Worcester Business Journal

16 Worcester Business Journal | September 16, 2019 | wbjournal.com F O C U S B A N K I N G & F I N A N C E Knowledge + Experience + Trusted Advice. It all adds up. Large enough to serve the needs of most businesses and individuals; small enough to offer the personal attention you expect and deserve. Greenberg, Rosenblatt, Kull & Bitsoli, PC Certified Public Accountants 306 Main Street, Suite 400 • Worcester, MA 01608 508.791.0901 • www.grkb.com O xford-based bankHometown doesn't have a Worcester banking branch today but is focused on growth in the city following a merger with Millbury Savings Bank expected to close in October. anks to Millbury Savings Bank, bankHometown will get its first foothold in Worcester – not just with Millbury Savings Bank's location at 1001 Millbury St. in Worcester but another branch under construction on Grove Street slated to open next spring. at branch, along with the two other Millbury Savings Bank locations, will carry the bankHometown name. With roughly $1 billion in assets aer its merger with Millbury Savings Bank, bankHometown will still be one of the smaller players in Central Massachusetts, behind not just national banks with a local presence bankHometown has eyes on Worcester but also those based here, including Fidelity Bank of Leominster and UniBank of Whitinsville. But Robert Morton, the president and CEO of Millbury Savings Bank and of the combined entity post-merger, said the company is looking to open a few smaller Worcester branches in the years ahead. "We're not the only ones who are trying to execute that," Morton said. "It might a matter of who's able to execute that better." The continued need for branches e new Grove Street branch will be a start, adding to a commercial stretch of the city already within about a minute's drive of a UniBank, Commerce Bank, Bank of America, United Bank, Santander Bank and a Digital Federal Credit Union. e new bankHometown will be 1,700 square feet, a smaller footprint of branches of past years, when more customers would go into a branch to physically deposit a check or make a withdrawal. Today, Morton said, cus- tomers still want to be close to a branch but use them for other reasons, such as asking banking questions about loans. "I don't see branches going away any time soon, and I don't see people-less branches," he said. e bankHometown and Millbury Savings Bank merger is expected to close Oct. 18, with 16 branches among the two entities. e banks have said no branch closures or staff reductions are part of the merger plan. Morton and five members of Millbury Savings Bank's board of trustees will join the bankHometown board of directors, and two will join the board of directors of Hometown Financial Group in Easthampton, bankHometown's parent company. Hometown Financial Group, has roughly $3 billion in assets at 32 locations across Massachusetts and Connecticut, including at subsidiaries bankESB and Pilgrim Bank. Matthew Sosik, the president and CEO of bankHometown, was said earlier this year to be moving post-merger into higher executive roles with Hometown Financial Group and Easthampton- based bankESB. The new bankHometown branch is under construction on Grove Street in Worcester. W BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor PHOTO/GRANT WELKER

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