KeyBank was a relatively unknown player in Connecticut when it first entered the market in 2016 with its acquisition of First Niagara Bank.That $4.1 billion deal immediately gave the Ohio-based commercial lender a major footprint here, with more than 70 branches spread across Hartford, New Haven, Middlesex, Fairfield, Tolland and Windham counties.But building brand awareness […]
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KeyBank was a relatively unknown player in Connecticut when it first entered the market in 2016 with its acquisition of First Niagara Bank.
That $4.1 billion deal immediately gave the Ohio-based commercial lender a major footprint here, with more than 70 branches spread across Hartford, New Haven, Middlesex, Fairfield, Tolland and Windham counties.
But building brand awareness has been a key challenge and opportunity for the $181.2-billion asset lender as it has tried to grow its local deposit and commercial banking portfolio.
Now that responsibility falls on the shoulders of Matthew Hummel, who KeyBank hired in 2020 to lead its commercial sales team. In July, he was promoted to Connecticut market president.
The 58-year-old Hummel, who previously spent most of his 30-plus-year career at Bank of America, is replacing James Barger, who was also recently promoted. Barger is now leading commercial banking for all of New England and will be based out of Boston, where KeyBank sees a major growth opportunity.
Growth is on Hummel’s mind as well, particularly in the middle market commercial lending space, which he was originally hired to jump-start two-and-a-half years ago. Since then, Hummel said he’s helped build out a six-person commercial banking team that he’s looking to expand amid a tight labor market for top talent.
KeyBank focuses on banking companies with $25 million to $2 billion in revenue, he said.
Hummel has been in Connecticut his entire career and life, having grown up in Southbury. His first job was with Connecticut National Bank. He said he’s a big UConn fan and men’s basketball season ticket holder. He has strong basketball roots going back to college, where he was an All-American basketball player at Colby College.
He currently lives in Glastonbury with his family and is splitting most of his time, when he’s not on the road, between KeyBank’s Hartford and New Haven offices.
“I’m a huge fan of Connecticut,” Hummel said in a recent virtual interview with the Hartford Business Journal. “I think it’s if not the best, then one of the best states to raise a family in and live in. And a big part of that is you need to have a successful economic backbone, and banking is the economic heartbeat of the economy.”
As of June 30, 2021, KeyBank had $4.9 billion in Connecticut deposits across 54 branches, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data. Since June 2017, it’s been able to grow its Connecticut deposit base by 16.2%, while it has shrunk its branch footprint by 21.7%, FDIC data shows.
Here’s what else Hummel had to say about his new role and KeyBank’s growth plans in Connecticut.
Q. After a long career at Bank of America, what prompted you to join KeyBank in 2020?
A. At the time, KeyBank [in Connecticut] hadn’t developed at the level they wanted to in the middle market space, which has driven my entire career, working with companies with sales between $25 million and $2 billion. I felt like I could come over here and make a difference.
There was a value proposition here that I hadn’t seen from other banks in the market, with a focus on commercial and middle market banking, and having a capital markets and investment bank that focuses on middle market and a common sense approach to providing credit and solving problems.
Q. What are KeyBank’s key focus areas in Connecticut?
A. Consumer and retail banking are a huge driver, gathering deposits and selling products to the consumer. Commercial banking is a big part of what we do. Private banking is also important.
Q. What prompted KeyBank’s recent leadership shake-up in Connecticut and New England?
A. KeyBank has $181 billion in assets, making us the (19th) largest commercial bank in assets. We’re are the No. 1 bank in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. Here in the east region, we’re a player, but I wouldn’t describe us as a formidable player as we build out all of our franchise.
We’ve identified Connecticut and all of New England as a growth market. Jim Barger came in about three years ago from the Midwest to try to get our Connecticut operations jump-started, to have us look in the East, like we do in the rest of the country where we do business.
That’s about hiring people and hiring talent, bringing the right people into the market. We’ve had reasonable success over the past two-and-a-half years since Jim and I have partnered here and we want to do more in Boston. Jim was running Boston from New Haven and he needs to be there to grow that market.
So, Jim has now picked up all of New England and I report to him.
Q. KeyBank is still a relatively new brand in Connecticut. It only entered the market about six years ago. Is brand recognition still a challenge?
A. I think in business and consumer banking our brand is pretty good. In middle market banking I don’t think we have a good brand or a bad brand, I don’t think we’ve historically had the right people in this market with the right solutions. I’ve hired four bankers on the commercial team over the past two years, and we’ve had a lot more success on the commercial development side.
Q. Do you see any changes in the short term? What about long term?
A. I think we are going to continue to invest in people, add more business bankers. We have had a fair amount of success in attracting talent and we plan to continue to do that.
We are strategically hiring in the commercial bank. We are open for business and hiring in our consumer and retail bank. We are also actively looking to add some people in our private banking business down in Fairfield County.
Q. What are you seeing in terms of business loan demand?
A. The first six months of the year have been really good. I’m concerned about the second half of the year. Our portfolio has held up remarkably well, but I don’t see the same type of activity with higher interest rates putting a damper on things, and concerns about a recession.
So, I think companies have good balance sheets and liquidity, but I feel like they might be waiting a few months to be opportunistic through things like acquisitions.
I actually think there are a lot of people looking forward to a little bit of a slow down, just because of challenges around supply chain issues, hiring people to support the kind of growth that has gone on.
The growth that has occurred during the last five years has been extraordinary. The only thing that has prevented companies from growing more has been inability to hire people.
Q. Do you think we are in or headed toward a recession?
A. I do. I think we will find out when we are coming out of it. If you just look at earnings that are coming out, they are softer, supply chain issues have taken their toll, inflation hasn’t showed up in a lot of the earnings yet but that will happen.
I think the Fed will do what it can to orchestrate a soft landing, and this will not be a Volcker recession or anything like that, it will be something where the economy slows for a couple of quarters and then we start working our way back to growth.
Q. What’s your average day like?
A. I have two bankers in Norwalk, two in Hartford and two more in New Haven. I’m probably splitting my time between New Haven and Hartford, and I will try to get down to Norwalk every couple of weeks.
I spend a lot of time in my car. My mileage report will demonstrate that. I like being client facing. If you are in the office all the time, you are probably not being productive. I encourage my team to get out and get in front of folks.
Q. KeyBank recently shrunk and moved its downtown Hartford office from 100 Pearl St. to Goodwin Square. What prompted that move and how do you view office space in this new age of hybrid and remote work?
A. The most important part of that move was to put our business, private and commercial bankers in the same space so we could collaborate and work together, share ideas and refer businesses back and forth to each other. Previously those teams were split between our Hartford and Manchester offices.
Now, once or twice a week, we have people coming into the office, sitting down and grabbing a cup of coffee to share ideas and collaborate. You can see the success of people who show up to the office. They perform better than people who don’t. I think it’s important that people get into the office.
The new office also gave us the opportunity to redesign the space to work better with this hybrid model. There are a lot less assigned offices and more shared space.
Q. Looking at the Hartford and New Haven markets, what do you view as the biggest challenges and opportunities?
A. The biggest challenge is having enough bankers to meet with all the different companies in the region and probably getting our brand out there.
We have some really good bankers, some of the very strongest in the market. There are a lot of companies out there that we don’t bank. We aren’t a market share leader so that’s an opportunity and that’s why we view this as a growth market.
