Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I I N O. I I I F E B R UA R Y 8 , 2 0 2 1 16 C O M M E R C I A L D E V E L O P M E N T A s JPMorgan Chase prepares to enter southern Maine's crowded retail banking market, rivals are watching but not standing still. "ey're formidable," Curtis Simard, president and CEO of Bar Harbor Bank and Trust (with $3.6 billion in assets) says of JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank with $2.7 trillion in assets. Both opened commercial offices in Portland in 2018, and now the Wall Street behemoth is preparing to open its first retail office there along with four others in Greater Portland by 2022. "We'll be watching to make sure they don't have broader plans than that," says Simard. While the time isn't yet right for his bank to open a retail branch in Portland, Bar Harbor Bank is adding to its physical footprint elsewhere with newly built branches in Brunswick (for $2.4 million) — not far from a Topsham branch it closed — and Bedford, N.H. e openings come about a year after Bar Harbor Bank bought eight branches from People's United Bank in a deal that added $287 million in deposits and extended its reach to central Maine and the Bangor area. It's one of several Maine-based banks adding branches in the state and region as Chase and others do so on a national scale. While banks regularly reconfigure their retail networks and service offer- ings, the fact that many are bulking up on branches now is all the more strik- ing given the increase in digital and remote banking during the pandemic. Convinced there's still a role for in- person services, players big and small are sticking with expansion plans while also investing in technology. "e bricks and mortar of bank- ing continues to undergo signifi- cant change," says Maine Bankers Association CEO Chris Pinkham. "Every bank is seeking opportunities to expand its customer base." Portland's pull Maine is notoriously "over-banked," with most activity in the densely populated south. In the Portland-South Portland P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Bank expansion HEATS UP Chase's Maine rollout not the only game in town as rivals add branches B y R e n e e C o R d e s S O U R C E : Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. CUMBERLAND COUNTY MARKET SNAPSHOT LARGEST DEPOSIT MARKETS IN MAINE Bank Of America ............ 20.01% TD Bank ......................... 18.79% Keybank National Association .................... 15.14% Gorham Savings Bank ....... 9.02% Bangor Savings Bank ........ 7.09% Norway Savings Bank........ 6.08% People's United Bank ....... 5.46% Camden National Bank ..... 5.44% Androscoggin Savings Bank . 3.25% Bath Savings Institution .... 3.00% Machias Savings Bank ...... 2.36% Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution ............ 1.74% Northeast Bank ................ 1.24% Maine Community Bank .... 0.77% NBT Bank ......................... 0.28% Katahdin Trust Co. ............ 0.26% Kennebec Savings Bank .... 0.07% F O C U S S O U R C E : Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., State Profile for Maine, Third Quarter 2020 Cumberland County bank market shares by deposits, as of June 30, 2020 Jeanne Hulit, president and CEO of Maine Community Bank, at the bank's $8 million future operations center and full-service branch in Westbrook. Institutions Deposits Portland / South Portland Bangor Lewiston-Auburn 21 $17.75B 9 $3.74B 9 $2.26B

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