Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 20, 2025 | Worcester Business Journal 13 BANKING & FINANCE F O C U S W Member FDIC To learn more, contact: Peter Staiti SVP, Commercial Lending Center Manager 100 Front Street, Worcester, MA 508.769.5725 Peter.Staiti@RocklandTrust.com All loans and lines of credit are subject to credit approval and standard underwriting, which may require collateral and personal guaranties. Other terms and conditions may apply. Inquire with a Banker to learn more. Supporting local businesses. Building lasting relationships. $3,825,000 Owner-Occupied Real Estate Acquisition SBA 504 Loan Sterling, MA $8,622,000 Hotel Acquisition SBA 504 Loan North Smithfield, RI $3,904,500 Single Family Home Development Land Acquisition, Development & Construction Financing Southborough, MA $920,000 Equipment Financing Boylston, MA Bob@DorfmanCapital.com | 508-930-8900 4th Generation Worcester Over 500 successful transactions closed and under contract representing $1.5 billion in tax credit equity since 2005. Watch our one minute 43 seconds Worcester video here s EXPERTS in State and Federal Tax Credits 54 projects in Worcester county precise way." Tools in the toolbox As the importance of technology to local banks has grown, so have their technology departments. While bigger fintech firms can help local financial institutions navigate the modern age of banking, local boots on the ground are still needed, said Welch. "Our tech department 10 years ago was maybe a person or two," Welch said. "Now, we've got almost 20 people in our tech department. eir job is helping run cybersecurity, with soware develop- ment, and interacting with the appropri- ate third-party vendors who can help us invest and scale something that would take us a while on our own." Like the rest of us, Welch has had that frustrating moment of needing over-the- phone assistance from a company, only to be stuck trying to communicate with a computer who refuses to connect with a human operator. He used this as an example of how the human touch is still a critical ingredient, even as AI offers po- tential for banks to make their operations more efficient. "l view it as a tool in the toolbox," Welch said of AI. "If we're going to do a loan on a commercial building, our team can use it to gather information on the property. So it's a tool in the background to assist, not to make decisions. We're very clear that humans are making that decision, not a machine." Implementing AI is a balancing act, Conaghan said. "With AI, it's part of certain syntax already," she said. "We're at a stage where we're trying to look with open minded- ness, but also with that safety and sound- ness mindset, making sure we address all the potential risks and concerns." Gallo Megraw sees the most potential for AI in tasks like answering straightfor- ward questions from customers during off-hours or to assist with fraud detec- tion. "I know we all kind of hate interacting with the chatbots of the world, but any- one that's used Claude, or ChatGPT, or Copilot, the experience of those interac- tions with AI has improved dramatically," she said. "Sometimes all the customer needs is to know what is the closest branch to them. AI is a great use case of getting that information to them quickly. In community banking, we're really look- ing to enhance our relationship model and not replace it." In-house vs. third party tech support American community banks use a mix of in-house and third party services to meet their tech needs but are heavily reliant on outside fintech firms for consumer-facing tech. Technology need In-house Combination Third party Compliance risk management 39.2% 51.9% 9% Board meeting management 71.3% 16.4% 12.3% Workflow processing 46.4% 40.8% 12.8% Bank Secrecy Act & anti-money laundering 34.3% 47.8% 17.9% Asset liability management 16.6% 54.3% 29.1% Interest rate risk 16.5% 53.2% 30.3% Network service monitoring 6% 47.2% 46.8% Customer-facing technology e.g., mobile banking, automated account opening) 3.4% 30.6% 66% Core service provider services 8.6% 16.4% 75% Source: Conference of State Bank Supervisors' 2025 Annual Survey of Community Banks Michael Welch of UniBank sees the future of fintech as a balancing act between making the most of new tech developments with remembering the importance of the human touch PHOTO | COURTESY OF UNIBANK

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