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Ralph Letner
Senior Vice President and Chief Lending Officer, North Easton Savings Bank
Age: 64 years old
Industry experience: 37 years
Ralph Letner has been a veteran commercial lender for nearly 40 years, with 20 years in management roles. In October 2022, he joined North Easton Savings Bank, a $1.58 billion-asset mutual bank in Southeastern Massachusetts, as chief lending officer and brought with him his expertise and relationships in the renewable energy and professional services sector. In the last 12 years, he has been a chief or senior lending officer at Citizens Bank, the former Boston Private Bank & Trust and Wellesley Bank before its 2020 acquisition by Cambridge Trust.
Before banking, Letner was an officer on merchant ships, having graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. He abandoned that career after feeling a calling to help small business owners grow as a banker, leading him to get his MBA degree and then join a credit training program as Fleet Bank.
Q: How has your time as chief lending officer of North Easton been different from other positions you’ve held?
A: It is a very good, well-regarded bank in its market [in Bristol and Plymouth counties]. I was happy to join a very good group of professionals who are in a great position in the market. We have an existing platform, so now we want to grow and diversify a little bit. Historically, we have done a lot of residential lending but we do a lot of commercial real estate lending as well in housing developments, particularly in the apartment and multifamily spaces. We have a loan or two that might be troubled, but we do not have significant or material exposure to the [commercial] office market. We are trying to diversify by lending and providing banking services to small businesses, privately held and family-owned businesses, and nonprofits in our markets.
North Easton Savings’ market – Brockton, Norton, Easton, Plymouth – compared to markets before in my time in Wellesley Bank – Wellesley, Needham, Newton, Brookline – the real estate pricing is different whether residential or commercial. The northeastern [Greater Boston] marketplace presents more industrial opportunities in lending as well as in the professional services space as they were closer to Boston. Whereas you see more commercial and industrial opportunities in the southeastern region like Brockton, Plymouth, Norton and Middleborough.
Q: What can you share about the growth and expansion of North Easton Savings Bank?
A: Since I joined, we hired five customer-facing people in addition to the six existing officers, bringing our commercial lending team to 11. We’ve hired three new officers for business banking, which was a new area for the bank. We are concentrating on growing our business banking officers who will serve the small businesses, family-owned and privately held businesses, and nonprofits in our community and offer them help with their financing and banking needs. We also hired two new commercial lenders. One is focused on the renewable energy market in our communities and in New England, and another is more of a general community bank lender in the area.
The small business market is a highly coveted space for pretty much all banks at this stage. North Easton Savings Bank needs to be in that mix, and we have the capabilities and the focus to help them with their needs. On the other hand, the renewable energy market is a specialty lending space that I have been involved in and comfortable with for 12 years. It is a space that I understand very well, and we believe we can lend safely in that market. It is also a diversification of our lending.
We want to continue to grow cautiously, maintaining good credit quality and lending in different categories than what we may have [loaned to] in the past. The key is to have a well-rounded relationship with a customer, which means we can lend to these businesses and help with their banking needs, such as deposits and cash management.
Q: Is this a good time for commercial lending?
A: All banks are looking at the economic environment cautiously in 2024, and we think there is an opportunity in the relationships we have which will allow us to make good credit decisions and get involved with good solid businesses. We believe that customers and prospects are still going to look for bankers that they can talk to as opposed to machines and phones. If the businesses in our marketplaces feel there are opportunities, we want to support them appropriately.
There are still business opportunities in commercial lending, and we are off to a strong start in 2024. We will continue to lend in our areas of strength, which are CRE and development construction. We are focused on owner-occupied CRE for businesses that own their building or warehouses as opposed to investment CRE. It is also a growth opportunity for us to lend directly to operating businesses such as lines of credit, term loans, etc.
Q: Are you anticipating more commercial business from the Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and for loan officers to be busier this year?
A: The market is hoping for lower interest rates, and I think the lower interest rates may benefit commercial real estate investors and construction. It might encourage businesses to invest in equipment or inventory, so we think it will help overall in that space. That being said, we are still watching all the economic indicators to see if there will be a recession or soft.
Q: What are some lesser-known facts about commercial lenders?
A: Banks are having trouble getting the younger generation to join our ranks, and we would love to get more young people out of college into banking. There is a distinct difference between the interest level of my generation and the generation of today. But they do not know that a commercial loan officer has the ability to be in direct contact with a business owner – small business owners, developers, real estate investors – and help them expand and run their businesses, conferring with them about a million-dollar purchase or $10 million purchases for a renewable energy project. It is rewarding to help these businesses, and smaller banks have an important role in helping our local economies.
There is also business intelligence in banking now, and a lot of banking is going towards fintech. There are some interesting things to do in banking, but I don’t think we’re doing a good job of advertising and letting people know.
Q: What makes a successful commercial lender?
A: What makes a good commercial loan officer or business banking officer is the ability to understand a person’s business. You need to be good at marketing, accounting, general finance and a little bit of technology involved, so you have to be pretty well-rounded. The challenge has been to go out to that business owner and say we would love to help you – lend you money to help you grow your company – and then to come back to the bank and say why we should help this company and why it’s a good risk for us. You are selling in both directions, and you have to be well-rounded to do both. You need to be good in both the disciplines: math and then sales and marketing.
Letner’s Favorite Things to Do in an Average Week:
- Go for a run.
- Cook dinner for his wife and friends.
- Play a round or two of golf.
- Have a nice glass or two of red wine.
- Hold his brand-new grandson.
