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57 | DOING BUSINESS IN CONNECTICUT | 2018 2018 | DOING BUSINESS IN CONNECTICUT | 57 Focused on Community Simsbury Bank's Richard Sudol proud of emphasis on local needs By Jack Kramer Banks, like any and all other businesses these days, need to embrace the social-media world we live in to remain competitive. And Simsbury Bank is a leader in that area. "We have technology partners who help us stay current," said Richard Sudol, senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of Simsbury Bank. Sudol said the fact that the bank is "local and not a market leader" is an advantage in helping it stay connected to its customer base in the area the bank serves – which is Hartford and its surrounding suburbs. "We've always have been, and always will be, a community bank," said Sudol. "The way we reach out to the community may have just changed a bit since we first started doing business." Reaching out in the year 2018, Sudol explained, means "using Facebook, using LinkedIn to help us put out the word" about the type of products and business opportunities Simsbury Bank offers to its customers. "We do use social media, but it's just as a tool, a partner to what we are really all about, which is our involvement in the community activities. It [social media] helps us stay in touch with our community partners." The bank also does everything it can to protect the banking experience for its customers, and has substantial measures in place to protect customers' identity from fraudulent activity. Stringent bank privacy policies guard personal and financial information with the highest security. Simsbury Bank started in the mid 1990s with a group of business people working around a folding card table with the idea that the Farmington Valley needed its own bank. Fast forward over 20 years to where it is today – a leading community bank that has extended those roots to make a difference to individuals and businesses throughout Connecticut and southern New England. In the early 1990s, Connecticut's banking community was still trying to recover from a devastating commercial real estate market collapse that resulted in dozens of bank failures. While many of the region's banks were more focused on survival than on their customers, Simsbury Bank's founding directors saw this as an opportunity to realize their vision of a bank that provided expert advice and local decision-making on loans to businesses and families, while striving to exceed customers' expectations. United by the passion of their quest, by early 1995, the founding directors had raised enough capital to earn the State Department of Banking's first new bank charter in six years. Since 1995, Simsbury Bank has repeatedly outgrown its space to meet the expanding needs of its customers, making 86 Hopmeadow Street its third proud home headquarters in Simsbury. The bank has four other branches in the surrounding communities of Avon, Bloomfield, Granby and West Hartford. While modern mobile and online banking is a big part of its DNA, the branch banks in the five communities will always be a part of the core of the bank's portfolio, Sudol said. He noted that while the state's fiscal challenges can bring challenges to the banking industry as a whole, Simsbury Bank's bread-and-butter, the housing real estate market, "is still performing quite well for us." "Hartford County is a very attractive market for many," he said, "and I don't see that changing." Sudol joined Simsbury Bank in 2013. Previous positions included chief financial officer of Florida Shores Bank (later acquired by Stonegate Bank) and director of strategic planning at Ocwen Financial Corporation, one of the leading mortgage-servicing companies in the country. He previously was business line controller and financial principal with Webster Financial Corporation. To read more about Simsbury Bank, its history, its community partnerships and its philanthropy, visit simsburybank.com. PROFILE Richard Sudol, SVP, CFO and treasurer, Simsbury Bank " " "We have technology partners who help us stay current." - Richard Sudol