From left: Samuel L. Laverack and Gregg R. Tewksbury.
Given the financial landscape with bank mergers and big banks dominating the news, executives at Savings Bank of Walpole began considering how the bank could remain competitive while keeping true to its roots as a community bank. The answer came when NH Mutual Bancorp (NHMB) proposed that they join its mutual holding company.
In December, the deal was finalized when Savings Bank of Walpole signed an agreement to join NHMB. “The rapid pace of consolidation in our industry caused us to think about how we could compete long term with larger institutions,” says Gregg R. Tewksbury, president and CEO of Savings Bank of Walpole, explaining there have been about 2,000 bank partnerships and acquisitions nationally in the past seven years with more expected. “We concluded that scale matters and will matter more in the future with technology playing a prominent role in service offerings.”
The affiliation with NH Mutual Bancorp allows Savings Bank of Walpole to leverage the advantages of being a larger bank with the ability to remain a community bank, says Tewksbury.
NHMB, a mutual holding company, is the result of a 2013 merger between two NH-based community banks, Merrimack County Savings Bank (the Merrimack) and Meredith Village Savings Bank (MVSB), the first relationship of its kind in NH. In 2015, MillRiver Wealth Management became the third subsidiary.
As part of the alliance, each affiliate retains its name and state charter, with separate management teams and boards of directors. The affiliation also allows the banks to increase efficiency in backroom operations and to pool resources to offer larger loans to growing business clients and to attract new ones.
NHMB also announced that President and CEO Samuel L. Laverack will retire June 30 after more than 40 years with the organization, and that Tewksbury will succeed Laverack. On July 1, Mark Bodin, senior VP and CFO at Savings Bank of Walpole, will be promoted to president of Savings Bank of Walpole.
Tewksbury sees the payment space evolving in the future, with customers moving from debit cards to block chain technology, which manages Bitcoin transactions. He says it will be important for banks to understand the technology and to find the right fintech partners.
The affiliation will become effective upon final regulatory approval and a vote by the corporators of NHMB and Savings Bank of Walpole.
Savings Bank of Walpole has 86 employees, and expects to retain its entire workforce even with increased efficiencies. Tewksbury says the newly formed larger organization will provide employees with increased career opportunities with a combined workforce of more than 400.
Savings Bank of Walpole is headquartered in Walpole and serves the Connecticut River Valley and Monadnock Regions of NH and Vermont from offices in Walpole and Keene. The bank has assets totaling $400 million. NHMB has combined assets totaling more than $1.6 billion. For more information, visit nhmutual.com.