Hartford-based The Connecticut Bank & Trust Co. is trying to broaden its customer base with the addition of new branches and investment services.

A rapidly expanding branch network and the addition of investment services are not typically part of a 2-year-old bank’s growth strategy. But executives at Hartford-based The Connecticut Bank & Trust Co. hope such a plan will help them compete with the big banks that dominate the central Connecticut area, and that it will help the bank become a major player itself.

The CBT last week announced an investment agreement with St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Raymond James Financial Services to offer CBT customers investment services. The financial services company will set up representative offices at some of the bank’s locations, starting with the Hebron Avenue branch in Glastonbury. The CBT also has brought in a former Wachovia Securities financial advisor, Robert P. Peters, as a senior vice president and RJFS branch manager.

Meanwhile, The CBT is planning to open a new branch about every six months. The bank now has four branches in Hartford, Vernon, Glastonbury and West Hartford. The one in Vernon opened late last year, and bank executives plan to open a fifth branch in Newington in about a month, a sixth branch in Windsor later this year and a branch in Rocky Hill in the middle of next year, making the bank Connecticut’s fastest-growing new bank ever, according to David Lentini, the bank’s chairman and chief executive officer.

“Things are going great,” he said.

The plan from the beginning was to expand quickly, Lentini said. So the bank raised about $35 million in capital.

“It takes a major investment,” he said.

The bank’s growth strategy is different than that of a typical start-up bank, said John Carusone, president of the Bank Analysis Center in Hartford.

“CBT has a very focused, growth-oriented strategy,” he said. “They have a pretty defined diversification strategy, as well.”

It is unusual to see such strategies so early in a company’s life cycle, Carusone said.

“It’s a testimony to their expectation of being a major factor in the central Connecticut banking market,” he said.

And the bank has several factors in its favor, Carusone said. The management team is talented, the bank has an abundance of capital and the board of directors is experienced. The CBT also is located in a rapidly consolidating bank market.

“Executing strategies is the main challenge at this point,” Carusone said.

‘An Amazing Run’

The branch expansion and the addition of investment services are intended to help the bank compete with other institutions in the area. Many competitors operate 50-plus branches in the area and offer a wealth of services.

“When you go back to competition, most banks have a variety of products,” Lentini said of the addition of investment services. “We want to be competitive Â… [The investment services are] perfectly complementary to what we do.”

The addition of investment services was in response to customer requests.

“Banks today must be responsive to customer needs,” Lentini said in a prepared statement. “Our clients have told us they want to have choices when it comes to managing their money. CBT’s RJFS advisors will provide a full range of investment products including stocks, bonds and mutual funds for both investment accounts and individual retirement accounts.

“We are all very excited having a professional like Bob [Peters] join the CBT team and about the new products we can now offer to CBT customers.”

Bank executives are remaining on the lookout for additional services, Lentini said. One of the next steps for expansion is to put more ATMs, which The CBT named “Barneys,” in more locations. The bank is a member of the SUM network, which allows customers to withdraw money from other SUM ATMs without a fee, but the addition of more Barneys will give customers increased access.

Starting the bank has been a challenge, Lentini said, but it has seen success.

“It’s been really an amazing run,” he said.

As of the end of the first quarter of this year, the bank had $100 million in assets and more than $70 million in loans. More than 200 businesses in 60 industries bank with The CBT.

“Anytime you start something new, especially in a very competitive field like banking, there are challenges,” Lentini said.

But both personal and small-business customers are flocking to the bank, he added. Small businesses get an officer assigned to them, which is a rare occurence in the banking world these days. And the bank is accessible, Lentini said.

“They’re finding that the president picks up the phone,” he noted.

The CBT, which opened its doors as a de novo bank in March 2004, took its name from the original Connecticut Bank & Trust, a popular Hartford-based institution that closed in the 1990s. Organizers of the new CBT hoped the association with the name, and the association with other symbols it adopted, would translate into a good customer base. The Barney symbol also comes from the old CBT.