John Battaglia
Title: Senior Vice President, Mortgage Operations, The Cooperative Bank
Age: 57
Experience: 35 years
John Battaglia began his mortgage banking career at Boston Five Cents Savings Bank in the early ’80s, moving on to Citizens Bank after it acquired Boston Five, and eventually working with a business partner to form their own independent mortgage banking company, Cambridge Mortgage Group. This year, he joined The Cooperative Bank (TCB) to boost the bank’s mortgage business. When he’s not talking mortgage banking, Battaglia plays golf and basketball and coaches youth football.
Q: What was it about TCB that appealed to you? The bank recently rebranded and is rejuvenating its image – was that a factor?
A: Absolutely. A couple things really intrigued me about TCB. I loved the outlook of the bank. It’s a growing bank. It’s very well capitalized. It’s in very good markets. The Roslindale area, West Roxbury, Charlestown – those are great markets, especially for real estate lending. They’re very vibrant communities, and that was great. And being able to grow the residential lending group in this area and create a sales culture to go out and develop the mortgage business was exciting to me.
In addition, I also felt that I could lend the expertise that I had in growing a residential lending team, just like TCB did with the commercial lending group. They really grew that. Now that I’ve been here, it’s a very exciting place. We’ve got a lot of people with great attitudes and there’s a great team atmosphere, and I’m thrilled. It’s been great.
Q: What you working with right now? What are the goals or benchmarks you’ve set for yourself in this role?
A: Right now, at TCB, we’re not going out and getting the business. It’s whatever comes in. It’s sort of a laid back approach to residential lending. What I want to do is to be able to go out and really work with the communities we’re in – with the Realtors, the financial planners, the lawyers – and make sure that everybody knows that we’re in the mortgage business and we want business. The other piece is really to expand their product line so we’re able to do all different types of lending. So for example, we can do more business with Mass Housing for first-time buyers and create a culture here where customer service on the residential side is primary.
Q: What does that look like on a day-to-day basis? Does it mean networking? Does it mean a concerted marketing push?
A: It’s networking, but it’s also building the sales team. It’s hiring sales people to train them on mortgage lending and have them go out and call on realtors and support the community. Sometimes it’s getting experienced people in mortgage banking and sometimes it’s training people to become mortgage bankers. Right now, there are no sales efforts outside of the bank.
The other piece about being at TCB, now that I’ve been here a few months, is the reputation is great. People love this bank in the community and hopefully now that we can piggyback on that to say, “Hey, we want to lend, too.”
Q: What’s your view of these markets TCB is in?
A: My first impression, when I was with Boston Five, we were in the neighborhoods of Boston and I knew the neighborhoods very well, and as I left Boston Five and then Citizens, I spent less time here. Now that I’m back here, what I see are incredibly vibrant communities, very family-oriented, you see parents walking their kids to school, these are really great communities.
With that, I think the housing market is phenomenal here. And in Roslindale, I think the average home price has gotten to be over $500,000 – because you’ve got two- and three-family houses, too – but it’s really been a very strong market. I see it as a great opportunity for TCB to do more lending.
Battaglia’s Top Five Favorite Songs:
- “Thunder Road,” by Bruce Springsteen
- “I’m Still Your Man,” by Zach Brown
- “Into the Mystic,” by Van Morrison
- “Racing in the Streets,” by Bruce Springsteen
- “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey
