Among the flurry of Connecticut laws and mandates that took effect New Year’s Day, at least one perhaps went largely unnoticed by all but staff and customers of Glastonbury’s Bankers Bank Northeast.
Starting Jan. 1, Connecticut’s legislative fiat allowed Bankers Bank to widen its seven-state marketing turf to include two more Northeast states — Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Bankers Bank is one of a small but significant cohort of U.S. financial institutions that exist solely to provide short-term loans, and other credit services, national and international wire-transfers and other correspondent-banking services to banks and credit unions.
Craig Howie, who has run $140 million-asset Bankers Bank as president and CEO since July 2013, says the bank’s legislative charter limited its services to banks and credit unions only in Connecticut, the rest of New England, and New York state.
“We didn’t necessarily need to do it,” said Howie, who cultivated a rich list of banking clients while with the Federal Home Loan Bank in Pittsburgh. “But it helps replenish our client base.”
— Gregory Seay
