Lebanon-based Mascoma Bank and Maine-based Androscoggin Bank last month announced their plan to combine their parent companies into a single mutual holding company in the hopes of realizing scale.
Mascoma has $2.99 billion in assets, while Androscoggin has $1.8 billion in assets. Both banks are certified B corporations, meaning they’ve gone through a rigorous, multi-year process run by the private nonprofit B Lab to certify they meet a variety of social, environmental and governance standards geared towards public benefits.
“For more than a century, both of our organizations have been guided by community, service, and local decision‑making,” Mascoma President and CEO Clay Adams said in a statement. “This partnership allows us to build additional capacity and resilience, while maintaining the local identity and leadership that our customers and communities rely on.”
The single mutual holding company will create “operational efficiencies,” Mascoma said in its announcement, that “positions both organizations to invest more deeply in technology, customer experience, and long‑term innovation.”
Under the proposed structure, both Mascoma Bank and Androscoggin Bank will continue to operate with their own names, brands, charters, and boards of directors, but the combined mutual holding company will be run by a board whose members will be nominated by its member institutions.
That new holding company, to be called ClearNorth Financial Mutual Holding Company, will be run day-to-day by Adams as CEO and Neil Kiely, CEO of Androscoggin, as president. Both Adams and Kiely will continue in their current roles at their respective banks.
“This is about building a stronger future for mutual banking in Northern New England,” Kiley said in a statement. “It positions us to potentially welcome additional bank partners over time, providing a path for likeminded institutions to gain strength, efficiency and stability while maintaining local autonomy.”
If approved by regulators, this won’t be New Hampshire’s first mutual holding company that combines multiple banks.
New Hampshire Mutual Bancorp, parent of Meredith Village Savings Bank, Merrimack County Savings Bank, Savings Bank of Walpole and NHTrust, has operated since 2013 on a similar model.
The same mutual holding company combination model has been gaining traction across New England, with one of the biggest, Western Massachusetts-based Hometown Financial Group even hitting nearly $7 billion in assets and 56 branches among its members this year.
Performance Trust Capital Partners, LLC was financial advisor to Androscoggin Bank and Hogan Lovells US LLP was its legal counsel. Wolf & Company, P.C was financial advisor to Mascoma Bank and Covington & Burling, LLP was its legal counsel.
