John F. “Jack” Murphy was recently named CEO and president of BankNewport, taking over from former leader Sandra J. Pattie in May. Murphy has more than 30 years of industry experience, most recently as president of business banking for Citizens Bank. He has also worked in small business, community banking, equipment finance and auto financing, and for financial institutions Santander Bank, TD Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and American Express.
PBN: How does your experience inform what you hope to achieve with BankNewport?
MURPHY: I’m excited about moving from a large public entity to a personal community bank, and more specifically, a mutual bank. This model allows our team to focus on longer-term, strategic initiatives to support customers, communities and our employees, rather than being beholden to outside shareholders or analysts.
Our primary focus is our community and our customers. My goal is to grow the bank in a prudent manner that benefits our primary stakeholders of customers and community, through new and innovative products and enhanced digital offerings. BankNewport has done a really good job in evolving the banking experience, especially through new offerings like our personal teller machines, which combine the convenience of ATM services and face-to-face service from a personal banker via a secure video communication.
PBN: BankNewport is a smaller community bank that is not publicly traded, which makes it different from some of the other institutions where you have worked. Do you think this puts you at a disadvantage? What insights from larger public banks could apply to BankNewport?
MURPHY: Not being publicly traded can be an advantage because we aren’t tied to monthly and quarterly results, which can easily take away from your strategy and thinking longer-term about what is best for customers and community.
While BankNewport is smaller in terms of physical presence, we compete with the larger institutions. I am looking forward to leveraging the fintech experience I gained during my career with those banks and bringing some of those technology enhancements to BankNewport in an effort to further solidify our brand as an innovator and forward-thinker in the marketplace.
As a community bank, we focus more on long-term customer relationships, combining the personal service we are known for with digital technology will improve our service.
PBN: Former CEO Sandra J. Pattie was the bank’s first female leader. How do you intend to foster and promote a culture of diverse leadership within the company, in terms of gender, race, etc.?
MURPHY: It is well-known that diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams, so this is not a ‘nice to have,’ it’s a ‘must-have.’ We are already in the midst of executing an in-depth Diversity & Inclusion strategy, spurred by the bank’s growth through the last few years, including the expansion of our footprint into urban areas, which has allowed us to increase diversity both organically and strategically.
That expansion, combined with the development of relationships with higher education institutions and organizations such as PrepareRI and Year Up, has provided inner-city [youths] an opportunity to receive on-the-job work training, leading to a more diverse workforce.
In addition, women have long held leadership positions at BankNewport – 65% of our entire workforce is female, including 33% of our leadership team and 55% of senior executives.
PBN: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the bank or the industry in general coming out of the pandemic?
MURPHY: The pandemic caused a major shift in the adoption of digital banking, and so customers’ expectations regarding those offerings have changed; more than ever, they want access to digital or remote capabilities across all lines of business and products – whether through a digital app to apply for a loan, or the ability to talk to a banker via Zoom or WebEx – and that’s a challenge for the industry.
We were the first bank to introduce PTMs to this market, and we expect to be on the cutting edge with even newer technology post-pandemic.
PBN: What are your top three priorities or goals for the year ahead?
MURPHY: My first goal is to expand the bank, both physically into new markets within Rhode Island and by augmenting our existing offerings and operational functions, such as within our marine lending line of business, growing the number of bankers who serve our customers, etc.
We will continue our investment in digital transformation – not just with customer-facing technology, but with end-to-end digitization within the bank, such as phasing out paper to be more efficient, driving down costs and providing a better, faster, more frictionless experience for our customers.
Lastly, I want to reiterate the bank’s commitment to deepening its relationships with those core stakeholders: our customers, the community and our employees. As we continue to grow, we can expand on our contributions to the communities we serve.
This story has been updated to add Murphy’s preferred nickname.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Lavin@PBN.com.
