HARTFORD — United Bank CEO William Crawford told stockholders Thursday that the bank is doing well in comparison to its peers, but added it must continue to control costs in a “difficult” economic environment.
Bank earnings have been hampered for years by the small margin between interest paid depositors and interest earned from borrowers and investments, Crawford said.
“I’m proud of our team of employees,” who have managed to keep the bank moving forward, he said, despite having to operate in an extended economic environment that Crawford called “the toughest I’ve ever seen.”
Cost controls included a restructuring in April that involved an undisclosed number of layoffs.
After the meeting Crawford said the total number of job cuts won’t be clear for another month or two while the bank shifts some employees to other jobs.
After accounting for layoffs and new hires, the bank will have added two employees, he said.
Former bank CEO William J. McGurk said in a question-and-answer period that some employees have told him that the latest round of job cuts, or what he called “culling,” appeared to include a number of long-time workers.
Those workers, who believed they were on a “ladder” leading to advancement, found “the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall,” McGurk said.
Crawford said after the meeting that long-term workers weren’t targeted in the restructuring, which he said was conducted as fairly as possible.
At the end of 2015 the bank reported a total of 697 employees at its Connecticut operations.
In April’s restructuring, United laid off some branch employees as a way to centralize operations and “improve efficiency,” bank spokesman Adam J. Jeamel said last month.
The restructuring is intended to place the focus in branches on “taking care of customers, rather than performing operational back office jobs in the branch,” he said.
Also at Thursday’s annual meeting at the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford, stockholders overwhelmingly approved executives’ pay for the past year and re-elected the board of directors Chairman Robert A. Stewart Jr. to a four-year term.
United Bank was created in April 2014 through the merger of Vernon-based Rockville Bank and United Bank of Massachusetts. The bank has its corporate headquarters in Glastonbury and regional offices in Enfield and South Windsor as well as in Worcester and West Springfield, Massachusetts
Read more
Amid slowdown, home lenders turn to boat buyers, common-area owners for profits
