There’s a bankers’ musical chairs playing out in southern Connecticut.
John H. Howland, who recently resigned as president of New Haven’s Southern Connecticut Bancorp, has taken over as CEO of the First Bank of Greenwich.
Howland started his new job on Monday, exactly two weeks after his last official day at the parent of The Bank of Southern Connecticut, with four branches and $151 million in assets.
His move followed the recent departure of The First Bank of Greenwich’s founding CEO Robert Oca, who left under a cloud.
A Greenwich bank spokesman declined to elaborate on the reasons for Oca’s departure.
The First Bank of Greenwich, with $52 million in assets and two branches, recently has been under the close eye of banking regulators.
Last May, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a consent order demanding the bank increase its capital levels and do an extensive exanimation and report on its management, earnings, liquidity and interest rate risk.Â
At Southern, Sunil Pallan, 49, has been appointed as interim president.
Pallan will also continue to hold his current position as senior vice president and chief credit officer.
Southern agreed in February 2010 to a $19.5 million merger – later cut to $18.2 million — with Naugatuck Valley Financial, but the deal fell apart last November after regulators balked. Southern walked away with a $350,000 termination fee.
Subsequently, Southern posted a $1.4 million loss in 2010, as a steep rise in reserves to cover troubled loans cut into its bottom line.
In an interview with HBJ Today Friday. Pallan said he would be interested in becoming the permanent president of the bank. He also said the bank is “strong enough to go it alone.”
When asked if the bank was looking for another potential merger partner, Pallan said there is nothing in the pipelines, but he also noted that “banks are always for sale.”
