Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • December 9, 2019 • Hartford Business Journal 9 by every measure," Rotatori said of Ion's Farmington push. Similarly, Ion also hired away more than a dozen employees from Hartford-based United Bank, which People's United acquired in early November. Those new hires are based in Ion's newly established Manchester loan office. The successes so far could catapult Ion more deeply into the Greater Hartford market, where it is a newcomer. The bank is already planning a second Farmington branch in the town's Unionville sec- tion, where it hopes to break ground in 2020, and may soon be weighing a third branch, Rotatori said. Ion had been sniffing around Southington prior to learning that Farmington Bank had a buyer. It immediately shifted course. The same was more or less true for Thomaston Savings, which had no near-term plans to enter Farm- ington until news of the Farming- ton Bank deal broke. Now, its 155 Scott Swamp road branch, its second in Hartford County and 14th overall, is set to open this month. CEO Stephen Lewis said his Li- tchfield County-based bank, which is also a mutual and of similar size to Ion, is entering a local market where two big banks — People's United and Bank of America — jointly hold 75 percent of the deposit market share. People's United is a "very good bank," Lewis said, but he thinks it can't focus on each specific market in which it does business the same way that smaller banks with fewer branches can. "I don't want to say it's easy pick- ings, but we see a chance to take some of that market share away for those customers who are still look- ing for a community bank pres- ence," Lewis said. With more banks following his lead in Farmington, Rotatori said it'll be tough to sustain his new branch's initial growth rate, but he's pleased with the strong start. "We're definitely in a better posi- tion because we got the people first and we got there first," he said. "But [more branches opening] will make a difference in overall long-term profitability." Lewis, whose bank has also poached away some Farmington Bank and United Bank employees, said he isn't worried about being late to the party. "It's a successful play and I think there's plenty of room for both Ion and us to be in there," he said. Thomaston Savings has been in a similar position previously. Lewis said his Bristol branches saw a healthy bump in deposits in 2012 after United Bank acquired New England Banc- shares, the holding company of for- mer Enfield Federal Savings and Loan. New England Bancshares had acquired Bristol-based Valley Bank in 2007. "We became kind of closer to a hometown bank there than any- body else," Lewis said. Town of Farmington bank deposit market share Deposits Deposit market share People's United Bank/Farmington Bank* $504.8M 49% Bank of America $233.6M 22.7% Connecticut Community Bank $140.8M 13.7% Webster Bank $91.5M 8.9% Ion Bank $42.1M 4.1% Berkshire Bank $16.8M 1.6% Total Farmington deposits $1B Deposit data as of June 30, 2019 *Acquisition closed Oct. 2018 Source: FDIC

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