Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • October 15, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 13 and potential commercial customers. United has no trouble redistributing all the deposits it collects into loans be- cause demand is strong, Crawford said. "We're pleased with how our depos- it-generation is going," he said. Crawford, a former Wells Fargo banker, acknowledged the edge smaller banks like his have over larger institutions engaging customers and making rapid loan decisions. Crawford declined comment on whether United could be a target of acquiring banks eager for market share. However, he is closely watch- ing interest rates and prefers that the Federal Reserve not increase them too rapidly, dampening consumer and commercial credit demand. Thomas J. Pastorello, chief financial officer of Liberty Bank, which has grown its Connecticut deposit base by $1.2 billion over the last decade, said the Middletown lender's deposit strategy includes a focus on customer service, extensive electronic banking offerings and competitive interest rates. The bank, for example, just finished a CD promotion that boasted a 3 percent yield for 18 months, and then upon renewal, pays no less than 3.5 percent for the next 18 months, he said. Local focus Michael Goman, president of Ac- cubranch, an adviser to banks, thrifts and credit unions in setting up and managing their branch-office net- works, says Connecticut's community banks, like their peers nationally, have always been more grounded in their communities and more flexible and less bureaucratic than larger banks in their lending and operating decisions. Tightening of federal banking rules designed to curb past lending abuses have not helped big lenders, he said. In short, community banks have a competitive edge, Goman said, because small-business borrowers are more likely to do business with a bank- er they know from their neighborhood. "Smaller banks tend to have their branch manag- ers, loan-produc- tion staffs and customer-service staffs active in the community,'' Goman said. Another damper on big- bank customer relationships has been the bevy of negative news reports about banks, like Wells Fargo, behaving badly with its customers. The San Francisco lender, which has 71 branches in Connecticut, was hit with a record $1 billion U.S. fine for mishandling auto and mortgage loans on top of a recent $2.09 billion settlement with the Justice Department over the sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities. Meantime, financial-services tech- nology — managing everything from banks' money wire-transfers, digital ledgers, loan portfolios, ATMs and compliance with state and federal bank regulations — would prove beneficial, the initial thinking went, to operating more efficiently and for enabling banks to identify customers' needs and cross- sell them finan- cial products and services. However, as more banks, including small ones, adopt the same technology, there's little left to differentiate one institution from another, Go- man said. "There really isn't a competi- tive advantage to be found in your online banking platform any- more,'' Goman said, "because everybody has access to the same platform.'' So, personal banking relationships are emerging as the next battleground on which banks of all sizes must com- pete, he said. "Today, a bank isn't about teller- window transactions," Goman said. "It's about financial services and advice. And that's a personal conversation.'' BUSINESS EXPO OCT. 24, 2018 MIDDLESEX COUNTY 2018 #ctconnect18 CONNECTICUT CONNECTIONS Middlesex County's Premier Business Expo HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL Connect at CT Connections 11a.m. to 4 p.m. Executive Evening Networking Event 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Red Lion Hotel 100 Berlin Road, Cromwell, CT 06416 details: middlesexchamber.com media sponsor: corporate sponsor: Bank deposit growth in CT This chart shows the total deposits held by FDIC-insured banks in Connecticut. Year-over-year Year Total deposits % change 2018 $135.6B 1.76% 2017 $133.3B 3.16% 2016 $129.2B 7.32% 2015 $120.4B 6.37% 2014 $113.2B 5.7% 2013 $107B 4.32% 2012 $102.7B 1.13% 2011 $101.5B 5.9% Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED New York's Citibank suffered the biggest one-year loss in deposits and market share in Connecticut, as of June 30.

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