Five Questions With: James Rizzo

James Rizzo was recently promoted to chief commercial banking officer for the Rockland Trust Co. He joined Rockland Trust after it acquired Slade’s Ferry Trust Co. in 2008, and previously served as Rockland Trust’s senior vice president and regional commercial banking manager. He also worked as a senior vice president at Bank of America Corp. for more than 17 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Rhode Island College.

PBN: What are your top three goals in your new role?

RIZZO: It’s difficult to identify my “top three goals,” as each area of focus impacts the other. I’ll spend most of my time focusing on managing our traditionally solid, steady organic loan and deposit growth, continuing to develop our credit and lending professionals, and oversee the implementation of our ongoing commercial banking technology investments.

My first goal is to continue to maintain a strong position in our key lending disciplines: supporting commercial real estate investors and developers, lending to middle-market operating companies and providing reliable capital to small businesses across New England. Additionally, we will continue to expand our presence in specialty markets such as asset-based lending, franchise finance, floor plan lending and the security alarm lending business. Our organic growth will be driven by deepening our client relationships and expanding our client base.

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My second goal is to continue to develop our talented lenders and expand our leadership team. We enjoy a solid track record of reinvesting in the ongoing training of our credit and lending colleagues. In fact, we are one of the few banks in New England that has developed a formal credit training program. Over the past decade, we have graduated 35 of both internal career credit and lending colleagues from the program. This strategy has served Rockland Trust well, as we benefit from an expanding employee base of talented, loyal professionals steeped in our culture of relationship lending.

And lastly, my third goal is to continuously invest in technology. We have recently invested in an automated loan origination system, client relationship management software and will shortly be upgrading our entire core system. Being a member of the team that oversees our systems strategies to ensure that our investments benefit the target commercial banking constituencies is a major part of my new role.

PBN: What do you see as the biggest challenges to growing and maintaining Rockland Trust’s commercial banking arm?

RIZZO: While the current interest rate environment has generated headwinds, I expect our commercial lending markets to adjust and remain stable. The strong competition in a crowded banking market has always been a challenge, but we have successfully faced those challenges year in and year out. In fact, we have increased loan closing volume year after year for the past 10 years. Remaining focused on client service and being a very reliable, predictable source of capital in our markets will continue to serve Rockland Trust well.

PBN: Have rising interest rates and a forecasted recession impacted demand for commercial loans? If not, do you expect them to? Why or why not?

RIZZO: Increased interest rates have definitely slowed down certain sectors of commercial real estate development. The increased cost of bank capital has impaired real estate investment returns, as a higher percentage of net cash flow is now servicing debt versus being returned to investors.

In addition, many sectors of the economy are suffering from increased operating costs, which has negatively impacted demand for new equipment purchases and slowed growth in certain markets. It’s no secret that the Federal Reserve is trying to slow economic growth in order to curb inflation. As a result, the general commercial lending markets are seeing some impact on loan demand.

PBN: What do you think sets Rockland Trust apart from local bank competitors, as well as fintech and alternative loan options for local businesses?

RIZZO: The deep experience of our credit, lending and treasury management teams, our focus on relationship building with customers, our strong capacity to lend and our reputation for truly viewing business through the eyes of our clients set us apart from our competition.

Rockland Trust is a very disciplined bank. We’ve earned some of the best credit statistics in the country, yielding a very solid balance sheet. As such, we are positioned to support our clients through turbulent markets.

Many of our competitors are currently struggling with balance sheet liquidity problems, increased cost of funds or over-concentrations of certain asset classes. All of these things impair a bank’s ability to support existing clients. I expect we will continue to capitalize on our strengths while certain peer banks struggle.

PBN: What strategies or plans do you have to attract new commercial borrowers?

RIZZO: I can’t tell you that. My competitors read PBN!

Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Lavin@PBN.com