Hartford Business Journal

40 Hartford Business Journal • December 22, 2014 www.HartfordBusiness.com Industry Focus E c o n o m i c F o r E c a s t YEaR in REviEW March 17 State aid to businesses hits overdrive under Malloy The Malloy administration has opened Connecticut's credit and grant window to businesses to the tune of $234.7 million the last two fiscal years. That's about 74 percent more than the state handed out in the previous six-year period, a Hartford Business Journal analysis shows. HBJ analyzed data drawn via a 2013 annual report and Freedom of Informa- tion request from the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD). They show business loans and matching grants issued between fiscal 2006 and 2011, Dannel P. Malloy's first year as governor, totaled about $134.7 million. That number, however, may be higher because the state says it no longer tracks deals made earlier this decade that have met their contractual obligations. Regardless, the significant jump in state incentive-program spending in the last two years underscores the importance Malloy has placed in providing business loans and grants to boost the economy by preserving or attracting jobs. Indeed, it is a cornerstone of his economic-development strategy. In particular, two economic initiatives launched on Malloy's watch — the "First Five'' and Small Business Express Loan (EXP) programs — comprise the bulk of Connecticut's efforts to combine low-interest, forgivable loans and grants to retain and expand private-sector jobs. In pledging the full faith and credit of Connecticut taxpayers to aid firms, the state also served as "lender of last resort'' to at least nine recipients who have since folded. NoveMber 17 Bankers: Retail breaches unfairly pinch their purses Bankers John Patrick Jr. and Rheo Brouillard and their Connecti- cut depositories got stuck with relatively tall bills after being swept up with millions of consumers in some high-profile retail-data breaches the past year at Target, Home Depot, crafts chain Michaels Stores, P.F. Chang Res- taurants and office- supplier Staples, and neither is happy. Aside from the time and headaches involved, the Target and Home Depot breach- es chiefly cost them money — lots of it. Farmington Bank — not the breached retailers — has spent some $250,000 this year, said Patrick, the bank's chairman and CEO, notifying thousands of its cardholders that their accounts and/or credit information may have been compromised. In most cases, they issued new cards, even to customers whose data was untouched. Brouillard is CEO at Savings Institute Bank & Trust (SI) in the Willimantic section of Windham, which has re-issued more than 15,000 debit/credit cards this year at around $4 apiece — an unbudgeted expense that both bankers say could have been better spent elsewhere. The upshot, bankers say, is that they, like consumers, too, are victims of a prob- lem not of their making and for which the best, most likely solution is one rooted in federal legislation not on the horizon anytime soon. JuNe 16 Financial woes ensnarl top CT banker Bankwell Financial Group President and CEO Peyton Patterson has received wide acclaim and millions of dollars in pay over the years for orchestrating several major bank mergers that changed the face of Connecticut's financial industry. But Patterson, who landed at Bankwell in 2012 and just led the New Canaan lender through a $48.6 million initial public offering, has recently struggled with her own personal finances, court records and an interview with a jilted North Haven contractor reveal. Since June 2013, Patterson has been sued by American Express and two private country clubs over hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid debts. And a contrac- tor who says he installed a telephone system in Patterson's New Canaan home last year says he was never paid more than $1,000 owed to him. About a month after HBJ disclosed Patterson's personal financial issues, she re- signed from the bank. NoveMber 3 Banker ReShuffle: Talent shortage, better economy give veteran credit officers mobility Berkshire Bank personally pitched long-time Connecticut bank officer David Os- ella about leaving the Bridgeport regional banking giant he had called home for years to join the Massachusetts lender's year-old downtown Hartford region office. Berkshire's Hartford region chief Sheryl McQuade, herself a transplanted banker, rang Osella and asked if they could meet to talk about his future with the Pittsfield, Mass., lender. "I liked what she had to say,'' said Osella, who in September joined Berkshire as senior vice president-relationship manager from Connecticut's People's United Bank. "I really was impressed by them, so I decided to do it.'' Osella's move isn't wholly unique. This year alone, at least a dozen seasoned commercial-lending officers, auditors, branch managers, credit analysts, among others, have jumped ship between Connecticut and Massachusetts banks. The trend is accelerating, creating skills shortages at some banks, headhunters say, adding lenders largely have themselves to blame. NoveMber 3 Once-overlooked home borrowers back in vogue There's good news for Connecticut's low- and moderate-income homebuyers who got shut out of the market when lenders tightened their loan-underwriting standards due to the mortgage bubble and Great Recession. Mortgage lenders and their financial backers, industry observers say, are loosen- ing eligibility requirements, such as household income, time on the job, even lower- ing downpayment sums, needed to qualify for a home loan. Amid reports that the U.S. government's two main housing-finance arms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, also are reining in some of their strictest underwriting guidelines, the state of Connecticut, too, has made moves that signal a softening of its underwriting standards. The pickup in state- and federally sponsored mortgage lending is a welcome boost for mortgage lenders who are seeing a slowdown in refinancing and home- equity borrowing. In addition, demand in the high-end, move-up segment of the housing market has cooled. Banking&Finance liberty Bank information chief Barry Abramowitz holds the next-generation plastic card aimed at thwarting cybertheft. p H o t o | H B J F i l e i l l u s t r a t i o n | H B J F i l e

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