John Martocci Planning To Retire From Newtown Savings Bank

By John Voket

Given a chance, some guys will take half the afternoon talking about last night’s game, or their latest home improvement project, or a planned vacation. But when you want to get Newtown Savings Bank Chairman and CEO John J. Martocci fired up for an open ended conversation, just start talking about finance.

That was all it took to launch a conversation one recent afternoon, following the announcement that the popular local business leader and volunteer plans to step down from his post by year’s end. Yes, Mr Martocci will be leaving the building he entered 15 years ago, and a field he has dedicated his life to.

“I’ve been at it since I graduated UConn in 1969,” Mr Martocci said. Married for 29 years to his college sweetheart and “best friend,” Terri-Ann, he has only called three Connecticut communities his home: Hartford, Rocky Hill, and Newtown.

He graduated as a CPA and immediately went to work for Hartford-based Ernst & Young, as a specialist in bank auditing.

“In fact one of the first audits I did for Ernst & Young was the Southbury branch of Newtown Savings Bank,” he said with a chuckle. It was during his relationship with former NSB CEO Ken Adams that Mr Martocci was offered the opportunity to join the growing community bank.

“He and I struck a deal and the rest is history,” he said. “I’ve had two employers my entire career…other than the Army.”

In that capacity, Mr Martocci traded his adding machine for an M-16, serving two years in Vietnam as a first lieutenant in the infantry.

“I was in the jungle, the front line, but that’s a story for another day,” he said with a reflective look out the window of his Main Street office. “We did it, most of us wanted to do it, and some of us were luckier than others. But I’ve always been lucky…my whole life has been very fortunate.”

Mr Martocci said since he has worked in the financial services arena, he has seen many historical occurrences that have left their mark on his industry.

 “There was the oil crisis in the mid-70s, an interest rate with a prime of 18 percent in the late 70s and early 80s. I remember when I was happy to get a 10 percent adjustable rate mortgage for my house. And in the late 80s and 90s there was the real estate crisis.

“And this bank has come through all that very nicely,” he said. “And you can attribute that to good conservative leadership that stuck to its knitting.”

He arrived in Newtown in 1993 and became CEO 18 months later. Upon the death of James Osborn he became chairman and CEO, and his fellow executive John Trentacosta became NSB’s president. He said the bank has sustained core survival principles.

“If we don’t understand it — some crazy investment formula or a loan — we don’t do it,” he said. “When I started we just did mortgages, a small amount of business loans, checking and CDs. We took advantage of our strengths first and we improved the mortgage business — we have a very big pipeline now.”

Steering Clear Of Subprime

Taking a brief swipe at the other institutions currently foundering under the subprime mortgage debacle, he is proud to say that NSB would never put someone into a loan they couldn’t afford.

“Sometimes people don’t like that, but you have to have the courage to do that,” he said.

Under his leadership, Mr Martocci quietly helped the bank align with the secondary mortgage market and began servicing the loans the bank sold off to financial organizations such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank.

“You do all your business with us. Right now we have $425 million in loans we service for others — take that and add it to our bank and we are well over a billion in loans we have here,” Mr Marrtocci said. “We tell you we sold your balance, but you make your payments here, you have a problem you come here,” he added. “We took that part of our business and basically tripled it.”

Mr Martocci said despite the great opportunities to service millions in sold loans, NSB could not have succeeded without its growing contingent of “good people.” And until recently, Mr Martocci was involved with hiring virtually every employee from the tellers to executives.

Today he has assigned most of the human resources duties to his capable staff, but still personally interviews all executive level candidates.

“I can’t say enough you have to have good people. If you asked me what my best accomplishment is, it would be this team I have. I’m leaving a team in place that will do better things than I have ever thought about,” Mr Martocci said.

And all along it was vital that he kept NSB a true community bank. That meant getting to know local businesspeople and the many nonprofit organizations that serve the community.

“I got involved in the Family Counseling Center, the Danbury Hospital, too many to talk about, along with getting involved in the Chamber of Commerce and the business community. But that helped me with the necessary research to get to know the community,” he said. That set up the process to begin offering commercial loans to key enterprises.

“We’ve been at it now for 11 or 12 years, and we have about $200 million in commercial loans now with just about everybody,” Mr Martocci added.

Expanding Banking Technology

When it comes to embracing new banking technology, Mr Martocci has seen it all. He claims to have had the first ATM card in Hartford when those cash dispensing machines began coming on line in the late 1970s.

Since then he has seen the explosion of electronic and wireless banking interface, from computer banking from home to applying for lines of credit on cellphones.

“The whole industry was besieged by consultants telling us their service or product was going to take over the world — First Union Bank started closing branches because they thought computer banking was going to take over the world.

“In the last two years the technology has been booming,” he said. “I think it’s phenomenal. And once the customers get into it, they love it.”

As he begins to phase out of his position with the bank, he is talking about adopting the newest technology, a remote deposit capture system that will allow business clients to scan checks into a remote terminal on site, and those deposits will be instantly credited.

Mr Martocci is also proud to have helped establish the Newtown Savings Bank Foundation, funded with an initial $1 million and adding about $100,000 annually, primarily for scholarships. Another $200,000 annually is budgeted to underwrite dozens and dozens of small and significant community activities from golf tournaments to road races to the Relay For Life.

As the banking industry gets more global, Mr Martocci is planning to enter retirement firmly convinced NSB will continue as a premier community bank.

“There’s always going to be a niche for us. We’ll always be a community bank and we are moving forward with the plan to remain independent. I’m leaving with an excellent management team in place, who have an eye on improvements,” he said.

Even though the self-proclaimed “little bald guy from Hartford” will be enjoying his retirement, Mr Martocci said he will rest comfortably knowing he has left behind a successful financial foundation in his home town.

“We will always be the place you can go to talk to somebody — providing personal service,” he concluded. “We will always be the bank you keep for life.”