Community Bank Expands Presence with Second Springfield Branch
Doubling Down
Community Bank hosted a ribbon cutting at its new Boston Road branch in January.
For Community Bank, N.A., Springfield was originally a remote outpost. But now, the institution is increasing its footprint in the City of Homes.
“We really are excited about Springfield as a market,” said Matt Plasse, regional president for New England. “I think it looks pretty similar to a lot of the markets where we operate — like, in upstate New York, I think of Syracuse or Rochester or Binghamton, markets where we really do well. There’s no single industry that dominates any one of those markets. It’s pretty diverse, small to mid-sized, family-owned businesses.
“And that’s what we do,” he added. “We’re a relationship bank. We don’t get too specialized in any one area. And at the end of the day, in order to be a community bank — which is part of our name, but it’s at the heart of what we do — you’ve got to have people in the market. So that’s why we are expanding in Springfield, and investing in that community.”
When Community Bank, whose strongest roots are in New York and Pennsylvania, acquired Merchants Bank in 2017, it gained a large network of branches in Vermont … and one in Massachusetts, in downtown Springfield’s Tower Square, which had been NUVO Bank before hanging the Merchants banner for a short time.
Located far from any other Community location, it would have been a prime candidate to be shed altogether, but instead, not only did it become a strong-performing branch, but its success has led, almost a decade later, to a second Springfield branch, which opened on Boston Road in late January.
Matt Plasse
“At the end of the day, in order to be a community bank — which is part of our name, but it’s at the heart of what we do — you’ve got to have people in the market. So that’s why we are expanding in Springfield, and investing in that community.”
“It’s not a small investment. We’re excited about this area,” Plasse said. “Boston Road is on the upswing. There’s a lot of investment going on in that side of the city, and we’ve already got great people in Springfield. And now, we’re putting more people on the ground.”
Like the first Springfield branch, Plasse said, the Boston Road office offers the usual range of banking services, from checking and savings accounts to lending, both personal — mortgages, home equity loans, auto loans, and the like — and business loans, from real estate to traditional commercial and industrial borrowers.
“We do have to be somewhat generalists and meet every customer where they’re at, so we have to offer everything,” Plasse said.
The Tower Square location has proven to be a strong performing branch over the past eight years, he added, which paved the way for the expanded footprint.
“That team has proven itself, and we like the market in general; it looks very similar to other places where we thrive. So it just reached a point where we said, ‘OK, we want to invest in Springfield.’ It’s a great opportunity for us.”
What’s in a Branch?
Most community banks have found over the past two decades that online banking did not make physical branches obsolete.
“That’s really how we deliver our model: having people in the markets, in our communities, establishing relationships. Customers can’t do everything online, so they’re coming to us to help their families or their businesses,” Plasse explained.
Even for routine transactions, “there’s still certainly a bunch of folks that just love to come in; maybe it’s part of their day. They’re very loyal customers, and we establish relationships with them,” he added.
“But certainly over my career, I’ve seen a shift. It used to be a very transactional role — high volume, you have people lined up out the door, you’re just trying to help everybody get their transactions completed. Now that role — and this is why we train our folks differently now — is more consultative. You’re asking them questions about why they’re there, what they’re looking for, how we can help them, and we have a lot more services to offer that can be super helpful.”
“That’s really how we deliver our model: having people in the markets, in our communities, establishing relationships. Customers can’t do everything online, so they’re coming to us to help their families or their businesses.”
Community Bank, in fact, offers what Plasse characterized as a four-legged stool when it comes to financial products, including its banking services, a wealth management group, an insurance entity, and retirement and benefits administration products.
“We position ourselves as a diversified financial services company. We see that as our differentiator from other banks in terms of our business model. And those entities really run on their own as fully scaled businesses, and they contribute an outsized portion of our revenue,” he went on.
“So, compared to our peers, we’re number one by far in terms of our revenue mix, the revenue that comes from non-bank fee income. But the only way to cross-sell those is to interact with your customers and consult with them and deliver those other options to them every day. So that’s the synergy we’re trying to get, and to have branches on the ground is the way to do that.”
At the same time, the bank intends to get involved in — and give back to — the local nonprofit landscape.
“It’s in our name, and it’s what we do every day, but as an institution, we give about $4 million a year to the community by way of donations and sponsorships, that sort of thing. Last year, we supported about 2,200 different organizations.”
The bank does so with a regional model, Plasse added, noting that the existing Springfield branch contributed about $61,000 to 22 different organizations last year, while team members volunteered more than 200 hours in the community.
“I’m the regional president for New England, which, for us, includes Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. And we have separate committees within each region to identify what the community needs are. We don’t want to have a blanket approach. I’m part of that committee, and we decide where to put our dollars into the community along with members from each one of those states. So we have people representing Massachusetts on that committee and advocating for local nonprofits in the Springfield area, and then we have other folks from New Hampshire and Vermont as well.”
As part of the recent ribbon cutting event on Boston Road, Community Bank donated $5,000 to the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and also committed $25 per loan or deposit opened at that location to Rick’s Place, which supports grieving young people and their families.
“And it’s not only dollars — it’s volunteering, too,” Plasse added. “In New England alone, it was 2,700 hours last year, and bank-wide, it was 17,800 hours of community service from our teams. Everyone is really encouraged to live and breathe the bank. We put our orange on — we kind of stand out. We look like a bunch of hunters out there, but it’s pretty fun when everyone gets together.”
Focus on the Future
Plasse said Community Bank has its eye on further growth, both organically and, when opportunities arise, with new locations.
“The big headline the other day was about the Webster and Santander merger. So we we expect we’ll see some opportunities out of that; when there’s a merger, sometimes divestitures of locations can come up,” he explained.
In any case, “we’re not done in Springfield. I don’t know what the next expansion might look like, whether it’s a de novo branch like we did on Boston Road or something else. But ideally, you have a hub and the spokes of the branch network, with the hub being downtown and several spokes around it.”
While regional expansion in Western Mass. is certainly possible, he added, the focus now is building in and around Springfield.
“We are certainly opportunistic if we feel like it’s the right time to strike. Our CEO is not afraid to do that, and we’re actively looking at similar things in New Hampshire and other places,” Plasse explained. “But in in terms of market share in Western Mass., the branch up and running downtown obviously has done very well, and we will attempt to replicate that on Boston Road.
“We’re very excited about our customers in Springfield. They may not root for the same football team as our friends in upstate New York, but they they look and feel the same, and they appreciate our core values of integrity, excellence, teamwork, and humility,” he said, while putting emphasis on the last one.
“I’ve worked at other institutions where I didn’t necessarily feel like that was evident, but humility is huge; there are no egos at this bank. We had an entire executive team came to show up in Springfield, which hopefully tells the community how important it is. The CEO was there, the CFO was there, head of HR was there, and all the CEOs of the business lines were there — the four legs of the stool. They’re all zero-ego, totally approachable people, which has been really encouraging. And I think once people come in and interact with us in the branch, they feel that.”
