PeoplesBank in Holyoke recently added two new provisions to its charter with the intent of strengthening and preserving the bank’s mutual status for years to come.

The bank’s new president and CEO Thomas W. Senecal said he believes the bank’s mutuality has been a key to its organic growth over the years. When he arrived at PeoplesBank in 1995, he said the bank had around $460 million in assets.

With about $2.1 billion in assets today, he said, “We are the largest mutual in Western Massachusetts. A lot of our local competitors have converted and gone public. We recognize the value and strength that remaining mutual has on our model.”

Specifically, the bank has changed two particular provisions in its bylaws. The first would require a super-majority, or 75 percent, of its corporators to approve a conversion. Previously, the bank’s bylaws required a simple majority to approve a conversion to a stock bank.

The second provision would prohibit self-enrichment by senior management and directors in the event that the bank does attain the super-majority needed to convert to a stock charter.

“The intent and reasoning was to disincent management and the board for converting for the wrong reasons. That was a conscious thought process on our part in doing that,” Senecal said.

He said the bank’s directors and corporators unanimously approved the changes, which went into effect after PeoplesBank’s recent annual meeting, where he was also named as the bank’s new president.

Senecal said that PeoplesBank’s mutuality has allowed it to focus on longer-term goals. One recent example might be the bank’s new Customer Innovation Lab. The bank has also hired several data scientists and business intelligence analysts.

“The innovation lab is going to look at technology and how we can better improve our customer experience. That can include things like Apple Pay, mobile deposit, fingerprint recognition, voice recognition,” he said. “It’s all with the intent of trying to make a frictionless experience for our customers but also maintain the security of information.”

Nodding to the largely unregulated landscape in which fintech firms operate, Senecal added, “As a $2 billion mutual in Western Massachusetts, I think we’re ahead of the curve in trying to do these things. … We recognize that that’s what we need to do to compete.”