Fred McDuff knows a little about bank consolidation.
During a 16-year span, McDuff went from working at Hospital Trust to BankBoston to Sovereign Bank – all the while doing business in the same building.
On Dec. 4, McDuff broke away from the world of mega-mergers and started from scratch, opening Freedom National Bank in Greenville.
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The bank has one branch, nine employees, $8 million in start-up capital and an ambitious logo: "Back to the true spirit of banking."
"The name and the concept is about the freedom to choose a bank other than the larger banks out there," said McDuff, who has specialized in small business loans.
The bank and its administrative offices are housed in a two-story Colonial-style building at 584 Putnam Pike, Route 44.
The full-service bank is backed by its holding company, Berkshire Financial Services Inc. in Lee, Mass., which provided the $8 million. Freedom plans to sell another $2 million worth of stock locally as well.
McDuff said he wants eventually to open up to five branches in Northern Rhode Island, including a location in the Cumberland/Lincoln area within a year. He said based on research the community-banking concept is a good fit for the northern part of the state.
"We found an attractive set of demographics in Johnston and swinging through Smithfield, Lincoln and into Cumberland…things like median income, average housing values, growth and the number of small businesses located there. There are healthy sets of indicators suggesting a strong demand for banking services," he said.
McDuff, who lives in Cumberland, said he wasn’t concerned about having Bank Rhode Island, Fleet, Sovereign and Citizens bank branches nearby.
He said Freedom, which is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., can compete by offering most of the same services, ranging from savings and checking accounts to mortgages and equities. A particular emphasis by the company will be on the commercial side, specifically small businesses.
"My everyday small business loans will be between $250,000 and $1 million. We are prepared to do larger and smaller loans as well. These business owners might be the people who are not getting the attention from the other banks," he said. McDuff was managing Sovereign’s small business loan program for Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts before he left that bank in January 2001.
McDuff said customers will experience a "community-feel" when asking Freedom for loans. He said too many banks use formulas to determine who should be approved or denied loans.
"It’s not that we are going to take credit risks. What we will do is go out and talk to customers. Local business owners will come in and deal with the actual people who will be making the decision," he said.
The bank plans to attract people through print advertising, direct mail and a lot of knocking on doors, McDuff said.
