Michael G. McAuliffe
Title: Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Banking Officer, Middlesex Savings Bank
Age: 53
Experience: 27 years
Michael McAuliffe worked for his father’s circuit board manufacturing company for a couple years after college. When he got into banking, he intended to stay just a little while – until he could buy or start his own business. Fresh out of a commercial lending training program, McAuliffe spent his first year at Bay Bank cold-calling the state of Rhode Island for new business. Now, 27 years later, he still hasn’t bought that business, because he realized that he likes to work with businesses of all shapes and sizes. This year, he joined Middlesex Savings Bank to head up its commercial banking division.
Q: Coming from a family business background, do you think that gave you an edge when you got into commercial banking?
A: Absolutely. It gave me an incredible appreciation for all of the difficulties that businesses face. I see it now in a more narrow way. We’re financing them and providing products and services, but when you’re talking about a company with however many employees it’s responsible for and all their families, it’s amazing what they face on a day-to-day basis. It’s just as true today as it was back then – even more so.
As I got into my banking career, and I’ve met and worked with hundreds of companies, that two-year experience gave me an appreciation of what they face every day. You never know what’s going to happen, whether it’s an employee having a problem or a piece of machinery having a problem. Anything can come at you, so it was an invaluable experience, those two years working there.
Q: What are the biggest challenges lending in this climate, now that we’re four or five years out from the recession?
A: The one trend that has been a challenge, certainly for everyone in banking, has been consolidation and acquisitions. We lose relationships on a monthly basis because companies get sold. They may sell to a company outside the region. That’s happening constantly and that affects everyone.
The good news is there are a lot of companies being born in this area, but as far as banking goes, a lot of those companies never end up getting to a stage where they have financing needs. Many of them get bought early on. Overall, I think the pie has been shrinking … That’s a challenge, in terms of just the number of companies out there.
Q: Do you think that’s a product of the recession or were things heading in that direction anyway?
A: I think things were heading in that direction. It’s just a changing dynamic. You’re seeing a lot more investor groups buying companies, whether it’s a formal private equity firm or a group of individual investors, and they’re coming down further and further into the market in terms of buying smaller companies than they might have historically.
That’s good in one way because that can create financing opportunities for banks, but to the extent that their goal is to grow and combine it with somebody else and sell it five or seven years later, ultimately, it remains to be seen over the long term whether that’s a good or bad thing. It’s hard to tell.
Q: How do you stay in the game, in a tough environment like this?
A: The challenge for any bank is trying to maintain that discipline where you want to win a piece of business, you want to win a new relationship, but you want to do it at a balance, something that’s fair for both parties, and that’s the tough piece.
One of the things really noticed in my short time here is seeing how the bank has worked with companies that clearly were impacted greatly by the recession. We’re still working with them today. That’s how a lot of companies define their relationship with their bank. It’s how you’re going to react when I have an issue. I do think what I’ve seen here at Middlesex is a willingness to take a long-term view and try to work with any customer to keep things going.
When you get down to it, money is a commodity. Bank products generally work similarly bank to bank, so how do you differentiate yourself? It’s how you act and react to your relationships and what other kind of value you can bring.
Mike McAuliffe’s Top Five Movies:
- “It’s a Wonderful Life”
What’s lost on probably a lot of people, but not us bankers, is that Jimmy Stewart’s a lender. How many movies have you seen where the lender is the good guy? - “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy
I read the books as a teenager and thought they were great and always wondered if they would ever make a movie of them. They finally did, and they’re just epic, in my mind. - “The Shawshank Redemption”
It’s just a great story of if you’re dealt a bad hand, how do you manage it. That’s a great movie. - “12 Angry Men”
Again, just another great story of a guy doing the right thing when it would have been very easy just to go with the crowd. There’s such a great message there - “Remember the Titans”
It takes place in a high school in Virginia that’s just become desegregated and the football coach is just bringing together his team. It’s a great story.
