Photo courtesy of BankFive
Catherine Dillon
EVP, Chief Operating Officer, BankFive
Industry experience: 24 years
Age: 53
Fall River-based BankFive is marking the end of renovations to its main office, located on Main Street as it celebrates its 170th anniversary. The reconstructed corporate headquarters features a reclad exterior and renovations to its lobby and workspaces.
Executives said the redesigned headquarters was intended to honor the building’s history while giving BankFive a more modern public face – its two halves were completed in 1912 and 1998, respectively.
As part of the project, the branch that used to be housed in the $1.8 billion-asset bank’s head office was moved next door to a building that used to house a Santander branch until 2023.
Q: What was the reasoning behind the remodel and why did BankFive the bank feel that it was important?
A: So our building is actually two sections. One portion was built in the late ’90s, and the other part of the building is from the early 1900s, so two very distinct buildings. The old building is, like, a half-step down so the floors don’t line up and they were very separate, so we wanted to be able to open them up and have a more cohesive workspace. Obviously, after COVID, people expect a different workspace. They want flexibility. We wanted a big open work cafe, where people could use a laptop to collaborate, and less of the siloed departments that we had prior to COVID. We wanted to be able to have a welcoming space, to attract talent, and our CEO likes to say we’re future-proofing the bank. We’re building for how people will work in the next 15 years, not just today. The branch itself is sort of in the middle of the building, and we were able to purchase the property next door to give us a drive-up, which we’ve never had at this location, and parking. So, customers got this beautiful new branch, they got a drive-up, they got their parking situation and our employees got a beautiful, flexible workspace.
We’re on North Main Street, and I’ve been told that there used to be eight banks headquartered in Fall River in the 1800s and now we are the only bank headquartered here. This is a huge investment for North Main Street, and we’re hoping it will be a catalyst for further development.
We’re investing in Fall River [in two ways]. It’s also our 170th anniversary, and we launched a new program called “Five Cents.” We were obviously Fall River Five Cents Savings Bank in 1855 and now we are BankFive. The “Five Cents” is a play on that original name. We were focused on financial literacy. We already do so many things in the community with our volunteer hours. We go to schools and do Credit for Life. We’re involved with Junior Achievement. We work with EforAll, which is an entrepreneur incubator. So this is really bringing all of that together, and really nods to our original founding as a Five Cent Savings Bank, when in 1855 you needed $1 to open an account, and our forefathers said that’s not accessible for the factory workers in our town, so they lowered it to $0.05. Years later, we’re still looking for ways to enrich our community with secure financial futures.
Q: Having a drive-up, having that parking: In today’s banking landscape, how important is it to have that physical ease of access when so much of the focus is on frictionless digital experiences?
A: It’s actually a drive-up [interactive teller machine], so they can have both the interactive teller or just use the ATM capabilities, but we have seen for years that we have to make banking more accessible to customers. During COVID, we rolled out video banking – the benefits of an ITM being able to see a teller, but you can do it right from your mobile phone. We have an app. There’s a link on our website, and you can have a conversation with someone right in our call center. We know that customers are on the move. They don’t necessarily need to come into a branch to conduct their transactions so we’ve made that convenient for them.
We also opened two new locations last year. In Westport, which was a loan office, we’ve converted it to a digital-plus branch. It’s digital, but plus the benefits of having human interactions. We say it’s the intersection of human connections and dynamic solutions. Then there’s another one in Warwick, Rhode Island, and those branches offer everything a customer needs, with the exception of coin. You can’t even deposit a bag of coins, but through an ITM and through the colleagues that we have working in the locations, they’re able to handle all of the [other] banking transactions. It’s more affordable for us to have these digital-plus branches. The setup of a branch is very expensive, and this is extending our reach. We’ve already had a couple thousand customers in Westport, but we didn’t have an ITM or a location there, and this is giving more convenience for those customers who are doing business with us already.
Q: You mentioned it’s BankFive’s 170th anniversary. What do you think has allowed Bank Five to withstand the test of time?
A: I really think that we have a strong culture here, and we live by three values: “human,” “dynamic” and “steadfast.” We are completely committed to our community, to our customers and to our teammates. We feel that all the time. We hear employees telling us that feedback in surveys and meetings – they really believe that. A lot of places say it, but I know that they’re sincere when they say it feels like a family here, and it feels like people have our backs. That’s unlike any place I’ve ever worked. We have a really good camaraderie with our teams.
“Dynamic”: We always say, you don’t get to be 170 years old without making change. You think about all of the technology that has come through history of banking. I found an ad recently that had the first ATM was going into one of our locations, and you know what a big deal that was, and now we can do all of our banking on our cell phones. The change in the pace is just incredible, and technology is evolving every second. I mean, now we’re talking about artificial intelligence. We can’t imagine what our forefathers would have thought of artificial intelligence. So we have to keep up. We’re constantly evaluating how we do things. We never want to say, ‘Well, that’s the way we’ve always done it.’ It’s what’s the way we can do it now, how do we do it better? How do we make it more efficient? How we make it better for our customers? We care a lot about customer experience, so being flexible and keeping up with change has been key to our success.
Then finally, “steadfast.” We’re very proud that we’re a mutual community bank headquartered in Fall River. We intend to stay that way, and we share in our success with our communities. We have a fund at the South Coast Community Foundation, we fund a scholarship, the president scholarship. We have two students getting scholarships through that right now and of course, all of the volunteer hours and participation and support that we do. So, we think that those three elements have been key to our success, and really are essential to who we are.
Dillon’s Five Favorite Podcasts
- “Freakonomics”
- “The Journal”
- “Economics of Everyday Things”
- “Work Life”
- “Ideacast”
