As it turns out, all it took was a little know-how.
Under CEO Jack Barnes, People”™s United Financial Inc. finally reversed years of steadily dwindling market share in its home base of Fairfield County, boosting deposits better than $450 million to push above the $6 billion mark here for the first time.
People”™s United recovered a full half-percentage point of market share in Fairfield County, giving it just above 18 percent of all deposits on record here with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as of June 2012.
Total deposits lodged in Fairfield County branches increased more than $1.6 billion to about $33.7 billion in all ”“ easily surpassing the $24.1 billion in deposits here before the financial collapse of 2008.
It marked a major turnaround for People”™s United, which under former CEOs John Klein and Philip Sherringham had seen its Fairfield County market share drop almost annually since recording more than 25 cents of every dollar on deposit here in the days a decade ago when the logos of Fleet Bank and First Union could be seen on competing branch signs throughout the region.
Under Barnes, a former executive with Vermont-based Chittenden Corp., which People”™s United acquired in 2007, the company has unveiled a new ad slogan in the past year ”“ “What know-how can do” ”“ and unleashed a small flurry of acquisitions to expand its reach into the New York and Boston markets.
If acquisitions can sometimes move the needle on deposit market share ”“ it is not uncommon for banks to repatriate deposits to the records of their headquarters branch after taking over another institution ”“ that did not appear to be the driver in People”™s United”™s gains. While its main office at 850 Main St. in Bridgeport did record a big increase, only about a dozen of the company”™s 66 branches saw deposits go down in fiscal 2012, some of those by minute amounts ”“ and a swath of branches from Greenwich to Brookfield recorded sizable gains.
People”™s United is scheduled to release its third quarter results Oct. 18; Barnes last addressed the company”™s business in mid-September at a financial conference hosted by Barclays, suggesting the company is seeing better returns on its residential and commercial lending as well.
“We”™ve added talent across the company ”¦ (including) senior executives who are now running our asset-based lending business and mortgage warehouse lending, our New York commercial real estate lending business and our private banking operation,” Barnes said. “We have also added a select group of recent college graduates in our recently re-established commercial training program.”
New York, of course, remains JPMorgan Chase & Co. country. Following a trader”™s multibillion-dollar loss and resulting Congressional hearings, New York City-based Chase recorded a significant decrease in deposits at its branches in Fairfield County ”“ but a major increase elsewhere.
Across its Northeast territory, including acquisitions, People”™s United deposits were up nearly $3.2 billion, a 17 percent rate of deposit growth.
