Fresh off its new bank brand in Stamford, BNC Financial Group Inc. is contemplating an expansion to Norwalk with a namesake bank there.
BNC owns the Bank of New Canaan and the Bank of Fairfield, and late last month opened Stamford First Bank just north of downtown.
A Norwalk outpost named for the city would give BNC a fourth local brand, perhaps drawing comparisons to Connecticut Community Bank, which owns Darien Bank & Trust, Greenwich Bank & Trust, Norwalk Bank & Trust, Stamford Bank & Trust and Westport National Bank.
BNC already knows the Norwalk market ”“ company President Heidi DeWyngaert is a board member of the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce, and BNC”™s board has at least three members with Norwalk connections: Chairman Blake Drexler of Rowayton-based Five Mile Ventures; Carl Kuehner III of Building & Land Technology in Norwalk; and Dr. Thomas Ayoub of Norwalk Hospital.
Just last month, Bank of New Canaan agreed to arrange $2.3 million in financing to complete the C. Anthony and Jean Whittingham Family Building for the American Cancer Society in Norwalk, according to the Bisnow newsletter.
The BNC expansion comes amid continuing uncertainty among banks large and small over the regulatory landscape that will emerge from U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd”™s financial reform bill signed into law last month by President Obama.
“Obviously we are concerned with it,” said DeWyngaert. “As a small bank we need to be just as compliant as a big bank. We have two people on staff who keep us compliant and keep us on the straight and narrow. We keep it simple ”“ we take deposits and we make loans.”
In simplest terms, BNC needs to take on a lot more deposits before it will approach the size of Fairfield County”™s largest retail banks, with Bridgeport-based People”™s United Financial Inc. leading the pack. But as it aspires to that goal, BNC will have a lot more money to lend businesses and consumers alike. DeWyngaert said the bank could open as many as four branches in Stamford in the short term, while considering Norwalk and perhaps other municipalities for expansion.
Echoing the refrain of several other Fairfield County community banks, DeWyngaert says her company did not restrict loans during the credit crisis by imposing more stringent criteria. As of March, Bank of New Canaan had $209 million in loans and leases outstanding. While down slightly from three months previous, that was up nearly $30 million from a year ago.
For its part, Bank of Fairfield listed $49 million in loans as of the first quarter, up slightly from the fourth quarter last year and more than triple its totals of a year ago while it was still starting up.
“I say ”“ unequivocally ”“ we haven”™t changed our standards,” DeWyngaert said.
That is partly because the bank did not see any dramatic financial straits stopping its borrowers from repaying loans, though as the case with most banks its commercial lending arm did see an increase in problem loans. In the first quarter on a net basis, Bank of New Canaan had a loan charge-off rate of 0.5 percent, slightly better than the statewide average of 0.6 percent.
Following the credit crisis in the fall of 2009, DeWyngaert said she and her colleagues had steeled themselves for worse.
“I expected us to see difficulties in our loan portfolio, because people (here) are so oriented toward Wall Street,” DeWyngaert said. “We did not ”“ whether because Wall Street rebounded faster than expected or another reason, I am not sure ”¦ A little bit lucky and a little bit smart together, we have been able to weather the storm.”
