Hartford Business Journal

14 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 26, 2026 Nick Statoulas, Dime Bank's new president and CEO, stands inside the bank's Norwich headquarters, where Dime is completing a $3 million renovation of its first-floor branch. HBJ Photo | Steve Laschever Steady Rise Dime Bank's new CEO, Statoulas, charts Greater Hartford growth path the 2008 financial crisis. He described himself as finance- and accounting-cen- tered rather than "customer facing." Statoulas, by contrast, led Dime's retail banking and wealth manage- ment divisions and is "very dialed in" to customer service and perspective, Caplanson said, qualities that are increasingly important as banking habits evolve. "We need to have someone who is able to at least know how to gain or have a perspective on the customer base, which is clearly changing," Caplanson said. "It's a dramatic shift. And we're obviously serving multiple generations with different banking styles and different approaches to how they bank and what they like. Nick is very dialed into that." Strength in steady habits Statoulas acknowledges the need to adapt to changing customer behavior, but emphasized that Dime's smaller size allows it to maintain a personal touch with customers. He said Dime's strategy is to keep pace with core banking technology and digital services rather than try to be a first mover on newer tools, noting the mutual bank does not have the budget to pursue emerging trends at the indus- try's experimental edge. Instead, Statoulas said Dime is leaning into its community-bank model as consolidation continues to shrink that segment of the market, betting there remains demand among some customers for locally based institutions and in-person service. That dynamic helped drive Dime's entry into Greater Hartford, which Statoulas said had seen "a complete exodus of community banking." He pointed to consolidation that ultimately brought Rockville/United Bank and Farmington Bank under People's United Bank and later M&T Bank, and folded The Savings Bank of Manchester into First Niagara and later KeyBank. Statoulas, who lives in Glastonbury, previously spent 22 years at Rockville Bank and United Bank, before joining Dime in late 2018 as senior vice president of banking and sales. While at Rockville, he led the opening of a Glastonbury branch now occupied by Dime. "So, I knew that location really well," Statoulas said. "I live about a mile up the street from that location, so I felt very comfortable about the opportunity that was there. And then we looked at sites in Manchester and Vernon, which were former community banks that had closed their doors when they were absorbed by larger entities. And we're able to get into those communities and do that at a very reasonable cost in what we believe to be an opportu- nity for us to really bring community banking back into those communities." Hiring proved to be the biggest challenge in opening the Hartford-area branches, Statoulas said, but he was able to recruit former colleagues familiar with the market. "And I would say that we are firing on all cylinders right now, especially on the lending side, which took some time for us to really gather the folks that were going to translate into success," he said. As of June 30, 2025, Dime Bank had $68.3 million in combined deposits at By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com N orwich-based Dime Bank has grown from $341.5 million in assets to $1.2 billion over the past 25 years without a merger or acquisition, relying on a conservative approach that minimizes risk, even while pursuing new opportunities. That philosophy guided the bank's expansion into Greater Hartford begin- ning in 2020, when it opened branches in Glastonbury and Manchester, followed by Vernon in 2022. Each location had previously housed a community bank, allowing Dime to minimize build-out costs by retrofitting shuttered branches. The same mindset carried over when the bank's board of directors began searching last year for a successor to retiring President and CEO Nick Caplanson. Rather than conduct an external search, the board focused exclusively on internal candidates. "If you go external, you can find whatever you want," Caplanson said in a recent interview. "You can find skill set, you can find style, you can find background — whatever the case. But there's uncertainty unless it's a known entity. And that's a bigger risk than a lot of organizations realize. Maybe some don't emphasize cultural fit and the motivations of the CEO as much as we do. That's really what made the difference." After vetting a small group of candi- dates, the board selected Nicholas J. Statoulas, then Dime's vice president and chief operating officer. Statoulas, who joined the bank in 2018, became president in October and assumed the CEO role Jan. 1, as Caplanson gradually shed duties ahead of partial retirement. Caplanson remains chair of the bank's board, a role absorbing nearly 20 hours per month, leaving time for personal pursuits, including fly fishing. Caplanson said Statoulas brings the right skill set for the right time. Caplanson became president in 2011 as the bank navigated the fallout from Note: Each year is as of the third quarter. | Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $200M $400M $600M $800M $1B $1.2B $0 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 ASSETS TOTAL LOANS AND LEASES DIME BANK ASSET AND LOAN GROWTH

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