Needham Bank’s Dedham branch. Its acquisition of BankProv will give the bank $6.79 billion in assets and both branches and commercial real estate relationships in southern New Hampshire. Photo courtesy of Needham Bank
Needham Bank will acquire Amesbury-based BankProv, representing its first foray outside of Massachusetts’ borders by gaining branch locations in southern New Hampshire.
The bank’s leaders say the $211.8 million stock-plus-cash deal will help grow its commercial lending pipeline.
The combined organization will operate 18 branches across Metrowest, Greater Boston, the North Shore in Massachusetts, and Southern New Hampshire. There will be no branch closings, and the deal is projected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The evolving housing landscape has played a part in the move to acquire BankProv, said Needham Bank Chairman, President and CEO Joseph Campanelli, with renters following in the traditional footsteps of many homebuyers and moving north of Boston to find more affordable housing.
“We follow our builders wherever they go,” Campanelli said. “The higher cost of housing construction and occupancy in Boston has really shifted the demographics, if you look at where people, especially younger people, in household formations are going. So between affordability, quality of life, and access to mass transit, North Shore and New Hampshire have been doing quite well.”
Campanelli said the bank has credit relationships in the Granite State and the North Shore of Massachusetts totaling $360 million.
Total assets at transaction close are expected to be approximately $7.1 billion, with $5.9 billion in total deposits and $6.1 billion in total loans. The combined bank is expected to be the sixth-largest Massachusetts-based bank in the Boston metro area based on deposit market share.
BankProv comes to the deal after successfully rebounding from a $35 million loss stemming from the cryptocurrency crash of 2021. The bank had loaned to cryptocurrency mining operators who went under during the crash. The loss led to the resignation of then-CEO Dave Mansfield.
His successors, CEO Joe Reilly and former co-CEO – and now Reading Cooperative Bank CFO – Carol Houle pulled the bank back to profitability mainly with a strong commercial real estate portfolio.
According to mortgage data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, BankProv was the fastest-growing commercial real estate lender active in New Hampshire last year, with $70.1 million in total loan volume. Year-to-date in 2025, Bank Prov has made $33.05 million commercial real estate loans according to The Warren Group.
“Both organizations have a long history of serving our communities with a focus on ‘relationships, agility and entrepreneurship’ in banking,” Reilly said in a statement. “Combined, we will offer an expanded product line of commercial and consumer products that will provide real value to our market areas. This merger benefits our customers and provides a good return for our stockholders. We look forward to seeing Needham continuing to build on what they have accomplished over the past 133 years.”
Needham Bank reported $5.24 billion in assets in the first quarter of 2025, while BankProv reported $1.55 billion in assets in the same quarter.
The merger is expected to be approximately 19 percent accretive to Needham Bank parent company NB Bancorp, Inc.’s earnings per share in 2026, the first full year of combined operations, assuming full phase-in of cost savings.
