Merging makes sense for Randolph Savings Bank and Bristol County Savings Bank, both located in southeastern Massachusetts.
The two mutual savings banks have 17 branches in an area that ranges from Randolph, Stoughton and Attleboro in Massachusetts to Pawtucket and Coventry in Rhode Island, with no overlap in branch locations.
ISO 9001:2026: A Practical Opportunity to Build for What’s Next
For Rhode Island manufacturers, ISO 9001 has been much more than a certificate on the…
Learn More
Both are financially strong banks with healthy revenue, said Dennis Kelly, CEO of Bristol County Savings Bank. Randolph Savings Bank has $380 million in assets, while Bristol County Savings Bank’s assets total $1.05 billion.
And because neither is publicly traded, they can merge at no cost to either bank, he said. It’s more of a pooling of assets. So there will be no branch closings or layoffs in connection with a merger they announced a few weeks ago.
The merger is expected to be complete early next year. Afterward, all seven Randolph Savings Bank locations will carry the Bristol County Savings Bank name, Kelly said. And the headquarters will be consolidated in Taunton.
Kelly said the two banks had never discussed a merger before Peter Pastore, a top executive at Randolph Savings, died suddenly this year. Pastore had been in line to take over as CEO after current CEO Ron Grant retired.
“It certainly was a change in plans,” said Donna Maguire, vice president at Randolph Savings. “It did bring us to a place where we had many options.”
She said the bank chose to merge instead of hiring someone to replace Grant, because combining resources with another bank would make the bank more competitive.
The merger is expected to put both banks in a better position to compete with larger banks, Maguire said. Expanding its footprint could make banking more convenient for existing customers and more attractive to new customers.
The merger also might expand the banks’ products and services, which could be used to attract more customers, she said. It certainly will expand the types of products available to Randolph Savings’ customers.
Bristol County Savings’ Prime Time program, for example, gives premier rates and perks to customers who have more than one account with the bank, Maguire said. “I think it’s a well thought-out program,” she said. “Our customers would probably be interested in taking advantage of that.”
Perhaps even more importantly, Kelly said, the merger will provide a capital base of more than $180 million. The base acts like retained earnings.
“It allows you to do more things,” he said. “It allows you to grow.”
New branches cost at least $1 million. People and IT systems are also “big-ticket expenses,” Kelly said. A larger pot of capital helps cover those expenses.
Growth and expansion are important because “everything is getting more and more complex, more competitive,” said Kelly, who has been in the banking world for 30 years.
“[Banks] do need to be a certain size. It’s the only way you can attract the people you need to work for you.”
Bristol County Savings doesn’t have any immediate plans to expand its presence in Rhode Island, Kelly said. The bank opened its Pawtucket branch a few years ago.
Rhode Island is an attractive market for banks like Bristol County Savings because there are fewer community banks to compete with, he said.
Massachusetts has about 170 mutual banks, he said, which makes it harder to break into the next town. Rhode Island, on the other hand, has more “big-box” branches from banking giants such as Bank of America and Citizens Bank.
“I think we offer an alternative to what they have,” Kelly said. “We don’t need an edge [to compete in Rhode Island]. What we need to do is provide personalized service.”
