Scott Sanborn
Title: Senior Vice President, Commercial Lending, HarborOne Bank
Age: 51
Experience: 26 years
Scott Sanborn’s introduction to commercial lending actually came when he began handling workouts. That experience, he said, “gave me a very interesting perspective of what constitutes a successful loan and what constitutes a very challenging loan.” Over his more than 25 years in the industry, he’s worked for banks like Fleet, Sovereign and TDBank, but when he had the opportunity to join the newly converted HarborOne Bank a little over a year ago, he jumped at the chance and hasn’t looked back.
Q: As HarborOne has built up its commercial lending portfolio, what’s your mix looked like?
A: We certainly have been much more heavily weighted toward real estate. It’s been a very robust market. We’re fortunate enough to have very experienced lenders here at HarborOne, and those lenders, because of their networks, have afforded us looks at a wide range of commercial lending, from flex industrial to office, some multifamily – I would say that’s probably where we have our least concentration just because so many people are in that space… We certainly try to gravitate toward a few of those as we find them, but there have been others that have been in that space and decided that’s a key competitive focus for them. We’re opportunistic where we see good strong deals for our book of business.
I’d say we’re more heavily weighted towards the industrial space, industrial and light office space. We have really not done a lot in downtown Boston, but a lot of the 128 belt all the way down toward the Rhode Island market.
Q: HarborOne recently moved into Rhode Island, too, correct?
A: We opened [a loan production office] this past summer and the rationale for that was really driven by the people we had to deploy to that market – two individuals who had already been part of HarborOne, that was part of their backyard – and ultimately a third hire we were just bringing aboard had extensive experience in the Rhode Island market, as well as Southeastern [Massachusetts]. It just was a natural fit as we explored which opportunities made sense. Rhode Island – Providence, specifically – fit well with the opportunities we saw being able to effectively compete.
Q: Have you developed any specialties or niches within commercial lending?
A: Well, it’s interesting. Given the actual progression of our build out, specialties are something that we’re going to look at down the road. Eventually the medical space, physician practices, a lot of the professional services, are certainly something all of us – HarborOne and our competitors – look at, but for the moment, what we’re trying to do is insure that we’re very timely in our performance for our customers. I think something we’re trying to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace is response time and execution. That’s something that given what I’ve seen in the marketplace is disjointed at times and if we can commit to having a much more throughput of our deal flow, I think our competitive opportunities will be present in the marketplace as we move forward.
Q: What about commercial and industrial and small business lending?
A: C&I will be a growing component of our book of business and actually I am very bullish on our opportunities for small business in 2016 and beyond. We have a great reputation for being very community focused and the goodwill that we’ve established through a lot of hard work and volunteerism and dedication is something that I think we can leverage here at HarborOne to build out our small business portfolio.
The businesses [we service] typically have revenues under $5 million. Many of our small businesses have revenues under $2 or 3 million, but the professional services segment, by historical performance, has some of the lowest default rates in all of our records, and it’s a space that I’ve gravitated to in my past history. I’ve built out platforms dedicated to serving either accounting firms or law firms, medical practices, and sometimes architectural or engineering.
I think in 2016 and going forward, HarborOne will continue to seek opportunities to grow business, not only in our backyard but in our new markets like Providence and we will continue to compete for business throughout Eastern Massachusetts and perhaps Southern New Hampshire.
Sanborn’s Top Five Boston Sports Team Championships:
- 2004 Red Sox
- 2001 Patriots
- 2014 Patriots
- 1984 Celtics
- 2013 Red Sox
