More than 50 Envision Bank employees will lose their jobs as part of the bank’s upcoming acquisition by Hometown Financial Group.
Envision Bank will eliminate 56 jobs across six locations between Oct. 3 and Feb. 4, according to state filings made as part of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice Act.
Easthampton-based Hometown Financial Group is acquiring Envision Bank’s parent company Randolph Bancorp in a cash deal valued at approximately $146.5 million. The merger has been approved by Randolph Bancorp’s shareholders and is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
As part of the transaction, Envision Bank will merge into Abington Bank, giving the combined bank about $1.4 billion in assets. The two banks have nearby branches in Holbrook, and Envision Bank’s branch there will close on Nov. 7, according to a July 29 customer letter posted on the bank’s website.
One Holbrook employee will be laid off, according to the WARN filing. The remaining employees will move to Abington Bank’s Holbrook branch or another location, according to the letter from Richard D. Olson Jr., Envision Bank’s senior vice president of retail banking and corporate marketing.
Many of the jobs being eliminated include executive, finance and operations staff, said Envision Bank’s CEO William Parent.
“This is normal merger-related activity,” Parent said. “The majority of the people are moving over to Hometown Financial Group.”
In addition to jobs affected by the merger, the layoffs include roles being eliminated from Envision’s mortgage business in response to the current mortgage environment, Parent said. He added that the bank would have adjusted mortgage staff regardless of the merger after hiring to handle the 2020 and 2021 mortgage volumes.
Most of the job losses will occur in Quincy, where the bank has its headquarters and a lending office, and Randolph. The Quincy location will see 33 layoffs and the Randolph office will have 15 jobs eliminated. Two layoffs will happen in Braintree, one at the lending office in Westport, and four in Salem, New Hampshire.
The Salem office will close, Parent said, though some staff will be retained. Much of that staff has been working from home, Parent said, and the bank decided not to renew the lease.
Editor’s note 3:10 p.m., Aug. 9, 2022: This story has been updated to include comments from Envision Bank President and CEO William Parent.
