Page 18 - BusinessWest May 27, 2024

“Transactions are easy to do on your phone, and you don’t need to go into the branch for a specific transaction anymore. But people do go to the branch for advice and for questions and when they have a problem.”
DIMITAR KARAIVANOV
The bank is doing so, he said, in locations that make strategic sense, and also, in some cases, investing in lower- income areas. “We’re looking at communities that offer opportunity from an economic perspective, but we also con- sider it our responsibility to invest in communities and bring them along in terms of growth. That’s how we’ve been select- ing some areas that we’re going into.”
While Greater Springfield has been called overbanked, Karaivanov said Community Bank sees plenty of potential in expanding.
“There’s no lack of competition in Springfield — there are a lot of banks, a lot of mutuals, a lot of credit unions,”
he said. “But the reason that we feel like we can be success- ful is our team. So we’re really investing in our team. That’s how we look at expansion; it’s really people-based. Obvi- ously, the market needs to be sizable enough for another entrant, but we feel like we’ve got a team that we have basi- cally under-leveraged over the past several years. And now we’re trying to give them more runway and opportunity to be successful.”
Branching Out
As Community Bank expands in Springfield and other markets, it’s doing so, the organization explains, by reimag- ining the in-branch experience with clean, modern designs that encourage customer and banker collaboration, local community tie-ins, and staff that can handle a wide array of financial needs.
“Branches are still pretty important, and I think they will continue to be important,” Karaivanov said. “If you look at where most accounts, especially new accounts, are opened, it is still predominantly in the branch. People still get their mortgages predominantly in the branch. That initial contact with a financial institution is mostly in the branch.
“Now, when you open your second account, or if you are already a customer of a bank, you might go online to apply for a mortgage and other things. But to get into the ecosys-
tem, usually the average person still starts in the branch.” He cited the example of JPMorgan Chase launching an
online-only bank six years ago, “and no one’s heard of it since,” he noted. “Instead, you’re seeing JPMorgan open branches all over the place. It’s hard to be just online. You need both parts.”
To that end, modern branch designs are different than the old, traditional model of counters and lines, he added.
“Today, the branch is really more advisory and consulta- tive than transaction-based because transactions are easy to do on your phone, and you don’t need to go into the branch for a specific transaction anymore. But people do go to the branch for advice and for questions and when they have a problem. So spaces in the branch are designed in a much different way.”
Community Bank currently boasts 28 branches in New England, all but one of them in Vermont, and its current expansion plans include the first New Hampshire branch in addition to the second Springfield location.
“Community Bank is not just expanding, but deepening our roots in New England,” said Matthew Durkee, regional president for New England. “Our branches are the corner- stone of our retail business, and each one allows us to sup- port the community and deepen our relationships with our customers as we partner together throughout their financial journey.”
Those community relationships involve philanthropy and volunteerism in communities where the bank has a pres- ence, Karaivanov added.
“We do a lot of that, led by our branch staff most of the time,” he told BusinessWest. “It’s in our name, right? So we live by it. Our people are involved, they’re on boards, they’re in the Rotary Clubs, they know their neighbors, they’re sup-
Community
Continued on page 47
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