Matthew L. Brown
Reporter- Boston Business Journal
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Rising expenses are making life difficult for Greater Boston’s small community banks, but there are a few that have managed to keep those increases in check in recent years.
Comparing the first nine months of this year with the same period in 2008, it’s common to see overhead expense increases in the 30 percent range among the smallest banks in Greater Boston.
Some have seen much greater increases, but very few managed to keep overhead increases during that period to single digits. Among them are North Cambridge Co-operative Bank, Stoughton Co-operative Bank and Methuen Co-operative Bank. Overhead expense increases at the three bank averaged 5.2 percent.
Commonwealth Co-operative Bank nearly did it, registering an overhead increase of 11 percent between the first three quarters of 2008 and the same period this year.
Carol McClintock, president of the $175 million, Hyde Park-based bank, said controlling expenses at the three-branch bank has been a matter of planning.
A lot of that planning is centered on avoiding big cost fluctuations by scheduling investments in things such as facilities maintenance and technology upgrades. That strategy requires compromises, and McClintock said managers of banks as small as Commonwealth must be honest with themselves about what they can, and cannot, do.
“Yes, we keep up with technology; we’re not on the cutting edge, but we have invested consistently so we’re not in a position where all of a sudden we’re facing (technology) failure or obsolescence,” McClintock said.
Commonwealth, which merged with Hyde Park Co-operative in 2008, makes IT upgrades on a rolling basis so that its technology is completely upgraded about every three or four years, McClintock said.