that commercial lending is also up markedly in the Pine Tree State after years of being flat. Commercial real estate lending by the 27 banks that are headquartered in Maine rose 1.15 percent in the first quarter and 3.39

“Some of the non-retail banks that don’t have retail business (in Maine) but have traveling loan officers … seem to be sacrificing underwriting standards to get business.” — Christopher Pinkham president, Maine Bankers Association

Maine’s Commercial & Industrial Lending

2014

2015

$1.8 Billon

$2.06 Billion

1st Quarter

.41%

2.82%

2nd Quarter

1.15%

3.39 %

percent in the second. That’s compared to just .41 percent and 2.82 percent in the first and second quarter, respectively, of 2015. Commercial and industrial lending is also up, standing at $2.06 billion so far in 2015 compared to $1.8 billion in 2014, Pinkham said. Driving demand for real estate loans are new apartment buildings going up in Portland, new office space in August and a major waterfront redevelopment plan taking shape in Bangor. “I look at the cranes on 128 and I just think that is not going on up here, but we have definitely turned the corner and are starting to see some progress,” Pinkham said. 18 BANKING NEW ENGLAND

And Santander’s Martin sees improvement in Rhode Island’s battered economy, which for a time had the highest jobless rate in the country. “We are starting to see a little more confidence in Rhode Island,” Martin said. “The business community there, they believe things are starting to change for the better.”

Hot Market Sparks Concern

But while the growing demand for business capital has been good news for their loan portfolios, bankers across the region are also growing concerned that some sectors, such as commercial real estate, may be overheating. “You are seeing more cranes in Boston,” noted bank analyst Collyn Gilbert, a managing director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, adding “there is a bit of concern about whether the supply is catching up to the demand.” South Shore Bank is approaching the hot market with a certain degree of caution, Dunphy said. “The whole Greater Boston area, it’s a very hot market,” he said. “What we are watching now is to make sure it does not get overheated.” “Some of the pricing and cost per square foot may be getting a little ahead of itself,” Dunphy said. Salem Five’s Potter expressed similar concerns. “There is a lot of construction out there,” Potter said. “We are starting to get a little nervous about the level of construction and the dollars involved.” He even uttered the dreaded B word: “with (office) rates and rents at all-time highs, there may be some sort of bubble going on – we may be reaching that bubble,” Potter said. Of course, it’s not just massive amounts of development and skyrocketing prices that are raising alarms, but also the aggressive behavior of some banks in pursuing loan deals, especially in the real estate market. Brian Thompson, chief executive of Commerce Bank, said some banks may be pushing the envelope in their hunger to ink more commercial loans. “The appetite of the banks is much greater than what the market has to deliver,” he said. “That drives rates and terms. Sometimes people are willing to take more risks.” Commerce has held firm amid demands from borrowers to extend the term of some loans out to a decade, preferring to keep them in the five- to seven-year range, he said. Banks are competing on rate, extending repayment terms, and reducing their debt service requirements, Santander’s Martin contends. “There are virtually no deals that don’t see two, three or four, multiple banks, bidding on it,” he said. And problems with overly aggressive lenders are starting pop up in other parts of the region, including Maine, Pinkham noted, citing talk heard “through the grapevine.” “Some of the non-retail banks that don’t have retail business (in Maine) but have traveling loan officers … seem to be sacrificing underwriting standards to get business,” he said. For Wells Fargo’s O’Brien, though, it all seems like a familiar story playing itself out once again. “If you live long enough, you will live through these cycles,” O’Brien said. “They look like repeat movies. They happen and the market fixes itself.” BNE

