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n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m | A p r i l 2 0 2 2 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 21 before we hire people. ere are certain areas we are going to need to keep investing in. We need technology people especially, whether it is the operations side or the people who work in cybersecurity, who work on our online banking, or who work with our core technology. ere is always going to be a reason to spend more money on technology. at is not shrinking. Many Connecticut banks have been closing brick-and-mortar branches as more customers switch to online banking. Is that happening for you as well? If you look at older bank branches in general, there is a lot of space that just doesn't get used anymore. Gone are the days where you would have 25 people lined up at lunchtime. So many transactions are able to be done online. To the degree that you can have a smaller footprint, and be more efficient, that certainly is the trend in banking. e pandemic accelerated people's adoption of technology. A large bank like Wells Fargo or People's United Bank, they look at their density map and say: How many of these do we actually need? We don't have that many. I've got 10 branches. Do we renew a lease here or there? We are not making wholesale changes at this stage of our growth. Has the bank been offering new digital tools? Yes. Around the spring of 2021, we upgraded our online banking system. It is a very sophisticated banking system provided by a [financial technology soware] company called Q2. is online banking system is used by banks in multiples of our size, and our customers are thrilled with it. We are completely upgrading and converting what is referred to as our core technology system, which is the database that houses all the information for the bank. ere is always a new [digital] feature — whether it is paying a bill from your phone, or [our mobile banking app]. at is banking right now. My kids, I can't imagine them walking into a bank. ey don't even use cash. ey send each other Venmo. Society has changed, along with the tools. It is a function of generation as well. You have to have the tools that people use. e financial technology evolution is so rapid. e trick is staying current and delivering the ones that will deliver our customers the best experience. We recently launched the new online banking platform that provides a more unified banking experience for our consumer and business customers. We offer contactless debit cards, a quick, simple and secure way to use your card. We also offer a consumer- friendly budgeting tool on our app called Personal Finance Manager. For our business customers, we offer Positive Pay, a fraud prevention tool to help protect them against check and [unauthorized payment or withdrawal] fraud. Who are your typical commercial banking customers? It has evolved over the last several years. If you go back three-plus years ago, we primarily did our commercial banking activities with real estate investors, owners and operators of commercial real estate. We were probably known for our commercial real estate lending ability, but we really needed to diversify that business line. e board of directors and I really challenged ourselves several years ago to change the direction of the bank. We are good at commercial real estate lending, but it's a pretty competitive business. People call you when they need to buy a building. Someone calls five banks and the best price wins. As we diversified our business line, we started targeting more commercial and industrial loans, or C&I loans. ose companies can be anywhere from $50 million to $250 million- plus in sales, maybe larger. ose are credit lines, working capital lines, credit facilities. We can write a loan maybe up to $30 million, but our sweet spot is probably in the $8 million to $15 million range. Do you see other opportunities for growth, such as with cannabis or marijuana-related businesses? e bioscience industry around New Haven seems like the hotbed for opportunity. As for cannabis businesses, there are some banks in Connecticut that are already getting involved, and we will explore the regulatory hoops to make sure we don't run afoul of anything. at would be on our list of a business we would explore. What has been the impact of the pandemic on the bank? We all came back to the office last spring. We were one of the few banks in the state that had a vaccine mandate, and we got to about 98 percent compliance. New employees are required to be vaccinated. We took it very seriously. Where do you see the bank in 10 years? In financial technology, 10 years is a long time. In 10 years there will be things that I have never even thought of before. We behave as if we have had iPhones forever, so God knows what 10 years from now looks like. We have really focused on diversifying our business, on growing our relationship business as opposed to price-competitive business. We grew our loan portfolio by over 20 percent last year, which is a pretty big number. We will do more than 10 percent loan growth this year. Our assets were at $2.46 billion at the end of 2021, and that number should be 10 percent more by the end of the year. We are closing in on $3 billion. We feel like in the next several years, we have great organic growth opportunities in front of us, where we can grow earnings by double digits annually. n Proudly committed to every customer, community partner, and neighbor we serve. YOUR SUCCESS is how we measure ours. 203.285.6490 | newhavenbank.com