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With former CEO Michael Daly’s departure now months in the past, the path forward for Berkshire Bank is beginning to come into focus.
The bank will turn away from the aggressive growth strategy Daly had put in place and focus on profitability. New Berkshire CEO Richard Marotta told American Banker a few weeks ago that the bank was taking a breather from acquisitions, and yesterday he reaffirmed that statement to the Boston Business Journal.
“Michael [Daly] was a growth guy, and I am more towards profitability,” he told the Business Journal. “As we’ve taken a step back – again, to grow is great, but at some point you have to start making money. Your [key performance indicators] have to just start to be where they should be.”
Furthermore, Marotta said the bank no longer has the aspirations to be the next FleetBoston.
When Daly moved the bank to Boston, he said Berkshire would be Boston’s first regional bank in more than a decade, and that he wanted to bank to become the next Fleet, a bank that grew to nearly $200 billion in assets before being acquired by Bank of America in 2004.
The move will be a sharp reversal from Berkshire’s strategy over the last decade, which largely relied on acquisitions to grow. Since 2010, Berkshire Bank has made a number of purchases all over the Northeast to get to its now more than $12 billion in assets.
The bank acquired Rome Savings Bank in New York in 2011, Pittsfield-based Legacy Banks that same year and then Connecticut Bank & Trust Co. and Syracuse, New York-based Beacon Federal Bank in 2012. Berkshire then took a brief hiatus before purchasing Hampden Bank in 2015, Princeton, New Jersey-based First Choice Bank in 2016, Worcester-based Commerce Bank & Trust Co. in 2017 and most recently Savings Institute Bank & Trust in Connecticut at the end of last year.
Shortly after being named new CEO, Marotta launched a strategic review that will examine a range of its business operations including the bank’s balance sheet, profitability by business line, expenses and its share-buyback practices. The review is expected to be released next month.