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PROTECTING BANK PROFILEVULNERABLE CLIENTS

Better Together: Bank of Maine and Camden National Merge

BY LINDA GOODSPEED

C Gregory A. Dufour President and CEO Camden National Bank

20 BANKING NEW ENGLAND

amden National Bank’s merger this fall with the Bank of Maine not only creates the largest bank in the state, it fills the hole in its doughnut. Founded in 1875 in Camden, 90 minutes north of Portland, Camden National Bank over the years gradually expanded into mid-coast and central Maine. “A few years ago, when looking at our growth path, we identified southern Maine as the doughnut hole in our franchise,” said Gregory A. Dufour, president and CEO at Camden National. The Bank of Maine, meanwhile, with about $800 million in total assets, had a strong presence in the vibrant southern part of the state. Not surprisingly, when Dufour and John W. Everets, chairman and CEO of the Bank of Maine, met for lunch, merger talks were soon on the menu. “What’s unique in this transaction is that Camden’s five-year plan was to expand into southern Maine,” Dufour said. “The strength of the Bank of Maine is in southern Maine. It fits right into our strategic plan. We’re not making the strategic plan fit the transaction.” The combined organizations will operate under the name Camden National Bank and will be led by Dufour, who has guided Camden since 2009. Everets, 69, who helped turn the Bank of Maine around after the financial crisis of 2008, will step down, but will

remain a large shareholder in the new entity. With total assets of approximately $3.6 billion, Camden National will become the largest financial institution headquartered in Maine. Total loans will be about $2.4 billion and total deposits about $2.6 billion. The bank has 64 branches, 85 ATMs and 480 employees. So well do the two banks fit together, Dufour said only four branches (two in Augusta, one in Gardner and one in Kennebunk) overlap and need to be consolidated into one location. “It gives us some cost savings, and doesn’t make us disrupt a lot of customer traffic since we have other branches in Augusta besides the two that are consolidating,” Dufour said. In addition to its market share in southern Maine, the Bank of Maine also brings to the merger a residential mortgage operation in the Boston area. “That’s one area we are really excited about,” Dufour said. “Camden has a branch-based residential mortgage effort. We do that really well. The Bank of Maine has that in some of its locations [as well as] more of an origination model in southern Maine and [in] the Boston area.” “When you look at the two banks and put them together, a merger really makes sense,” Everets said. “One and one really does make three, not only from a geographical and customer perspective, but also

a future perspective. We have a very strong presence in the south part of the state where you’re looking at high growth, and also the residential market in Boston and specialty finance components there.” Matthew Kelley, managing director of equity research for northeast banks at Piper Jaffray & Co. in Portland, agreed. “We think this is a very attractive story from a valuation standpoint,” he said of the merger. Kelley noted that Camden National was trading 20 percent below its New England peers. “We think profitability is set to improve,” he said. “The cost savings in the Bank of Maine deal are going to allow them to expand their return on capital at close to 13 percent. That will put them in the upper 25 percent versus their peers. With that valuation and profitability profile, they will have a stock more institutional investors will find compelling. It’s a company and stock we like.” Camden National’s loan portfolio of approximately $2.4 billion is about equally split between retail and commercial loans, a balance Dufour likes. The bank also has a commercial lending office in Manchester, New Hampshire. “We take a community-based approach to commercial lending,” Dufour said. “We like small businesses. We understand small businesses, and can also do large business deals. We are conservative but community-minded in our lending.” The bank has been consistently ranked by USBanker, as well as Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) for superior performance. Forbes Magazine calls the bank one of “America’s Most Trustworthy Companies.” Camden is used to assimilating acquisitions. Over the years, the bank has expanded through a mix of organic growth and mergers, and Dufour said the bank will continue to be “opportunistic.” “Our focus is to have a great smooth conversion, and run the franchise organically through earnings,” he said. “At the same time, we want to keep our ability to do transactions alive.” As the bank grows, Dufour admits that losing its community roots is “always a risk.” “We guard against that by keeping decisionmaking local,” he said. “We provide training and empower our people out in the field to make decisions right on the spot. As long as we can keep decision-making local, combined with our philanthropy efforts and staff, it gives customers that feeling we are still that bank on the corner in all the communities we serve.” BNE

