Gerald “Jerry” Algere spent two decades at Century Bank building a not-for-profit commercial portfolio that grew to more than $2 billion. Now, he’s building a similar portfolio at Brookline Bank with ambitions to grow into the Mid-Atlantic market.
Needham Bank plans to move to a new Medford location that will include a full-service branch and expanded space for its cannabis banking business.
Local banks continue to bring on new staff from banks involved in recent mergers and acquisitions, with Arlington-based Leader Bank hiring four former Century Bank employees for its business and government banking team.
Needham Bank has acquired the cannabis banking and money service businesses that Eastern Bank inherited from its November merger with Century Bank.
Everett Bank, a cooperative bank with about $666 million in assets and two branches, has hired former executives from Century Bank and East Boston Savings Bank after both banks were acquired in November.
While ready for the next opportunity to acquire another bank, Eastern Bank is focused on organic loan growth and technology investments, CEO and Chairman Bob Rivers said during the bank’s fourth quarter earnings call.
The chairman of the Cannabis Control Commission raised concerns Thursday with what he said are “predatory financing deals” being offered by private lenders to minority marijuana entrepreneurs, and urged state legislators to address the issue by setting up a public lender.
Rather than keep the marijuana banking business it acquired bybuying Century Bank, Boston-based Eastern Bank has decided to transfer the business unit – but not to one of the banks already operating in the space.
Eastern Bank is taking a pass on what someone brought to the bankers’ party.
Eastern Bank has decided not to keep the cannabis banking business that it inherited in November with the acquisition of Century Bank.
The two mergers involving four of largest Massachusetts-based stock banks were completed on Friday as expected, bringing an end to two long-time fixtures in Greater Boston’s banking landscape.
Greater Boston’s banking landscape will experience a dramatic shift this Friday as two of the region’s largest bank mergers in recent years will take place that day.
In the last full quarter before its upcoming merger with Eastern Bank, Medford-based Century Bank had record third quarter earnings.
Boston-based Eastern Bank does not plan to keep Century Bank’s Medford headquarters after the merger and has agreed to sell the site shortly after the banks merge.
Boston-based Eastern Bank and Medford-based Century Bank say they have all the regulatory approvals they need to consummate their merger deal.
After announcing its sale to Eastern Bank in early April, Century Bank saw earnings increase year-over-year by more than 7 percent in the second quarter.
The merger of Eastern Bank and Century Bank later this year will result in 17 branch closings, and each bank will lose nearly an equal number of locations.
Century Bank’s merger with Eastern Bank moved a step closer to completion yesterday as shareholders of Century’s parent company approved the deal.
Eastern Bank has not yet identified which branches will close as part of its merger with Century Bank, but the state bank regulator expects Eastern to seek approval for branch closures, according to the latest public notice for the proposed merger.
Eastern Bank Chairman and CEO Bob Rivers began his quest to acquire Century Bank less than a week after Eastern Bank went public in October, according to a new SEC filing, while Century sought other bidders, including one New England bank that remained in the mix until a month before the Eastern deal was announced.
