Domestic CEO changes after acquisition

CRANSTON – A group of private and individual investors has finalized its acquisition of Domestic Bank and says it is ready to pump money and “management resources” into the Cranston-based bank.
The closing of the deal last week – for which no financial terms were disclosed – led to several changes in the bank’s executive team.
Nicholas W. Lazares, chairman and CEO of Federal One Holdings LLC – the private-equity company that purchased Domestic Bank – is taking over as chairman and CEO of Domestic. Dean Holt, who has served as Domestic’s president and CEO since November 2008, will remain as president, according to a bank spokeswoman.
Nathaniel B. Baker, Domestic’s founder, chairman, president and CEO, retired in 2008, and other members of the Baker family are now no longer involved with the bank, Domestic said.
“We thank the Baker family for granting us stewardship of the bank that they built over the past 43 years, and we now look forward to bringing it to the next level,” Lazares said in a statement.
While all nine Domestic branches will remain open and account numbers won’t change for bank customers, Domestic said it will look to expand lending to local business and consumers. And with a capital infusion from Federal One, the bank will seek to grow through a loan-acquisition strategy.
“As financial institutions continue to falter and fail, many will seek to sell customer loans into the secondary loan market,” said Lazares, a former chairman and CEO Atlantic Bank & Trust (now Capital Crossing Bank) in Boston. “As a buyer of those loans, we will be well positioned to offer those customers the comfort of knowing that their credit needs will continue to be met and that they will have a secure banking relationship into the future.”
Closely held Domestic – which had $234.12 million in total assets as of Dec. 31, according to regulatory filings – made news in 2008 when it agreed to pay $1.8 million in penalties for the lending practices of a mortgage subsidiary that federal regulators described as “unsafe and unsound, deceptive [and] inconsistent.”
The bank lost $3.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to its filings with regulators.
Martie Dwyer has been named director of retail banking. She was an executive vice president and director of retail banking for Citizens Bank Massachusetts and, before that, director of retail banking for Citizens Bank of Rhode Island and Connecticut. Nancy Coyle, the former chief financial officer of Capital Crossing, has been appointed executive vice president and CFO, and Juan Ruiz, formerly of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., will become executive vice president and chief investment officer. The bank will also add a team of senior lenders and underwriters, it said.
During the recent economic downturn, many banks have been forced to curtail lending and cut staff. That creates a huge opportunity for a well-capitalized, growth-oriented bank,” Lazares said in a statement. “My door will be open to customers, new and old, as well as to community leaders.”
Domestic Bank, founded in 1967, is a federally insured bank serving Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts via its Cranston headquarters plus eight in-store branches. To learn more, visit www.DomesticBank.com.

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