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CAMDEN NATIONAL BANK 1875 Æ Camden National Bank established at the corner of Elm and Chestnut streets, where the main office continues today. 1960 Æ First branch location opened in Union, Maine. 1984 Æ Camden National Corp. established. 1995 Æ Camden National Corp. purchased United Bank, with five branches, and Trust Co. of Maine, both headquartered out of Bangor. 1998 Æ Camden National Bank purchased four KeyBank branches, increasing the number of branches to 10. 1999 Æ Camden National Corporation acquired Kingfield Savings Bank. 2006 Æ Camden National Bank and United Kingfield Bank joined together to form one Maine-based bank with 27 branches, under the Camden National Bank name. 2008 Æ Camden National Corp. completed its acquisition of Union Bankshares, parent company of Union Trust Company. 2008 Æ Camden National Bank branch offices expanded to 37 locations across Maine, with branches in 12 of Maine’s 16 counties. 2010 Æ Camden National Bank opened first in-store branch, located within the Hannaford Supermarket at the Long Bank Shopping Center in Kennebunk. 2012 Æ Camden National Bank acquired 14 branches from Bank of America and increased its presence into the Augusta and Bangor markets. 2013 Æ Camden National Bank divested five branches in western Maine in order to focus its attention on the southern and central Maine markets. 2014 Æ Camden National Bank opened first commercial lending office in Manchester, New Hampshire. 2015 Æ Camden National Corporation announces acquisition of The Bank of Maine from SBM Financial in October 2015, completing the bank’s expansion into southern Maine and becoming Maine’s largest community bank.

BANKING NEW ENGLAND

PROTECTING HSAs ON FIREVULNERABLE CLIENTS

As Deductibles Climb, So Does Demand For HSAs Big Banks Report Climbing Enrollment Numbers; Community Banks Flinch At Associated Costs

BY LAURA ALIX

Laura Alix is a staff writer for The Warren Group, publisher of Banking New England.

22 BANKING NEW ENGLAND

he move toward high-deductible health plans has fueled growing interest in companion health savings accounts (HSAs). Yet as more and more Americans take a hands-on approach to their health care and more insurance companies move towards higher deductibles, they are finding that their local banks can’t meet their needs. The HSA is a relatively new financial product, first established in 2003 as part of a larger piece of health care legislation. The idea behind the HSA – a tax-advantaged medical savings account available to people enrolled in those high-deductible plans – is essentially to increase efficiency in the health care system. The HSA is supposed to encourage consumers to save for future health care expenses and take more responsibility for their own health care. Yet it took a little while for the HSA to take off. “It took about five years for plan sponsors to really understand it. Then it took another five years for ordinary mortals like you and me to understand it and start to use it,” said Bob Kaiser, head of relationship management for health benefit solutions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “Now it’s on fire and it’s really become an important part of the benefits offerings from most of the larger employers.” Membership in high-deductible health plans (or HDHPs, for short) is on the upswing. According to the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA), membership in HDHPs increased across all employer sizes from 2011 to 2013, the latest figures available. Membership was particularly concentrated among small and mid-sized employers (38 percent and 45 percent, respectively), although HDHP adoption over that period grew the fastest among larger employers, CHIA said. That’s not exclusive to Massachusetts, either. Last year, HDHPs made up about 85 percent of all health insurance plans sold via the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges. Myriad factors are driving the migration to HDHPs, but the simplest is cost. The basic idea at the root of the HDHP is that the highdeductible will force Americans to use health care services more judiciously since they have a greater

financial stake in the matter. That’s not a new idea. The Rand Health Insurance Experiment, which launched in 1971, tracked the behaviors of nearly 6,000 people randomly assigned to insurance plans with varying levels of cost-sharing, or no cost-sharing whatsoever. The experiment, which is of course not without its criticisms, essentially found that medical cost-sharing reduced unnecessary medical care (also known as overutilization), though on the flipside, it also reduced necessary medical care. Beyond the increasing cost of health care and the consumerist motive behind HDHPs, employers have increasingly moved toward those high-deductible plans in anticipation of the socalled “Cadillac tax,” a provision of the Affordable Care Act that will impose a 40 percent excise tax on employers offering especially benefit-rich plans beginning in 2018.

Costs Versus Rewards This brings us back to the HSA, which may or may not be available at your hometown community bank. On its face, it almost sounds like a no-brainer: This product is taking off, so why wouldn’t every bank want to offer it? Of course, the reality is a bit more complex – and much of it comes back down to a common complaint among bankers: the cost of compliance. “There’s a lot of regulation because it’s a tax advantaged account and it’s tied to a medical insurance product, so we need to make sure we’re giving our customers instructions around how to use the HSA correctly. … We have to make sure we’re current with the regulations, that we’re properly trained and that we give you information that’s easy to distill down so you can comprehend and take correct action on it,” said Liz Ryan, head of the health benefit services group at Wells Fargo. “Keeping up with the regulations, keeping up with the compliance can be expensive and it could create barriers for [financial institutions] wanting to get into offering that service.” That means a huge investment in technology – so that customers can learn about the

