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March 31, 2023

Liberty Bank moves to open first full-service branch outside CT

Liberty Bank's corporate headquarters in Middletown. HBJ Photo | Joe Cooper Liberty Bank's corporate headquarters in Middletown.
By Michael Puffer

Middletown-based Liberty Bank has applied to open a full-service branch in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, its first full-service, out-of-state branch.

Established in 1825, Liberty currently reports itself as having 56 offices in Connecticut, 53 of which are full-service branches. Liberty, which claims more than $7 billion in assets, submitted an application to the Connecticut Department of Banking on March 24. The proposed full-service branch at 94 Shaker Road in East Longmeadow is part of an expansion strategy focused on the Interstate-91 corridor, the bank confirmed.

Liberty gained a toe-hold in Massachusetts with the establishment of an East Longmeadow commercial loan production office in 2021. That went so well, the bank is moving to open the full-service branch, with a target opening in October.

“The dedicated relationship managers and support teams based in this market have been extremely successful in building relationships within East Longmeadow and Greater Springfield and attracting new customers to the bank,” reads a written response to Hartford Business Journal questions from Minnie Saleh, Liberty’s senior executive vice president and chief retail banking officer. “The growth we have experienced at this loan production office has been significant and, as a result of the many customers onboarded, we have identified a need to establish a branch to better support our customer’s needs and continued growth.”

Liberty reported $6.94 billion in assets and 730 employees at the close of 2022, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.  A Liberty spokesman said the bank's assets currently top $7 billion. 

Most staff at the existing loan production office in East Longmeadow live in western Massachusetts, as will the staff hired for the proposed full-service branch, Saleh noted.

As a Connecticut-chartered bank, Liberty’s application for the East Longmeadow branch will be processed by the Connecticut Department of Banking, and subject to approval by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Massachusetts Division of Banks.

“Upon receiving the required regulatory approvals, we anticipate opening the branch in the fall of this year and look forward to serving East Longmeadow and the Greater Springfield market,” Saleh’s statement reads.
Liberty has made no secret of its strategy to expand along the I-91 corridor.

“We want to be a presence from Springfield down to New Haven, looking at Hartford as the main focus to grow that space and we want to bring back the market, the kind of relationships with commercial customers that hasn’t been around for years,” Stephen Roche, head of Liberty’s commercial banking efforts in the Greater Hartford region, said in October during a ribbon cutting for an expanded commercial lending office in Hartford.
 

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