Hartford Business Journal

4 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 8, 2024 BIZ BRIEFS THE ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION LEADS THE WAY IN DEMENTIA CARE, SUPPORT AND RESEARCH EFFORTS FOR LOCAL FAMILIES, COMPANIES AND BEYOND. We are here to help: Lunch and Learn Education Programs Employee Resource Groups C ommunity & Caregiver Resources 24/7 Helpline: STRENGTHEN YOUR COMPANY AS YOU HELP ADVANCE THE FIGHT AGAINST ALZHEIMER'S. Your role as an employer: Support employees caring for a person with Alzheimer's disease. Value employee wellness, work-life balance and corporate social responsibility. Enhance overall wellness program offerings. Align with other brands and the world's leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support and research. 800.272.3900 At the Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's®, we're fighting for a different future. For families facing the disease today. For more time. For treatments. We're closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's. But to get there, we need you. Join us for the world's largest fundraiser to fight the disease. alz.org/walk in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Cornerstone Bank, with $1.6 billion in assets, focuses on central Massachusetts. It has 14 branches and ATMs. After the merger is completed, PeoplesBancorp will have about $6 billion in assets. Thomas Senecal, CEO and chairman of PeoplesBank, will become CEO and chairman of PeoplesBancorp; Todd Tallman, CEO of Cornerstone Bank, will become president of the combined mutual holding company. PeoplesBank President Brian Canina will retain his current title and take the additional role of chief operating officer of the holding company. TD Bank branch closures hit CT TD Bank has informed federal regulators it plans to close 20 U.S. branches, including two locations in Connecticut. The New Jersey-based U.S. subsidiary to Canada's TD Bank Group recently notified the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency it plans to close a branch in Fairfield, at 1643 Post Road, and downtown Wallingford, at 2 North Main St. The Fairfield branch held $80.1 million in deposits as of June 30, 2023, while the Wallingford branch had $296.4 million in deposits, according to Federal Deposit Insur- ance Corp. data. TD Bank had 56 branches in Connecticut and controlled $8.9 billion in deposits in the state as of June 30, 2023, FDIC data shows. That's down from 67 branches in the state five years ago, and 78 branches a decade ago, FDIC data shows. TD Bank notified the OCC it will be closing 18 other branches in states up and down the East Coast, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Massachusetts. International bank eyes West Hartford branch closure Spain-based Santander Bank has informed federal regulators it plans to close a branch in West Hartford. The branch is located at 1040 Boulevard and held $74.5 million in deposits as of June 30, 2023, according to Federal Deposit Insur- ance Corp. data. Banks across Connecticut and the country have been trimming their branch footprints in recent years as more consumers use online banking services and as a way to cut costs. Santander has been particularly aggressive in reducing its brick-and- mortar footprint in the state. As of June 30, 2023, Santander had 15 branches and $1.8 billion in deposits in Connecticut, FDIC data shows. That's down from 32 branches a decade ago, as of June 30, 2014, according to FDIC data. AdvanceCT appoints two new executives to board Two well-known members of the business community have joined AdvanceCT's board of directors. They are Jeffrey Flaks, president and CEO of Hartford HealthCare, and Peter Denious, the founding CEO of AdvanceCT, a nonprofit that works to retain and recruit businesses to Connecticut. AdvanceCT was founded in 2020 as a rebrand of the Connecticut Economic Resource Center. Flaks leads Hart- ford HealthCare, the second-largest healthcare system in Connecticut, which generated $6.2 billion in revenue in 2023. Flaks has a master's degree in health and services administration from George Washington University and an undergraduate degree from Ithaca College. Denious worked for 17 years at FLAG Capital Management and its successor, Aberdeen Standard Investments. He has an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dart- mouth and an undergraduate degree from Trinity College. Recently, AdvanceCT named Adam Norwitt, CEO of Amphenol Corp., and Judy Olian, president of Quinnipiac University, as co-chairs of its board of directors. TD Bank is closing branches in Wallingford and Fairfield. PHOTO | COSTAR Westport-based BioSig Technologies delisted from Nasdaq I t's been a whirlwind few months for BioSig Technologies Inc., a medical technology company based in Westport. The company, which develops signal-processing equipment that can diagnose heart malfunctions, went from announcing a new chief executive officer in April and new board members in May, while also closing a $3 million direct offering last month, to being notified in June that it would be delisted from the Nasdaq stock market. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commis- sion, Nasdaq informed the company on June 10 that its stock would be delisted due to the company's "continued non-compliance with the minimum stockholders' equity requirement" set by the market. Coincidentally, the company announced the same day that it had appointed Ferdinand Groenewald, a certified public accountant who serves as vice president of finance at Alaunos Therapeutics Inc., as its interim chief financial officer and principal accounting officer. He succeeded Frederick D. Hrkac, who had resigned as CFO and was appointed to the BioSig board. Trading in the company's common stock, under the symbol BSGM, was subsequently suspended on June 12, though Nasdaq said the stock "should be eligible" to trade on the over-the-counter market's "Pink Current Information tier," or OTCPK. The delisting was reported less than two months after BioSig announced on April 30 the appointment of Anthony Amato as its CEO. Jeffrey Flaks Peter Denious BioSig Technologies Inc. develops medical technology like the Pure EP, which measures cardiac signals. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO PeoplesBancorp Continued from page 3

• Cover