Improve Performance product on whatever channel they choose – and in people. Kaiser, however, had a different take on that. “If you’re a financial institution, quite frankly, it’s a layup. It’s pretty easy to do. You’ve got consumer education, you’ve got a payment system and we like to have investments,” he said. “All those things are just natural elements of a financial institution.” He estimated that Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s HSA business has grown around 20 percent every year since the bank began offering it 10 years ago. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo today has more than 600,000 individuals enrolled in its HSA, totaling around $1.7 billion in assets under management. “Last year we had our strongest enrollment season ever. Our accounts grew over 30 percent and assets under management grew 32 percent,” Ryan said. “As to the future, we’re very bullish on the prospects for what the HSA look like.” BNE

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BANKING NEW ENGLAND

PAYING THE RENT

Automatic-Deduction Product Benefits Small Landlords, Tenants You Can Take that to the Bank, But You Don’t Have to Any More

BY CHRISTINA P. O’NEILL

my Middleton, a Greater Boston landlord who currently owns and rents two three-bedroom condos in the Brighton area, used to spend more time than she wanted to chasing down rent checks. Not anymore. One small community bank has developed a product that holds promise to lessen the end-of-themonth angst for both landlord and tenant, by allowing landlords to collect rents through direct-deposit ACH payments. Arlington, Massachusetts-based Leader Bank, with five branches and $850 million in assets, rolled out its ZRent product earlier this year. Tenants who sign up online at www.zrent.net can have rent payments automatically deducted from their accounts, to be deposited directly into the landlord’s account. The service is free to tenants and to landlords who bank with Leader Bank. Those who bank elsewhere are charged a fee after the initial six months. Pricing is based on the number of units, with special pricing available for larger properties, according to the bank. The product targets small to medium-sized independent landlords like Middleton who own a small number of properties. Among them are property owners who move out and rent the property, according to Senior Vice President Jay Tuli at Leader. These small landlords don’t have the staff or the software to process rent payments. Worse, some can get too busy to make trips to the bank, creating a lag between the time they receive a rent check and when they deposit it, further compromising their – and their tenants’ – cash flow. Alternatives to physical visits to banks include remote deposit capture – taking pictures of the checks on a mobile device and transmit them to the bank – but that’s not fully efficient for what can be dozens 24 BANKING NEW ENGLAND

of checks from multiple tenants sharing a unit – a common situation in the Greater Boston area, with its large student population. The other alternative is a lockbox, but that doesn’t solve the time-lag problem. ZRent has dented Leader’s lockbox business, but has resulted in the addition of more than 50 new accounts for the bank among those using the software, and half a million dollars in deposits. “I have yearned for some sort of direct deposit [for rents],” Middleton said. Because rents are a landlord’s paycheck, the concept of rent payments through ACH is a concept whose time is long overdue, she said. She has made payment through ZRent a condition of her leases since the program’s rollout early this year, and sets the withdrawal date a week after month’s end to allow for flexibility. Prospective tenants who don’t want to use the system effectively raise a red flag, she said. Leader Bank recently white-labeled the ZRent product to sell to other banks. Tuli said Leader has been in discussion with seven or eight banks. “What we found with smaller community banks, [they] do a lot of multifamily lending to landlords, but they still keep some of their accounts at larger banks,” Tuli said. “So this is a hook to bring those accounts over. … For community banks, there’s really no other [comparable] offering. It’s an arrow in their quiver when they talk to small-business landlords.” The ZRent product is displacing Leader Bank’s lockbox business, but that doesn’t worry Tuli: “There’s [also] a savings,” he said. “Checks don’t have to be processed, [reducing] teller lines, staff time and customer time.” But the real focus is on growth, not cost savings. “Big-volume banks could realize this,” he said. “Rent is going to go online … It allows smaller banks to get ahead of the curve.” BNE

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PROTECTINGFILE VULNERABLE CLIENTS PERSONNEL

Featured Banks • BankNewport

Appointments and Elections Berkshire Bank

Centreville Bank

Berkshire Bank, based in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, named Richard Bleser as senior vice president, chief investment officer; Jason Edgar as senior vice president and wealth portfolio manager and regional leader of New England; Mary Ellen Cologero as senior vice president, wealth portfolio manager and regional leader of New York; Janice Ward Esq., CFP, as first vice president, wealth advisor and senior fiduciary officer; and Elizabeth Gore as first vice president, trust operations and compliance.

