Northampton Cooperative Bank plans to open a new office in South Hadley and reorganize its Amherst offices.
SOUTH HADLEY - Michael E. Tucker, President & CEO of Greenfield Cooperative Bank, announced the bank plans to open a new branch at 487 Newton Street in South Hadley. The bank has just purchased the building and plans to file regulatory applications and begin renovations with the goal at being open as early as January 2020. The new branch will be opened under the “Northampton Cooperative Bank” name as a division of Greenfield Cooperative Bank. GCB operates all of its Hampshire county offices under the Northampton Cooperative tradename.
Mr. Tucker stated GCB plans to renovate the building to bring it up to today’s standards and with an eye toward improved customer convenience. “South Hadley customers will have convenient access to full teller and banking services including a drive-thru teller, 24 hour drive-up ATM, safe deposit boxes, and night depository. The branch will provide instant issue debit cards and a coin counting machine for customers.” Mr. Tucker noted the South Hadley branch will be staffed by a manager, a commercial lender and 3 customer service representatives / tellers.
GCB offers free checking, free debit card, free online banking with free bill pay and the latest in Mobile banking services including Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay services. People will have access to the best mortgage loans and commercial loan services at the branch. Customers will also be able to conduct banking business at all 4 Northampton Cooperative Bank offices in Hampshire County and all 6 Greenfield Cooperative Bank offices in Franklin County.
"South Hadley is a great community, and an area into which we have wanted to expand." Tucker stated, “Customer feedback has made clear that consumers and businesses want choices in banking services. We need to grow to respond to those demands.” As a mutual bank, GCB has no stockholders and answers to its customers. “This is why we are able to focus on what customers want most. We’re proud to be able to continue to grow and meet the needs of everyone in our local communities.”
Northampton Cooperative Bank also will apply for permission to combine its Amherst locations into one building in Amherst during the 4th quarter 2019. Mr. Tucker noted that several years ago the GCB had purchased the premises at 390 College Street so it would have a bank-owned site to meet its long-term needs in Amherst. “Northampton Cooperative’s lease at its Triangle Street office expires at the end of 2019, so this makes it the right time to combine our Amherst business into the bank-owned branch at 390 College Street.” The consolidation of the two offices into 390 College Street is targeted to occur in October of 2019. A letter with notice of the change will be sent to all affected customers in the near future along with other notices in all offices of that change. In the meantime, the bank invites everyone to visit its 390 College Street location and talk to staff about the move.
Mr. Tucker stressed “There will be no jobs lost in Amherst. All Triangle Street staff will join the staff at College Street. Customers will continue to be greeted and served by the same people they have always known at the bank. GCB will also be adding five (5) new jobs to staff the South Hadley location.”
As part of this process, Greenfield Cooperative Bank will be submitting two applications to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Mass. Division of Banks to obtain regulatory approvals to (i) open the South Hadley office and (ii) consolidate its two Amherst locations into the 390 College Street office. Based upon preliminary analysis, the bank expects a positive response to the applications in the coming months.
Greenfield Cooperative Bank and its Northampton Cooperative Bank division have been in business since 1869 and has $615.76 million in assets and $72.3 million in capital. GCB operates in 10 branch locations and has 98 employees. GCB holds an “Outstanding” Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rating from the Federal Reserve and a “High Satisfactory” CRA rating from the Mass. Division of Banks from their most recent performance evaluations.
For more information contact:
Michael E. Tucker, President & CEO, Greenfield Cooperative Bank (413) 772-0293 x124.