Matthew Walsh is vice president and business banking area manager – New England expansion at JPMorgan Chase & Co. As his title indicates, his role is to consult and advise business owners in providing them with banking services and access to capital for the New York City-based bank’s retail banking expansion in New England, including Rhode Island.
A graduate of Stonehill College in nearby Easton, Mass., Walsh has been in the New England banking industry for 16 years. Before joining JPMorgan Chase, he spent 10 years with Santander Bank in business banking, focusing on the Greater Boston-South Shore-Rhode Island region. He joined JPMorgan Chase in summer 2018.
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PBN: What does Chase’s expansion of small business and business banking in New England involve?
WALSH: Our growth in Rhode Island has been slowly building and with Chase’s retail expansion, it allows us to do even more for consumers in the [Providence] region and the surrounding suburbs.
With branches, come our ability to offer business banking resources to local entrepreneurs. This includes access to our full portfolio of technology products, a banking platform and thought leadership advice from our experts. Inside our branches there is a dedicated small-business specialist, and entrepreneurs with business revenues more than $1 million will be assigned a dedicated business banker to help support capabilities beyond the branch level.
At our new Thayer Street branch near Brown University, we’ll soon be hosting what we call Chase Chats. They serve as opportunities for the community to come into the branch and speak with banking experts during small-group educational sessions. The Chase Chats focus on a variety of topics relevant to business owners, such as how to obtain more capital.
PBN: Based on what Chase has been seeing in small business and business banking in New England this year, what does it tell you about the region’s economy?
WALSH: New England is booming. At Chase, we are seeing companies grow quickly, and take a strategic top-line revenue and organic-growth approach that provides less leverage. Large and small corporates are taking a conservative cash position, due to some uncertainty within the market.
However, there are more investors in today’s marketplace looking to partner with smaller businesses showing potential that they might not have considered in the past.
The ability for businesses to scale and grow, based on the technology and global access, has never been better. We’ve seen a number of talented entrepreneurs invest in innovation to take advantage of the opportunities that it presents, which can only mean good things for everyone else.
PBN: From a banking perspective, how would you describe Rhode Island’s small-business market?
WALSH: Rhode Island’s small-business market is extremely diverse and thriving. From health care and education to construction and finance, these industries are doing well, which is positive to see from our perspective.
All the job growth in the area has had a positive effect on other industries, such as cleaning and landscaping, or delivery verticals of the small-business economy. The growth in local jobs is what’s driving our local spending to benefit the retail and service-provider segments throughout the area.
PBN: How will Chase’s opening of retail banking branches in Rhode Island complement the bank’s expansion of business banking here?
WALSH: Business banking and retail banking are very closely aligned; we can’t have one without the other. The strength of our firm’s size and ability to scale our investment in technology and security is a major advantage for our clients. Being a large national brand gives us the resources to build a sound platform no matter where in the business cycle a client is. But when it comes to our people, we are local. When Chase comes to market, hiring locally and engaging in the community is really important. I’ve lived in the Greater Boston area my whole life and have spent my fair share of time in Providence.
My goal as area manager is to help clients succeed at any stage of their business, and as banking experts, we want to grow with our clients and build lifelong relationships. But we understand our expansion into Rhode Island is going to take time. We are a new financial institution in a well-established market, and we need to provide value above and beyond traditional banking products to earn trust. My team does a good job of making sure we deliver one-on-one attention, so each business owner has the support he or she needs.
PBN: What data could you share that reflects the state of small businesses in New England and more specifically in Rhode Island?
WALSH: If you look at the New England economy and the dynamics of the industries that are included in our ecosystem, we are in a great position. My team is constantly monitoring the landscape. According to Vertical IQ, Rhode Island is in line with the national numbers for job growth [+3.7%], home prices [+4.4%] and unemployment numbers [3.7%].
The top companies opening up in Providence include lawyers, physicians, restaurants, landscaping, and plumbing, heating and electrical companies. These new businesses fit nicely to position to Rhode Island’s capital for continued job growth and consumer spending.
Scott Blake is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Blake@PBN.com.