Maureen Terranova has been named vice president and chief technology officer at Rhode Island-based Centreville Bank.

• Bank of New Hampshire • Centreville Bank • Eastern Bank • East Cambridge Savings Bank • Granite Bank • Middlesex Federal Savings Bank • MutualOne Bank

Eastern Bank

• Needham Bank • New Hampshire Mutual Bancorp • Savers Bank • TD Bank • Village Bank • Webster Five Cents Savings Bank

Massachusetts-based Eastern Bank appointed of Steven L. Antonakes senior vice president and chief compliance officer. Antonakes, Steven L. Antonakes who most recently worked as deputy director and associate director for supervision, enforcement and fair lending at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, brings 25 years of compliance, risk management and financial services experience to Eastern Bank.

Maureen Terranova

Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod recently announced the appointment of Matt Varnum as vice president of government banking and Lisa Cusolito as government banking assistant.

First Niagara Financial Group

Deborah Clancy

First Niagara Financial Group has appointed Deborah Clancy as business banking relationship manager for the Tristate Region.

Promotions Eastern Insurance Group

Eastern Insurance Group, a division of Natick, Massachusettsbased Eastern Bank, promoted Timothy Harrington to senior vice president, client services Timothy Harrington manager of Eastern Benefits Group, the insurance firm’s employee benefits division. Harrington, who works out of the Wakefield office, has been with Eastern Benefits Group for two years and previously worked as a vice president and account executive.

functions of Merrimack County Savings Bank and Meredith Village Savings Bank and oversee the financial, tax and regulatory reporting processes for all four companies under the New Hampshire Mutual Bancorp holding company structure. Cynthia A. Hemeon-Plessner has been promoted to senior vice president of marketing. She will be responsible for marketing at the holding company and its three subsidiaries, Meredith Village Savings Bank, Merrimack County Savings Bank and MillRiver Wealth Management.

Webster Five Cents Savings Bank

New Hampshire Mutual Bancorp

Jason Hicks

26 BANKING NEW ENGLAND

Jason Hicks has been promoted to chief financial officer of New Hampshire Mutual Bancorp. He will continue to lead the management of the investment portfolios and treasury

Roger Robinson

Massachusetts-based Webster Five Cents Savings Bank promoted Roger Robinson from assistant branch manager to branch manager of the Auburn location.

Promotions

New Arrivals BankNewport

Savings Bank of Walpole

Savings Bank of Walpole in Massachusetts promoted Lisa BierweilerFranks and Heather Scheck to assistant branch manager positions.

First County Bank

First County Bank in Fairfield County, Connecticut, recently announced Assistant Vice President Grazyna Maciejewska has been promoted to mortgage loan originator. Grazyna Maciejewska

UniBank

UniBank, based in Worcester County, Massachusetts, promoted Brad Fenn, e-banking technology manager, to vice president.

Ruth Correia

Rhode Island-based BankNewport appointed Ruth Correia to senior vice president and director of retail sales and service delivery. With more than 20 years in the banking industry, Correia comes to BankNewport from Citizens Bank, where she served as senior vice president and regional manager in the Greater Boston market area.

Ion Bank

Ion Bank has hired Jeffrey Hernandez to manage the branch at Mountview Plaza in Naugatuck, Connecticut. Hernandez previously worked at Bank of America in East Hartford as branch manager and Webster Bank in Newington as assistant branch manager. Naugatuck Mayor Bob Mezzo will become business development officer of the bank’s Jeffrey Hernandez commercial lending department in early December, shortly after the conclusion of his third term in office in November.

MutualOne Bank

Mathew Cepero has joined Massachusettsbased MutualOne Bank as a business banking specialist.

Brad Fenn

First Niagara Financial Group

First Niagara Financial Group promoted David Cantor to senior vice president and business banking team leader for the New England Region. Mathew Cepero

Simsbury Bank

Peter French and Frank Fetzer have joined the Simsbury Bank home loans team in Connecticut as mortgage loan advisors.

