Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/881000
10 | HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL • OCTOBER 2, 2017 the United States. Between 1992 and 1994, six Hartford area banks failed: Sentinel Bank of Hartford; Colony Savings Bank of Wallingford; Vernon Bank of Vernon; Burritt Interfinancial Bancorporation of New Britain; The Bank of Hartford and Meriden Trust and Safe Deposit Co. Just prior to Hartford Business Journal's founding was the 1991 failure of Connecticut Bank and Trust (CBT) and its parent company, the Bank of New England, which had its assets taken over by Fleet Bank, and eventually became Bank of America. The CBT name came back on the scene in 2002, but was eventually acquired again by Berkshire Bank of Massachusetts. Staying alive For those banks that weathered the savings and loan crisis, changing with the times has been the only way to survive. That's certainly been the case at Willimantic-based Savings Institute Bank & Trust (SI). Rheo Brouillard, CEO of SI, said the bank has, in many ways, come full circle since he joined in 1995. At that time, SI was a state-chartered mutual savings bank with about $250 million in assets. Since then, SI changed from a state to a federal charter and then became a mutual holding company with part of its stock traded on the public market. In 2011, the bank went public with the remaining portion of its stock and in 2015, it left the federal charter and became a state-chartered, publicly traded bank. Today, SI has $1.6 billion in assets. "I don't think I could have predicted the kind of growth that we've had," Brouillard said. SI's growth has not been exclusively in Connecticut, however. It now has a strong foothold in Rhode Island with five branches there. SI's expansion into the Ocean State was made possible through loosening of interstate banking rules, he said. "When I first got into the banking business, each state had its own rules and you couldn't cross borders," Brouillard said. "There's no such thing anymore." Of course, not all regulatory changes in the banking industry have been as welcome. Perhaps the most-criticized regulatory scheme came out of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Farmington Bank's Kenneth Burns showcases an online banking app the community lender unveiled in recent years for customers who own an iPad tablet. Interactive teller machines have grown in popularity over the last decade.