With just one full-time branch, Medway Co-operative Bank is far from the biggest financial institution in the region.
And as a smaller bank trying to keep its customers from jumping to financial behemoths like Bank of America, Medway – along with other community banks – has to find ways to stay competitive.
To do so, the 92-year-old co-op has allied itself with Boston-based Commonwealth Financial Group, a general agency of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., to provide in-house access to financial products and services.
MassMutual general agencies are independently owned and operated, acting like regional sales offices. They offer products and services from a variety of companies, but process all transactions through MassMutual and its subsidiaries.
Commonwealth consultant Paul Dowd will be the face of the alliance, working with Medway customers in an office adjacent to the lobby of the bank’s main branch at 70 Main St. in Medway.
Expanding range
“Working with them allows us to provide our customers with a full range of financial services,” said Ann Sherry, Medway’s vice president for marketing and business development. “It will be like one-stop shopping. People clearly have financial needs outside of what banks can typically offer.”
Planned services include personal investments, investment planning, personal estate analysis, business planning, needs analysis, life insurance and retirement planning for individuals and small businesses.
Bruce Spitzer, the director of communications for the Massachusetts Bankers Association, said small- to mid-sized banks aligning with third-party financial planning firms is relatively common, and beneficial.
“Very often, [banks] get together with partners that can provide a round of full services, so customers can meet all their needs through one financial institution,” Spitzer said.
Sherry said the alliance should prove advantageous to both Medway and Commonwealth, in addition to the customer base. The bank, obviously, will provide Commonwealth with leads, and, in turn, Dowd might discover a need best filled by the bank.
The bank spent more than a year searching for a financial firm with which to partner, according to Sherry.
Medway had assets of $146 million as of December 2006, up from $128 million in December 2005.
Medway has no stockholders, and is controlled by a board of directors from the local community who represent depositors of the bank.