David Cantor

Kennebunk Savings

Jesse Dumais has taken on the role of residential loan originator at Kennebunk Savings in Maine. Dumais was most recently branch manager of the Kittery office. Dumais will work in both the Portsmouth and Hampton offices.

Peter French

Citizens Bank

Christopher E. Needham and Kenneth J. Mooney have been hired as managing directors of the Massachusetts-based Citizens Bank’s security alarm industry banking team. Jessica Rascionato was also hired as head of portfolio management for corporate banking.

Jesse Dumais

Ion Bank

Connecticut-based Ion Bank has promoted Kathleen A. McPadden to senior vice president of human resources, Dawn D. Orsini to senior vice president of deposit administration and retail delivery, Nancy Fay to vice president and consumer/residential loan officer, Stephanie Bliga to assistant vice president and alternative services delivery manager, Matthew Capristo to assistant vice president and solutions architect officer, Ann Hofmann to assistant vice president of deposit administration and Allan V. Monteiro to assistant vice president and commercial loan officer. Career achievers in banks across New England are constantly on the move, with their professional journeys reflecting a combination of mobility and longstanding service. In this space, we acknowledge them, and welcome readers to submit news of their own banks’ efforts and endeavors to Editorial Director Cassidy Murphy at cmurphy@thewarrengroup.com.

Jessica Rascionato

First County Bank

Richard Evanko Jr. has joined Stamford, Connecticut-based First County Bank’s business banking division as vice president and business banking manager.

Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod

Mary Cotoia has been hired as a credit officer on the Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod’s commercial lending team.

Webster Bank

Webster Bank in Connecticut has hired Michael Szekeres as senior vice president, director of infrastructure technology. BNE BANKING NEW ENGLAND

PROTECTING GOOD VULNERABLE COMMUNITY WORKS CLIENTS

Financial institutions large and small have been making a difference in their communities for years. In this space, we acknowledge them, and welcome readers to submit news of their own banks’ efforts and endeavors to Editorial Director Cassidy Murphy at cmurphy@thewarrengroup.com.

Featured Banks • Androscoggin Bank • Bristol County Savings Bank • Dedham Institution for Savings

Androscoggin Bank

Maine-based Androscoggin Bank announced the recipients of its bi-annual grant awards by Greater Giving, a new community impact program launched earlier this year. The bank created Greater Giving to provide support to nonprofits and organizations that benefit the community in three specific areas: economic development, education and the arts. The Greater Giving awards committee approved grants to the following organizations: • Community Concepts Finance Corp. • Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin • A Company of Girls • Museum L-A

• Eastern Bank • HarborOne

MutualOne

Eastern Bank

• Merrimack County Savings Bank • MutualOne • Webster Five

The MutualOne Charitable Foundation, based in Natick, Massachusetts, has awarded $2,000 to support special needs programs provided by Camp Arrowhead, the Natick Recreation and Parks Department and Parents Association of the Handicapped (PATH). The foundation grant will provide seven one-week camperships to special needs families requiring financial assistance with program tuition.

The Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation awarded the Child and Family Services of New Hampshire with a $10,000 grant as part of its 2015 “Targeted Grant” program. In 2015, Eastern’s targeted grant program will award more than $1 million to organizations working in the area of violence prevention. The grant supports domestic violence screening, prevention and safety planning for high-risk, low-income families. Child and Family Services works to advance the wellbeing of children and families in the Granite State.

Merrimack County Savings Bank

Dedham Institution for Savings CORRECTION Three photos in the Community Good Works section of the JulyAugust issue of Banking New England were incorrectly attributed; they were from Eastern Bank, not Eastern Savings Bank. We regret the error.

28 BANKING NEW ENGLAND

The Dedham Institution for Savings Foundation granted $2,500 to Sportsmen’s Tennis & Enrichment Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts, to help fund summer scholarships for both partial and full enrollments to the Center.

The Merrimack County Savings Bank Foundation granted $3,400 to the Concord (Massachusetts) Dental Sealant Coalition. This grant will go toward the group’s mission of addressing the unmet dental needs of Concord-area school children. This is one of 19 awards presented by the foundation to nonprofits this year.

