Banker & Tradesman file photo
Brookline Bancorp grew its loans by 26 percent from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2023 and is looking to grow its loan portfolio more this year as large banks pull back their lending in New England markets.
Even quarter-on-quarter, the holding company for Brookline Bank, BankRI and New York-based PCSB Bank outpaced Eastern Massachusetts’ leading local banks, growing loans by 2.7 percent compared to the modest 0.4 percent quarterly loan growth of banks with large market presence in the area like Eastern Bank and Rockland Trust.
“It feels like the largest banks, which dominate our markets, have really pulled back in a lot of areas and are not really participating as much as they had, which is one of the reasons why we’re seeing a fair amount of business,” Paul Perrault CEO of the bank’s parent firm Brookline Bancorp, said during the company’s recent earnings call.
According to data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, the largest banks operating in Massachusetts that saw low loan growth from 2022 to 2023 include Capital One, US Bank and Bank of America.
“And the displacement, there were some of the failed banks were pretty active in all of our markets, and that created another level of opportunity,” Perrault said, referring to the spring failures of banks with Massachusetts presence such as Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank.
TWG data shows that, in 2022, First Republic was the fourth-largest lender in Massachusetts with $3.8 billion worth of loans. First Republic was acquired by JPMorgan Chase following its failure last year.
Carl Carlson, chief financial officer of Brookline Bancorp, said it aims to grow loans throughout all of the company’s bank holdings by 4 to 5 percent for 2024.
“We’re focused on growth of 4 percent to 5 percent for 2024. We certainly closed more loans in Q4 than I was expecting. Some of that growth probably in Q1 has gotten pulled into Q4. So we’re starting the year off very strong,” Carlson said.
Brookline Bancorp’s deposits were flat from the third to fourth quarter of 2023, but bank executives said they are working to get more deposits to be more on pace with the growth it is experiencing in loans.
