Darien Rowayton Bank was founded de novo in 2006, which recently prompted Robert Kettenmann, the bank”™s president and chief operating officer, to say, “In hindsight, that was one of the worst years to start a bank. It was hard for us to attain scale before the crash.”
The picture has turned since then, according to Kettenmann, but he termed the recovery fragile.
“Regarding the commercial sector, what we struggle with is what all the banks in this area are struggling with,” he said. “The economy in Fairfield and Westchester counties is not expanding fast enough and the banks are competing for pieces of the same pie. What really needs to happen for a robust lending environment to sustain itself is a boost in confidence.”
- Robert Kettenmann, president and chief operating officer of Darien Rowayton Bank. Photo by Bill Fallon
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2014, Darien Rowayton Bank had $480 million in assets, up from $90 million at the end of 2010. Kettenmann said a bonus to starting the bank on the eve of the recession was an absence of bad loans on the books when trouble struck coupled with an “open for business” sign during the post-recession refinance boom.
Now, addressing the market for commercial lending, in particular, he said, “There is no shortage of money to be lent at this point. You still hear some rumblings that it is tough to get credit. But most of us in the industry are eager to extend credit.”
If loan terms have become more stringent since the downturn, Kettenmann said, Darien Rowayton Bank has always operated on a conservative model. “Business loans are available,” he said. “We”™re pretty optimistic going forward and we”™re in a really good position of access to capital.”
Kettenmann said the loan market in general has seen some relaxation of credit standards. “But not dangerously so,” he said. “We”™ve been consistent in how we approach loans and we”™re fairly conservative lenders,” he said. “We did not become more conservative recently. We”™ve been conservative all along.”
Kettenmann said, “Even those who have done well after the downturn have been cautious. The recovery here is similar to the national picture. We did not fall as deeply as some regions, but also the converse has come into play and we have not had as dramatic a rebound. In the second half of last year, we started to see more optimism in commercial lending. That gives us hope there is more business on the way.”
Acknowledging that the bank”™s history is short, Kettenmann cited 2014 as the bank”™s most productive year for loans. It has three branches in Darien, Rowayton and Southport.
Kettenmann said a recent trend in banking is the highly informed customer, who has been trolling the Web and who arrives armed with data.
Another trend is within the bank. It has 55 employees. Kettenmann, 64 and a University of Pennsylvania graduate with 26 years at Chase Manhattan and another six years at Dime Savings Bank of New York, said that in the past a bank Darien Rowayton”™s size would have had eight to 10 administrative workers, “who did nothing but file paperwork.” Today, owing to the efficiencies of technology, that number is zero.
“Community bankers don”™t get enough credit for what they do,” Kettenmann said. “After the financial crisis, a lot of people learned the value of working with a bank that knows who you are.”
As for the big picture, Kettenmann said, “The overall economy and the markets are somewhat fragile and they react to negative news quickly. But everything I see says the American economy is as good a place right now as any in the world to invest.”
Regarding the bank”™s future, he said, “We”™ll be selective about footprint expansion. If we get a good opportunity, we”™ll probably take it.”
The front cover of Monday’s paper and on News@Noon today