Bristol County Savings

Bristol County Savings Bank (BCSB), through its charitable arm the Bristol County Savings Charitable Foundation (BCSCF), awarded grants totaling $62,000 to 13 Pawtucket, Rhode Island-area nonprofits during a ceremony recently at McCoy Stadium, home of the Pawtucket Red Sox. The foundation presented checks to the following organizations: Arts Marketplace – Pawtucket ($2,500), Bishop Keough Regional High School ($7,000), Books Are Wings ($6,500), Camp Ruggles Inc. ($4,000), Children’s Friend and Service ($7,500), Exchange Street Open Studio Plus ($2,500), Memorial Hospital of RI ($7,500), Old Slater Mill Association ($6,000), Pawtucket Soup Kitchen ($2,000), St. Cecilia School ($1,200), The Arc of Blackstone Valley ($5,300), The Sandra Feinstein – Gamm Theatre ($5,000) and the URI Foundation on behalf of the First Star URI Academy ($5,000).

HarborOne

Brockton, Massachusetts-based HarborOne Bank donated $1,000 to the South Shore Conservancy’s ImagineARTS in support of providing arts and literacy education to Brockton students at the Adult Learning Center Preschool, the Gilmore Early Childhood Center and the Barrett Russell Kindergarten Center. Members of the South Shore Conservatory Community and ImagineArts program were special guests of HarborOne at a Brockton Rox baseball game in early August.

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BANKING NEW ENGLAND

PROTECTING VULNERABLE IN CASE YOU MISSED IT CLIENTS

Featured Banks • BankNewport • Bristol County Savings Bank • First Niagara Bank • Washington Trust Co.

Bristol County Savings Bank’s Small Business Loans Reach $33M

As of June 30, Bristol County Savings Bank (BCSB) has originated 291 small business loans that meet the underwriting requirements outlined by the Small Business Banking Partnership, which provided $10 million in redistributing state tax funds for small business loans. The bank’s committed original loan balances total $33.4 million, with outstanding principal balances of $17.4 million as of that date. BCSB is one of 54 Massachusetts banks participating in the Small Business Banking Partnership created by the Massachusetts State Treasury. They were originally approved for and received $5 million through the program in July 2011, and then received an additional $5 million in funds under the expanded program in March 2012.

BankNewport Ranked Top 100 Banks on YouTube

Thirteen Graduate from Mortgage Banking Boot Camp

Massachusetts-based radius financial group inc. completed its first Next Generation Independent Mortgage Banker training program, a 12-week paid program developed to attract Millennials to a career in the mortgage industry and to address the needs of future Millennial homebuyers. The rigorous three months began in late May and focused on a core curriculum of inside and outside the classroom initiatives revolving around operations, sales and marketing to teach candidates about the business of residential lending and prepare them for careers within radius financial group. Thirteen candidates, four of whom had previous military experience, officially graduated and accepted a variety of roles within the radius financial group organization, including operations, sales and sales support, at one of the company’s seven Massachusetts offices.

Washington Trust Co. Goes Old-School

The Washington Trust Co., based in Rhode Island, celebrated its 215th year in business by unveiling a new brand campaign to attract a new generation of customers. The campaign features a revival of the company’s 1970s logo, which was restored in 2012 for use as the bank’s mobile banking icon. The bank also introduced a new multimedia advertising push featuring animation from Rhode Islandbased studios Walsh & Associates and Animus Studios. Rhode Island-based BankNewport has been recognized by The Financial Brand, a digital publication focused on marketing and strategy issues affecting retail banks and credit unions, as one of the top 100 banks on YouTube, ranked by the number of all-time video views for the second quarter of 2015. The ranking was attributed to the 119,536 views on BankNewport’s YouTube channel, with a substantial number of 28,614 in the second quarter of 2015. The YouTube channel’s success is the direct result of a two-fold digital/social media strategy by BankNewport’s marketing department and its advertising agency, Saltwater Creative.

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First Niagara Lends to Ibex

First Niagara Financial Group closed a multimillion-dollar credit package with Ibex Outdoor Clothing LLC, a designer, distributor and retailer of wool outdoor and active apparel for men and women. The financing package was arranged by First Niagara’s asset-based lending group, First Niagara Commercial Finance Inc., based in Dedham, Massachusetts. The credit package will help the company refinance outstanding debt and provide working capital to support several nationwide growth initiatives. The company plans include a campaign to increase brand awareness and the addition of new retail stores to its current retail locations in Boston and Seattle. BNE

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