Page 19 - BusinessWest January 6, 2021

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2021 >>
Banking
TDhis CEO Says Some Habits Are Changing, but “Are They Permanent?
onna Boulanger says she doesn’t how the land- Looking back on 2020, scape might change in 2021. What she does she said it was a period of know is that it changed quite a bit in 2020. adjustment — for the bank
There is some pent-up demand, and it’s just a question of how quickly we return to a new normal, because are we ever going to go back to what was normal? Probably not.
ered,” she went on, meaning they’ve returned to pre-pandemic revenue patterns. “These are generally manufacturers or specialty businesses; they’re not in hospitality, they’re not in retail. The people still being impacted are those in personal service, whether you’re a nail salon, a barbershop, a gym, or daycare facility.”
The bank took what she called a “proactive approach,” calling each and every business customer to see if help was needed, and in what form. Mean- while, it was active with the Paycheck Protection Program, handling applications not only for custom-
Banking
Continued on page 21
That goes for everything from attitudes regarding online and mobile banking to sentiments on remote working, to thoughts on where people might prefer to live. Overall, she noted, these past 10 months have been a time to rethink how we do things and where we do them. And many of these changes may well be permanent, which will go a long way toward deter- mining what 2021 — and the years that follow — will be like.
“A lot depends on the rollout of the vaccine and the effectiveness of the vaccine,” she said. “There is some pent-up demand, and it’s just a question of how quick- ly we return to a new normal, because are we ever going to go back to what was normal? Probably not,” said Boulanger, president and CEO of North Brookfield Savings Bank, which has eight branches and serves customers in both Western and Central Mass.
“And how much have consumers’ habits changed?” she went on. “Are they going to go back
to retail stores? Are they going to go back to restau- rants? Will they go back to traveling? They are so many factors in play, and that makes predicting what will happen in 2021 very difficult. There are a lot of moving parts.”
and many of its customers.
Like all financial institu-
tions, North Brookfield
Savings Bank had to pivot,
as she termed it, when it
came to everything from
staffing branches — teams
would rotate in for two-
week periods — to provid-
ing much-needed lessons
in online and mobile banking to the bank’s generally older customer base.
Overall, Boulanger said, many businesses and consumers adjusted well to the pandemic, and state and federal support played a large role in this.
“In the Western Mass. and Central Mass. area, the loan portfolios held up very well; delinquencies, and I know this is hard to believe, are at record lows,” she explained. “Whether it is the increased unemploy- ment or stimulus checks, our customers have weath- ered this storm fairly well. But there are certainly pockets, in Massachusetts and across the country, where people are not faring so well.
“We have a lot of customers who have fully recov-
”
DONNA BOULANGER
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ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2021
JANUARY 6, 2021 19