Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 19, 2024 23 FOCUS | BANKING & FINANCE 2020, and saw last year's acquisition as an opportunity to jump-start its growth in the state, said Regional President Andreas Kapeta- nopoulos, who's based in West Hartford. "With an acquisition, you just never know what's going to come along," Kapetanopoulos said. "But in that situation, it just made so much sense geographically with the footprints, it just fit in very nicely." The bank, with $13.3 billion in assets, has also made moves into Vermont and New Hampshire in recent years. In buying Salisbury, NBT acquired 13 branches in north- west Connecticut, the Hudson Valley and southwestern Massachusetts, and it now has more than half-a-bil- lion dollars in loans in Connecticut. Salisbury Bank's well-developed wealth management and trust portfolio was the most attractive piece for NBT, which, even though it cut Salibury's headcount, went from 15 Connecticut employees to 90 over- night with the acquisition. "It was critical for us to retain the customer-facing employees," Kapetanopoulos said. "And that's also key for the customers, for them to come in and to see the familiar faces. Maybe the name changed out front, but you're going to walk in, you're going to see the same people, they're going to recognize you." And NBT is not done expanding either. "We are actively looking at some locations to try to bridge the gap between the northwest corner and then central Connecticut," Kapetanopoulos said. One thing that would facilitate that, he said, is a revival in the housing market. "On the residential side, obviously there is a need for housing," Kapeta- nopoulos said, but "... the single- family housing stock is just not there." But, like its Massachusetts-based neighbors, NBT said it's in it for the long haul in the Nutmeg State. West Hartford becomes breeding ground for bank expansions By Harriet Jones Hartford Business Journal Contributor M any banks have made headlines in recent years by trimming their branch footprints as more customers use digital services. But that hasn't stopped some banks from expanding in one particular Connecticut town: West Hartford. The wealthy suburb of about 64,000 residents has become a go-to location for banks with expan- sion plans in Connecticut. Lenders have been particularly fond of West Hartford Center, the town's popular downtown area with office space, restaurants and small shops As of June 30, 2023, West Hartford was home to 13 banks and 23 branches with nearly $5 billion in deposits, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data. A decade earlier, in 2013, there were 11 banks in West Hartford with only $2.1 billion in deposits, FDIC data shows. Westfield Bank CEO Jim Hagan considers his bank's West Hartford Center location, opened in 2020 at 977 Farmington Ave., "much more than a branch location. We consider that our hub for Connecticut, that large space where we could really plant that flag." Massachusetts-based Peoples- Bank's West Hartford Center branch, at 102 LaSalle Road, was originally a Rockville Bank location that new owner People's United Bank decided to close. People's United has since been acquired by New York-based M&T Bank, which currently has two West Hartford branches. "It was a good first step, and it was a nice, easy opportunity to take over some previous banking space and get into a good banking market," said PeoplesBank President and Chief Operating Officer Brian Canina. "We had a lot of commercial customers that bank down in that area. So, they were asking us for a storefront presence." Meanwhile, New York-based NBT Bank a few years ago sited its regional office in West Hartford Center, at 433 South Main St., and is now investing in a separate location for a retail branch, having outgrown the original space. "It's a great, vibrant, strong community," said Connecticut Regional President and West Hartford resident Andreas Kapetanopoulos. "It has a great chamber. There is also a lot of traffic that comes through. Geographically, it is just located well." These banks have a brick-and-mortar presence in West Hartford BANK WEST HARTFORD DEPOSITS* M&T Bank $1.9B Bank of America $901.3M Webster Bank $553.9M Santander Bank $501.6M TD Bank $326.6M Berkshire Bank $221.9M Liberty Bank $192.1M Citizens Bank $137.2M PeoplesBank $96.6M JPMorgan Chase $58.8M KeyBank $54.9M NBT Bank $21.5M Westfield Bank $17.7M *West Hartford deposits as of June 30, 2023 Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Westfield Bank's West Hartford Center branch at 977 Farmington Ave. Andreas Kapetanopoulos Chase Bank to add 5 new CT branches as part of national expansion By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com N ew York-based JPMorgan Chase Bank is eyeing further expansion in Connecticut and nationwide. The bank announced it will be opening five more branches in Connecticut over the next three years. That includes new locations in Groton (971 Poquonnock Road), Bloomfield (417 Cottage Grove Road), and New Britain that will debut in 2024. The expansion is part of a multibil- lion-dollar investment Chase Bank is making in its branch network nation- wide. The bank said it plans to open more than 500 U.S. branches and hire 3,500 employees by 2027. Chase Bank said it will enter several new markets — including low-to-moderate income and rural communities — while also expanding in growth cities like Boston, Charlotte, Minneapolis and Philadelphia. Over the past five years, Chase said it has added more than 650 branches, including 400 locations in 25 new states. When this latest expansion is complete, Chase said it will have added more than 1,100 branches and hired more than 10,500 employees to its consumer bank division since 2018. Continued on page 25 HBJ PHOTO | HANNA SNYDER GAMBINI A Chase Bank branch that recently opened in Cheshire, at 202 Highland Ave.

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