Photo courtesy of Hometown Financial Group
Reed Whitman
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Age: 45
Industry experience: 23 years
Hometown Financial Group has a new chief financial officer after it landed Reed Whitman, formerly the treasurer of Brookline Bancorp. Whitman brings extensive experience operating under Brookline’s multibank holding company structure and he assumes his new role ahead of Gilbert Ehmke’s retirement. Ehmke was Hometown Financial Group’s CFO and treasurer for nearly 10 years. Along with M&A experience, Whitman also brings experience in balance sheet restructuring, new business pitches, process redesign and execution.
Hometown Financial ended 2024 by completing a merger of its own. North Shore Bank and Abington Bank completed a merger that saw the former join the multi-bank holding company and the latter, already part of Hometown, get folded into North Shore Bank as a division continuing to operate under its existing brand. The deal brought North Shore Bank to $3 billion in assets, and Hometown Financial to $6.5 billion.
Q: Why did you join Hometown Financial, and what stood out about them as a potential employer?
A: I think it’s just a great opportunity. It’s a growing company, it’s well respected and it was time for change as things move forward with the Berkshire [Bank] and Brookline acquisition. I had a great time working there for 13 years, but it’s time for the next role, and I feel like my experience that I can bring to the table will help accelerate the good work that’s already being done at Hometown. Taking over from a titan of the industry, Gil [Ehmke], is going to be a unique challenge that I feel like I’m up for and he’s leaving a really strong foundation which I hope to build upon.
Q: What are some of the intricacies that people might not be aware of in multi-bank holding companies?
A: It’s a commitment to the structure. That it is a little bit more work, but I think we get a lot out of it, from personal touch and being able to serve your community as the face of what many would see as a smaller institution. But being part of a larger group that can really leverage a shared service model. The front end is seamless to most folks. I think that it allows certain organizations that have a defined marketplace where there is no overlap with the acquiring institution to really make a bid for their existence. I’m not saying that’s the case here, necessarily, but there are certain organizations that will really benefit from being in a multi-bank holding structure, from a scale and cost perspective that maybe would be less advantaged just going in on their own. So there’s that proposition that really helps when you’re thinking about it, and then just as time moves forward, there are certain opportunities for smaller institutions to get absorbed into the benefits in that marketplace. So, you can kind of do it both ways. It allows a lot of flexibility, from my perspective.
Q: Talking about the balance sheet, how important is it to always be looking for ways to improve margins? Whether that’s to allow for a financial institution to be able to reach its full potential or just to be able to operate in a healthy way.
A: As part of being part of multi-bank holding structure, you can do larger deals that split them amongst the institutions. That allows for asset-side generation, and on the liability side there’re safety valves and opportunities allow for the generation of deposit-gathering that you might not be able to have in a smaller organization. So, it really helps both sides. From an operating philosophy perspective, I think deposits are such a critical part of it, getting that side of it right, and then leveraging it on the asset side. From a lending perspective, it’s critical to really right-sizing any organization as they join a multi-bank holding company that has a kind of a unified structure. Each bank will have their own flavor and whatnot, but as time moves forward, they all end up having similar operating philosophies that allow for continued growth and additional revenue generation.
Q: Looking ahead to this upcoming year, interest rates don’t appear to be going down barring a recession. How do you go about being able to acquire customers, acquire deposits and being able to grow in this environment?
A: From a revenues perspective, most banks, depending on how they’re positioned from an interest rate risk perspective, should see increased margin as asset yields reprice and most deposit pricing is kind of going the other way. With the yield curve sort of flat, that’s challenging, but it’s not as challenging as what we had over the last couple years, which is an inverted yield curve. From a variance perspective, I think there are opportunities there. I think deposits and deposit-generation is the key, as it has been the last couple years, and will continue to be key as people fight for funding, and from a cost perspective.
That’s really done one customer at a time and one market at a time. It requires spending on marketing and targeting and all that stuff. So, if you can solve the funding side of things, the asset side will come and so really that’s where at least I see the focus to be is checking accounts, demand-deposit accounts, making sure that you buy customer-acquisition products – whether it’s short term CDs or money market accounts. And that will really turn the tide, I think, at least on the community side of things.
Whitman’s Five Favorite Sports Teams
- Boston Red Sox
- New England Patriots
- Boston Celtics
- New Jersey Devils
- Kansas University Jayhawks
