Simon Griffiths leads Maine’s Camden National Bank as its president and CEO. Camden National executed the biggest bank merger New Hampshire has seen in some time when it bought Northway Bank earlier this year. Photo courtesy of Camden National Bank

There’s a new multibillion-dollar banking powerhouse in New Hampshire. 

With its purchase of Northway Bank earlier this year, Maine’s Camden National Bank vaulted into the top tier of local banks in New Hampshire, becoming roughly the same size of Mascoma Bank, Bank of New Hampshire and Meredith Village Savings Bank combined.  

In total, Camden picked up around $1 billion in assets and 16 additional branches via its acquisition of Northway’s state holdings, bringing its total assets to $7 billion and total branches to 73 across Maine and New Hampshire. Camden previously has only one office in New Hampshire, in Portsmouth. 

And Simon Griffiths, the CEO of Camden, sees further growth in coming years, organically and via acquisitions. 

Griffiths, a native of Britain and a long-timer banker in the U.S., talked earlier this month with The Registry Review about Camden’s takeover of Northway Financial, its growth goals in New Hampshire and New England, and the type of lending products Camden plans to offer moving forward. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Q: Until the Northway purchase earlier this year, Camden National hadn’t made an acquisition since 2016. Why now and how did the deal come about?
A: Let me start with the second part of the question – about how the deal came about. When I joined Camden [in late 2023], I had the opportunity to meet Bill Woodward, the CEO and chairman of Northway, fairly early on in my tenure. We made a great connection. And we made a great connection around some of those really important things – the culture of our banks, the importance and impact that we have in the communities that we serve, the focus on the customer experience – and there was a realization that there was just a tremendous synergy. And after having several hours of conversation, we felt there was a lot there, and we continued those conversations, and obviously that resulted in the deal being done. I think it’s been a tremendous success.  

But why now? I think we’re at a great juncture. We have great organic growth, but there’s a tremendous opportunity to scale our business and look for those opportunities that give us the opportunity to leverage our technology, leverage our people, leverage our experience, leverage our lending in other areas, particularly in contiguous markets. This was a great opportunity to expand our footprint and create leverage with those strengths that we have, and broaden out our geographic presence.  

Q: Do you see other bank acquisitions in New Hampshire and New England?
A: We’ve talked publicly about that. It’s certainly on the radar for us. I’ve said that we look for the right opportunity, the right synergies, the right culture, but certainly contiguous markets are very appealing to us. You know where we are and you know the states that border those states, so those are some of the areas [to look at]. Obviously, it’s an area that’s certainly heated up in the M&A market over the last year or so, so it’s certainly a competitive space. But we feel we’re very well-positioned to take the opportunities as they arise. 

Q: Do you see more acquisitions in New Hampshire and then, say, Massachusetts and Vermont?
A: I think New Hampshire is a very attractive market. There’s tremendous growth and potential there. And certainly some of those other markets you’ve mentioned are also appealing as well. But it’s really finding the right fit. It’s finding the right opportunity, and, obviously, timing really matters. 

Q: Does the current economic environment help or hinder prospects for more M&A in 2026?
A: There’s a lot of moving parts right now, not least the recent announcement [of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts]. And I think, generally, it’s positive from a regulatory perspective. There’s a favorable view [and] perspective by the regulators towards M&A and it’s certainly accommodating, as you’ve seen a pickup in deals over the last 12 to 18 months. We see our financial strengths. We’re very confident and have a strong balance sheet. We see the opportunities from that perspective. In the consumer and business sentiment, there’s certainly some softness in some pockets, but generally it’s quite strong. I think the general picture is positive, obviously, with some nuances. 

Q: Is there a specific type of customer – wealth management clients, small business borrowers – that the Northway acquisition unlocked? What made the deal attractive?
A: Let me start with retail, the consumer customers. I think that’s an incredibly important part of our business and this deal obviously opened up the door for us [in New Hampshire]. We have very, very strong digital technical capabilities. We have a tremendous mobile app. We have other digital capabilities, payment capabilities, that I think are really advantageous to our customers. There’s very strong synergy across our consumer lending side, as well as very strong synergy [across] business banking at Camden. We already had an existing business in New Hampshire. And leveraging that with Northway’s New Hampshire territory was a really great opportunity. So, it was really bringing some of those pieces to bear. I’d say the last piece is the wealth management business. That was a small part of the Northway franchise, but we have a very strong wealth business at Camden National Bank and I think that’s another area of opportunity for us. 

