William D. Starbuck
William D. Starbuck has joined Fairfield County Bank’s Ridgefield office as a senior vice president and will lead the institution’s market initiatives for the Danbury, Bethel and New Milford areas.
An industry veteran with 36 years of experience, Starbuck was most recently executive vice president/senior lender at NewMil Bank in Danbury. Previously he served as executive vice president/chief lending officer at Nutmeg Federal Savings & Loan Association in Danbury.
His community involvement includes various positions with United Way of Northern Fairfield County, including director and Executive Committee member, board member and Finance Committee chairman for Amos House; trustee of the Keeler Tavern Endowment and chairman of the Endowment Committee; co-chairman of the Good Scout Award Luncheon; and volunteer/fund-raiser for Housatonic Habitat for Humanity.
Starbuck is the 2001 recipient of the News-Times Forest Palmer Award for Community Service in the Greater Danbury area. A graduate of the University of Denver with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree, he also earned a Master of Business Administration degree in finance from the University of Bridgeport. He and his wife, Elena, are 34-year residents of Ridgefield.
COCC, People’s Team Up
Bridgeport-based People’s Bank has selected Avon-based COCC for a technology partnership that will provide leading-edge check-image technology and processing services to the $11 billion bank. The partnership makes COCC the largest check processor in Connecticut, handling more than 14 million items per month, and is expected to raise the company’s overall revenue by approximately 8 percent.
“Transferring our check-processing operations to COCC will enable our bank to deliver leading-edge check-imaging technology to our customers,” said Patricia A. Manion, senior vice president of direct banking and operations at People’s Bank. “At the same time, we gain the many benefits of COCC, a company that is recognized as an industry leader in check- and image-processing, and which values teamwork. We are looking forward to a long and rewarding partnership.”
COCC will take over People’s Bank’s check-processing operations. Most of the bank’s check-processing staff will become employees of COCC and transfer to COCC’s new Bridgeport location to service People’s Bank, People’s correspondent banks and other COCC bank customers.
“This is a great move for any depository institution looking to take advantage of the new check-image exchange technologies,” said Joseph D. Lockwood, chief technology officer at COCC. “From paperless processing to electronic fraud protection, check-image processing is the way to go. People’s Bank, Connecticut’s best-known innovator in financial services, has once again put itself on a path to the future.”
Officials said the partnership is also a great move for COCC. The company has grown considerably under the leadership of Richard A. Leone, who became president in 2001. Since that time, COCC has migrated its entire client base to an open-core platform and expanded that client base by 50 percent. The company was awarded a Business Champion Award by the Metro Harford Alliance and received a Connecticut Fast 50 award for its 11 percent revenue growth in 2005.
“COCC is pleased to be working with one of Connecticut’s leading financial institutions,” said Lockwood. “Our partnership with People’s Bank will give them detailed workflow and financial models, state-of-the-art technology and the most responsive, knowledgeable staff available anywhere.”
COCC has presented its workflow and financial models at numerous industry conferences. More importantly, the models are in place and working at 30 client sites today.
“We like the quality of COCC’s service and their creativity in developing solutions that work for People’s Bank,” said Manion. “We are especially pleased to choose a Connecticut company with deep roots in the state. This partnership highlights the quality and innovation of Connecticut’s business community.”
