Nathan E. Pusey
Title: Managing Director/Corporate Banking Boston, Commerce Bank
Age: 53
Experience: 26 years
Many in the banking business like to boast of their diverse backgrounds, but it’s hard to top Nathan Pusey’s. Before commercial lending was even a twinkle in his eye, he was a voice major at Boston University with every intention of becoming an opera singer. He also had four and a half years of active duty in the Navy under his belt when he decided to transition into the university’s business school. Since then, he’s held a variety of roles at Bank of New England, RBS Citizens Bank and most recently, CitiBank. Now, he’s signed on with Commerce Bank to help the Worcester-based bank expand its presence in Boston and beyond.
Q: So how does one go from opera to the military to commercial lending? What drew you to commercial lending?
A: One of the reasons I went into banking is, it allows you to do many things. It allows me to use my personality. I like people, I like being with people, I’m intellectually curious. I like to go out and explore everything. The things that are the most fun in banking is you can go into a company and watch hummus being made, you can watch hi-tech wafers being made, you can watch fancy restaurants creating food, so the experiences that you have learning what businesses do, really engaged me. I really liked that.
One of my favorite parts about [banks the size of Commerce] is the relationship part of banking at this level. When you’re lending to very large companies, you’re talking to the assistant to the assistant treasurer, and you’re in a bank group with maybe 20 other banks. That is fun in its own right, but I really like the personal interaction I have with the owners and chief financial officers and decision-makers with these middle-market to small companies.
Q: Why Commerce Bank, anyway?
A:[Its] reputation of management is excellent. It’s very entrepreneurial and has shown its capacity not only to buy banks, but to lend money in the marketplace. We’re not owned by a foreign entity or an out-of-state entity that’s making decisions. This is where this bank lives; this is where it’s making decisions. It’s very committed to the marketplace and wants to grow.
The bank’s appetite for credit is very diversified and broad. We have specialized industries that a lot of banks don’t. Getting a decision made is local, but it seems to be very efficient, and the people who are making the decisions have a lot of credit knowledge and are very experienced.
And I think one of the other big pieces is that the loan commitment this bank can make is up to $20 million, which is a very large number when you’re out there competing, so it’s a small bank that can make a commitment as a large bank and it gives you a lot of opportunity in the marketplace.
Q: Speaking of specialized industries, you’re in charge of taxi medallion lending now, correct?
A:Yes. One of the things [Commerce] bought when they bought Mercantile [Bank & Trust Co.] is a business where they do taxi medallions. It’s a very unique business. The taxi medallions right now are priced at about $700,000. These folks, many of them come from foreign countries and they want to live the American dream, so they figure out a way to come up with enough equity to buy a medallion, either with friends or through some other financing companies, prior to a bank being able to finance it. There are certain companies that are willing to take much more risk than banks. They’ll do an initial funding at a much higher interest rate, and when they pay down the medallion to a certain level – and it fits within our loan-to-value profile with regard to our ability to lend on the asset – we’ll lend to these folks. They’ll continue to pay it down, but they use the equity to do other things, like buy other medallions.
Right now, the largest taxi medallion owner in Boston is looking to sell 25 of his medallions and the market is very, very interested in it. Many of them have been sold already, so we’re providing financing, as well as some other financial institutions, for people who are trying to buy these medallions. It’s a pretty neat thing.
Nathan Pusey’s Top Five Goals:
- Make Commerce’s Corporate Banking Group the lender of choice for middle market companies in its territory.
- Invest meaningful board time with the Center for Collaborative Leadership and the Boston Police Activities League.
- Improve my golf game by reducing my index by four strokes.
- See a performance at the Metropolitan Opera.
- Stay in close contact with my five children.
