Photo courtesy of PeoplesBank
Brian Canina
President and Chief Operating Officer
Age: 48
Industry experience: 26 years
PeoplesBank has made big recent investments in Connecticut, acquiring the naming rights for what was formerly the XL Center and opening an operation center in Hartford.
But the bank has more plans for how it will grow in the coming years, including a more physical locations in the state.
In a state that’s already heavily banked, but lost its biggest local name a few years ago when People’s United Bank sold itself to New York State-based M&T Bank, PeoplesBank is one of a few players trying to grow market share. It’s intending for its customer service to stand out in Connecticut as larger banks continue to acquire community institutions, newly promoted COO Brian Canina said.
PeoplesBank is based in Western Massachusetts, but its headquarters is only around 12 miles north of the state line and has had a presence in Connecticut for some years.
Q: With this new Hartford operations center, why did PeoplesBank feel it was necessary to open that?
A: We feel, as a community bank, we want to be located in the community that we serve. We can do that with our banking centers, our branch network, but as we’ve continued to grow and have plans for future expansion, we felt that to really be in the community, we wanted to make an investment in a corporate office and have a local presence. PeoplesBank feels it is important to employ a workforce of individuals who work in the same communities as the customers we serve. This is one of the ways we maintain our community focus in the work we do. Our fully remote positions are very limited because of this philosophical approach and would be positions that do not require direct interaction with the customers we serve. Our hybrid positions are to provide work/life balance and flexibility for our associates.
We [also] made a significant investment in the naming rights for PeoplesBank Arena. We’re showing that we believe in the economic growth in Hartford, and want to be a part of what they’re doing in Hartford. We’re opening a banking center in downtown Hartford in the same building as our corporate office and so that corporate office will serve that entire Harford County area and be a place where we can host events for customers, and we can also work with some of the centers of influence in that area, attorneys, lawyers, etc. and be able to host events with them and really connect with the community.
Q: As banking becomes more digital, why is it important to have that physical presence?
A: That’s where banking is getting tough for a lot of institutions, particularly the smaller ones, where banking is becoming more digital, and maybe there’s not as much foot traffic. But we find that customers of a community bank, we’re really appealing to those individuals that appreciate the digital technologies that we do provide, but also like to know that that if they need someone, there’s a place where they can go and and that’s who we’re targeting. Also, just to show the community with a physical presence, that we are invested in their community and that we’re giving back. We’re not just looking to take deposits through digital channels like other institutions might, but we’re fully invested.
So, we feel that in order to be successful with the customer base that we feel we attract, we have to have a combination of great technology, which is a main focus of ours, but then also being able to provide a place where customers want to go and have face to face interaction. Additionally, we also provide at our banking centers a more convenient face-to-face opportunity with our interactive teller machines, our video banker ITMs. That’s a way for a customer that, maybe they’re always on the go and they don’t have time to walk into a branch, or maybe it’s not as convenient for them, but they can just drive up and they can see a face, and they can talk to someone, and they can do, essentially, 95 percent of transactions that they would do inside the banking center.
We feel that, for our customer base, we have to provide all these different channels, whether it be digital, in-person sitting in an office with someone, or face-to-face through video banker ITMs. That’s what we’re building out throughout our entire network, and that’s what we’re trying to bring to Connecticut, where we feel there that through consolidations and merger activity that’s taken place over the last 10 years, that personal touch has kind of gone away a little bit down in the Hartford County area.
Q: Where else is PeoplesBank making moves in Connecticut?
A: We just recently opened up a banking center in Avon and a banking center in Glastonbury, we are looking towards opening up a banking center in Bloomfield, and then we’re targeting early 2027 to open up a banking center in downtown New Britain. That’s what we have on our immediate roadmap for expansion in Connecticut, but we’re also continuously working on developing a plan for further expansion in Connecticut.
Hartford has a little bit more of a robust economic environment than Western Massachusetts. It’s not quite to where Boston is, but it’s somewhere in between Western Mass. and Boston. [Expanding in Greater Hartford] doesn’t mean that we’re not still focusing on our Western Massachusetts customer base. It just means that in order to be able to provide the best solutions to our entire customer base, we need to continue to grow as an organization, and we feel that Hartford County provides us a strong opportunity for that growth.
Canina’s Five Favorite’s Activities
- His job
- Family vacations
- Golf
- Binge-watching TV
- Attending sporting events
