Primary Bank’s board has named one of its own as the Bedford-based lender’s CEO following founding head William Stone’s departure.

Stone had been CEO since the bank opened its doors in 2015, but discussions about his departure had been going on behind the scenes “for some time,” NH Business Magazine reported. The reason for Stone’s departure was not immediately clear.

Board chair William Greiner was named Stone’s interim replacement.

Like Nashua’s Millyard Bank, the $695 million-asset Primary Bank was founded by Greiner and other local business figures frustrated with the challenges inherent in trying to bank and borrow from large, out-of-state financial institutions.

Primary Bank was named New Hampshire’s second-fastest growing residential lender by volume in the first half of this year, according to The Registry Review annual Fast 50 analysis of data provided by The Warren Group, the paper’s publisher. It routinely placed well in the paper’s other rankings of most prolific lenders in 2018, 2020 and 2021, and was named a top Small Business Administration lender in 2021.