Q: How does New Hampshire fit in general into Camden’s strategy moving forward?
A: I was just thinking of a conversation I was having prior to the deal, chatting to some customers in the Blue Hill market in the Mid-Coast [of Maine]. And so many of them were talking about their connections to New Hampshire, their connections through education, their business connections, their community connections. Obviously, many of them go to New Hampshire to ski and other recreational connections. So, this combination really made a tremendous amount of sense for us. 

Q: How big do you see Camden national getting in terms of assets, say, over the next five years?
A: Certainly, we see ourselves growing, and I think there is a strong likelihood that we cross the $10 billion mark, to put a number on it. I think it’s hard, but certainly I think that scale does matter, particularly when you think of the efficiency of the business investing in a broad array of digital data and other capabilities. We’ll look for opportunities to continue to grow.  

Q: Who do you think is Camden’s biggest competition in New Hampshire? Regionals like Bar Harbor Bank & Trust and Eastern Bank? Megabanks like Bank of America and Chase? Or smaller institutions like Bank of New Hampshire or Northeast Credit Union?
A: It’s a competitive marketplace. The credit unions and the community banks are very real competition for us. They run great organizations, and we certainly see them showing up. Whether it’s on the lending side or the consumer side, they are material competition and part of our competitive framework. We also compete against some of the larger regional banks. But I think where we play, we have a tremendous opportunity. We’re big enough to have sophisticated tools, capabilities, technology. But we’re small enough to really show up locally and really know businesses and create great relationships with them and understand what they’re trying to accomplish. I think that’s a really nice place that we can play in. Obviously, we see Citizens and other banks as competition, particularly in New Hampshire. We’ll definitely come up against those large banks as well, but I think we’re well positioned to compete against them because of that nice balance between being big enough and small enough. 

Q: Are you going to be pursuing larger business customers now that you’re a larger bank in New Hampshire?
A: I think on some levels, yes. We have a larger balance sheet and that’s certainly something we are deploying. Prior to the acquisition of Northway, we had large clients and that’s a big part of our business. But [the merger] has created an even stronger balance sheet and an even more significant opportunity to grow and develop those relationships with some of those larger customers. 

Q: What commercial products do you plan to offer and emphasize in New Hampshire?
A: Well, we have a broad spectrum. We definitely play in the commercial real estate space. We have a strong commercial real estate business, with deep expertise and know-how. We play in the C&I space as well, and that’s another area we focus on in terms of providing businesses with liquidity to grow and to meet their strategic goals. So, I think those are the two businesses we show up in the business banking space. Winning the trust of our small business customers and being able to invest in their growth is a third element. Between those three pieces is the bulk of where we focus, though of course we have other pieces around the end. 

Q: Is Camden National going to keep pushing Northway’s residential lending business?
A: Yes, absolutely. We have been building on that and investing on that as well. We have a home equity business, which I referenced earlier. That was a fairly small piece, a very modest piece, of the Northway franchise, but we have a strong home equity business and we’ve actually been training a number of our stakeholders in home equity in the New Hampshire market. That’s something that’s really exciting and our stakeholders are really excited about that. We have a strong residential business in New Hampshire and certainly that’s an area we’re seeing some nice growth. This is a very important part of the franchise. We see residential mortgages as a core part of a customer’s journey. 

Q: What are some of the bigger economic challenges or concerns you’re keeping your eye on?
A: I can point to a couple of things. Businesses look at stability. That’s one factor I hear a lot about. Businesses want and need stability. Another factor I hear a lot about is housing and how we have to make sure we have the right availability of housing for workers, workers who are needed to staff businesses. Housing is just a crucial issue in both New Hampshire and Maine. It’s a big challenge and one that I know a lot of folks are trying to address.