Less than two years after launching with $20 million in equity from shareholders, Nashua’s Millyard Bank is among the state’s fastest-growing commercial mortgage lenders thanks, in part, to bonds formed in the pandemic’s darkest days. 

The bank, which opened its doors in late December 2019, saw its commercial mortgage lending volume grow by nearly 67 percent, to $18.53 million across 27 loans in the first half of this year according to The Warren Group, publisher of The Registry Review. That put it among The Registry Review’s Fast 50, the 50 fastest-growing lenders in New Hampshire for the first six months of the year, compared to the same period a year ago. 

That growth has put it right on target according to its five-year growth plan and earnings ahead of targets, President and CEO G. Frank Teas said, despite launching in the teeth of one of the worst economic collapses America has ever seen. Instead, a key federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic – the Paycheck Protection Program – helped introduce the de novo to a wide range of new clients in its service area.  

“When [former Treasury Secretary] Steve Mnuchin got back in front of the podium and said a week from tomorrow you’ll be able to walk into any community bank and apply for money to pay your bills, that was like telling everyone they should go to the only restaurant in town and order steaks all at once,” Teas said. “I knew there was no way they can deliver steaks on everyone’s plates at 5 p.m.” 

A Sudden Introduction to Nashua 

Many large lenders initially refused to accept applications from non-clients when the PPP first launched, swamped as they were by loan demand amid nationwide panic over collapsing consumer spending. That demand volume meant some small business clients of large, out-of-state lenders had significant trouble getting through to their bankers to set their PPP loans in motion.  

“Many banks, large banks had a servicing problem. It was really unfair. There was no way they could service all their clients,” Teas said. “It gave us a great opportunity to meet others on our de novo journey.” 

Who are New Hampshire’s fastest-growing mortgage lenders? The Registry Review has analyzed the data and found the top 50. See our rankings here.

Millyard and other similar lenders stepped into the breach as “financial first responders,” Teas said, offering their services to small businesses across the Nashua community in the same way large automakers pivoted to make ventilators in the pandemic’s early days. 

A Zoom call Millyard created for potential borrowers drew around 140 businesses on April 3, 2020, the first day PPP loans were available.  

Then “we did what every community bank does. We communicated frequently with these PPP folks. We wanted to earn the balance of their business,” Teas said, and over the next year, “a large majority” became clients. 

The Advantage of Being New 

Millyard had a pair of aces up its sleeve as it tried to convert these PPP borrowers to longer-term customers even as the low-interest-rate environment pushed banks of all sizes to compete for each other’s business clients. 

As a brand-new lender, it was able to launch with a comprehensive suite of technology already integrated into its services, tailored to the business banking at the core of its strategy. 

“We actually subscribe to and have better technology than other banks out there. Fiserv is our core provider and we bought the best of the best, particularly for treasury management,” Teas said. “Secondly we stuck to our knitting. We are a community bank focused on gathering deposits and making loans. We did an excellent job of that, funding those loans with local deposits, and we did not stray from our credit standards.” 

This technology and the bank’s 13-person staff also worked hard to make sure new depositors had a smooth experience moving their accounts over to Millyard. It also helped that the bank targeted smaller businesses, not large firms that need to deposit tens of millions of dollars at a time. 

“Transferring accounts is never easy,” Teas said. “My best form of advertisement is doing our job well and other people talking about it.” 

The now-$89 million-asset bank boasted deposits of $78.13 million as of June 30, according to its quarterly FDIC call report.  

Local Faces, Local Ties 

Millyard’s second ace was its local ties.  

“We made sure we had great advocates among our initial 225 shareholders,” Teas said, who helped the bank evangelize among the local business community. “We put the welcome mat out.” 

Its staff, board members and even some customers were key parts of the marketing campaigns it launched over the last year, featuring in television ads and pre-roll ads on YouTube and other social media platforms instead of paid actors.  

“First, it’s a great way to put the video out. You tag people’s accounts and so on,” Teas said. “But also, we’re not in 50 states, so people can identify with Julianna: ‘Oh, I love the service I received from her.’” 

These local ties also helped the bank target its messaging, from ads featuring board members who were part of a slice of the business community Millyard was targeting in one campaign, to a trio of foreign-born employees who could showcase the bank’s commitment to reflecting Nashua’s diverse community. 

“We had employees who were born in Brazil, Romania and Pakistan and had them speak in their native languages welcoming people to the bank and [speak] about Millyard being diverse and our communities being diverse,” Teas said. “It was an authentic production and it really resonated with a lot of people.” 

As the bank looks to finishing out its first five years, Teas said, it’s aiming to stay true to its plans to offer locally focused products and services that fuel local entrepreneurs. 

“Particularly post-PPP there’s an absolute need for a community bank” that can listen to borrowers and be creative about its lending terms, he said.