Q&A with Mark Crandall, TD Bank
Photo/Christina H. Davis
Mark Crandall, Regional President, MA/RI, TD Bank
Mark Crandall got his start in banking as a teller at a small bank in Wellesley in the 1980s. Since then, he’s steadily moved up and now oversees regional operations for TD Bank in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Here, Crandall discusses what he loves about banking and his take on the local economy.
>> You’ve been in banking for nearly your entire professional career. What’s kept you in this industry?
What I love about banking is the amount of people that I get to meet and talk to and do business with. The people part of banking is what really keeps me in it. It’s my colleagues here at TD and it’s the friends that I’ve met in the Worcester market that will be my friends for life.
>> TD Bank changed its name from TD Banknorth within the last two years. How has the name change gone?
Really the impetus for that was that we are now a Maine-to-Florida financial institution. So Banknorth didn’t really fit who we were any longer, so TD Bank makes sense and it’s is going to be our name forever, probably.
>> Where do you place TD Bank in the local banking landscape?
For greater Worcester, we’re a big bank that acts like a small bank. All of the people that work for TD Bank here are Worcester County people. They’re all local people that everybody knows and respects. We have a very strong presence in this market.
>> TD Bank calls its branches “stores.” Why is that?
We see retail banking as retailing as much as it is banking. It’s about exploring people’s needs and delivering products and services and convenience and all the things that people want when they go into a retail environment. We take that very seriously and we want people to feel good when they walk into one of our stores. So we have a very strong retail franchise in this market, with 17 locations. We also have a very strong commercial lending franchise in this market. In Worcester, we have more than 200 employees and we have 16 lenders located here at 370 Main St. in Worcester.
>> What’s your read on the local economy? Are we out of the worst of it?
Based on what we hear from our customers, I don’t think we’ve seen any significant job growth yet. I don’t think businesses are at a point where they’re really ready to staff up. I do think people are starting to increase inventories again in anticipation of what they’re seeing from contracts and orders and future revenue. I think people are feeling reasonably optimistic for the most part.
>> What about the issue of foreclosures? Do you have any projections for when that’s going to resolve itself?
We don’t have that great a level of foreclosures at TD Bank. That said, we certainly have some and it’s something we certainly pay attention to as a mortgage lender. I still think there are an awful lot of people who can’t afford their mortgages out there who are in the process or may end up in the process at some point. I don’t think that issue has resolved itself yet nor has the regulatory environment around foreclosures really been resolved. There’s an awful lot of conversation at the state and federal level about the way banks can respond to foreclosures. There’s going to be much more to come on that.
>> There have been a number of banks and credit unions moving into the city of Worcester in recent years. Are you seeing an increase in competition?
We do see an increase in competition in Worcester. Obviously there’s been some changes in some of the big banks in terms of their presence in the market, but I think some of the smaller and medium-sized banks from outside of Worcester County are now seeing Worcester as an attractive place to do business. So for us, we’ve been here all along, and we’re going to be here right along. We welcome the new competition, and from my perspective that will only make us sharper and better at what we do. We’ve never been afraid to compete.
Mark Crandall on what he likes most about his job:
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