PeoplesBank's current President and COO Brian Canina. Photo courtesy of PeoplesBank
PeoplesBank President and COO Brian Canina says the Holyoke-based bank is eyeing Eastern Massachusetts growth in the coming years.
“We will work through that merger through the first half of 2026, bringing Athol Savings Bank and Cornerstone Bank together,” he said in an interview with Banker & Tradesman last week. “As we’re working through that we are also eyeing opportunities to continue to expand further east in Massachusetts and potentially south of that Worcester County area. So that’s what we have on our current strategic view for brick-and-mortar expansion.”
PeoplesBank completed its mutual holding company merger with Cornerstone Bank in January of 2025. Cornerstone announced in August that it was acquiring Athol Savings Bank.
Canina indicated that any eastward expansion by PeoplesBancorp – the mutual holding company for PeoplesBank and Cornerstone – could take place via mergers or acquisitions, as well as through traditional, organic expansion through new physical locations.
“PeoplesBank will continue to be active in M&A, while also continuing to invest in our organic growth strategy,” he said.
If PeoplesBank were to enter into Eastern Massachusetts, it would be entering a market that is filled with more larger and regional institutions than its current Pioneer Valley market, while also running into even more community and regional institutions it will need to to compete against. The bank is in the middle of a significant expansion effort targeting the Hartford area in Connecticut.
Canina believes that PeoplesBank can compete by connecting with customer service abilities and its digital technology abilities, which include a new, cloud-based core provided by Nymbus.
“Our focus is providing all those touch points for that customer base that wants digital technology, but also want to be able to have that personal touch,” Canina said. “Our customer service, we feel is very strong. We’re constantly upgrading our technology capabilities to compete with the largest banks, which will allow us to better compete with some of the smaller institutions that are like mindset to us in terms of community banking and also providing all of those channels, and providing them in a simple and easy way for them to do banking.”
