Rockland Trust: Steadily growing regional franchise
by Glenn RittRockland Trust has managed to grow its share of consumer deposits on Cape Cod, despite an overall shrinking market. But CEO and President Chris Oddleifson is well aware that deposits are far from the only benchmark of success in a highly competitive banking environment.
Oddleifson attributes Rockland Trust’s modest growth in part to the recent spate of mergers and acquisitions that have transformed the banking landscape and spurred many customers to rethink their choice of banks. Many are gravitating toward institutions with local roots and historical stability.
“We are still a community bank. I still visit customers and go on prospecting calls,” he said. “I try to know everybody in the company. I will call every new employee and welcome them to the bank. A bank our size can do that. At the same time, we are big enough to offer nearly all the products and services consumers and businesses need and want.”
Competition has required unprecedented agility, Oddleifson points out. Consider that Rockland Trust:
• was the first bank in the region to introduce remote check capture for business customers, so they don’t have to physically make deposits in a bank branch.
• has dramatically expanded its wealth management business to nearly $850 million in assets under management.
• is the first bank regionally to acquire a 1031 Qualified Intermediary company that can help sellers of property, including second homes, defer capital gains taxes. The acquisition introduces an entirely new revenue stream for the bank and provides a valuable tool for its commercial lending and wealth management team, as it supports clients.
• continues to build out its extensive branch and banking system. Currently, it has 52 branches, five mortgage banking centers, nine commercial banking centers and three investment management locations.
As Rockland Trust celebrates its 100th anniversary, Oddleifson is realistic about the challenges and opportunities confronting him and the nearly dozen other Cape competitors.
There’s the inverted yield curve, the housing market slowdown and the competition. But Rockland Trust is the beneficiary of geography. It is located in Plymouth and Barnstable counties, where population growth is the highest in Massachusetts.
To address the stresses of the banking environment, Rockland Trust also is focusing on bottom-line efficiencies and strategies to bolster its stock earnings.
For example, it instituted new risk rating models to help boost the profitability of its consumer auto loan business while reducing costs and overhead in those areas. It also has been buying back stock – 700,000 shares in the second half of last year – to bolster its earnings per share performance. Last year, its stock price (under its parent Independent Bank Corp.) increased 29 percent, compared with the NASDAQ bank index of 14 percent. At the same time, it is reinforcing its residential lending and diversifying its overall real estate portfolio – even with the housing downturn and growing competition from mortgage brokerages and national lenders.
“People are still buying houses and there are still a lot of refinancings,” Oddleifson observed. He anticipates growth for the bank in this sector in 2007. “We are rebuilding the business with new loan originators. We are reaching out to centers of influence in the real estate market – both residential and commercial.” By this, he means real estate brokers, attorneys and accountants.
“It’s all about business-to-business relationships,” he emphasized.
Rockland Trust’s commercial real estate lending pie is very diverse, including 11 percent for office buildings, 16 percent for industrial development and 7.6 percent for strip malls.
The commercial customer has become an increasingly larger part of Rockland’s loan portfolio, now accounting for about 54 percent. Loan amounts can be as low as $5,000 or $10,000 to help a business stay ahead of accounts receivables, and as high as millions of dollars.
“Here, it is really about trust, relationships and specific advisers,” said Oddleifson. That’s where stability in the marketplace makes a difference in his mind. Not only are the same loan officers in place year after year, but they have developed invaluable knowledge about the region’s economy and business competition.
Looking ahead, Oddleifson divides his world into two parts: One is anticipating rapid change and adjusting to new conditions – some beyond a bank’s control; and two, managing the bank’s resources, especially its employees, with an eye toward productivity and the corporate culture.
“We can combine prescribed best practice and policies with our own judgments. But, those judgments must be informed by our culture. That means taking the time and investment in the resources to role model and share – from the CEO’s chair to the loan officer to the teller – really, throughout the entire organization.”
Is there one common thread to this process?
Oddleifson doesn’t hesitate with his answer. “Listening. Listening to the customer. Listening to each other.”
Published in Cape Business May/June 2007
Glenn Ritt Glenn Ritt is editor and co-publisher of Cape Business Publishing LLC. He is the former publisher of Cape Cod Community Newspapers and editor of The Bergen Record in New Jersey. 
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