Rockland Trust this week announced that it will add eight new senior loan officers to its mortgage banking division.
The new loan officers will fill in not just the Boston market, where the bank made inroads this year when it closed on its acquisition of Peoples Federal Savings Bank, but also much of its previous footprint. Armando Carvalho, Rockland Trust’s director of residential lending, explained the expansion of his division as essentially getting residential lending up to par with the rest of the organization.
“As Rockland Trust continues to grow, even in our current footprint, we did not have sufficient coverage from a loan officer perspective to handle all the customers presented to us,” he said. “Rockland Trust has a strong reputation on the commercial side, the small business side… The only area we would say was underperforming, based on the rest of the organization, would be the mortgage side.”
The new officers are John Arvanitis, Corliss Blanchard, Lourdes Connolly, Richard Farley Jr., Robert Misner, Leslie Torres-Arias, Hai Vo and Blair Wellbeloved.
In a press release announcing the new hires, Rockland Trust touted some of its new loan officers’ expertise in assisting first-time homebuyers.
“The whole industry seems to be pointing towards the purchase market dominating over the next few years,” Carvalho said. “We’ve had strong refinance business but with interest rates starting to climb, the focus on first-time homebuyers will help us gain a competitive advantage in the purchase market.”
Arvanitis joined Rockland Trust from Peoples Federal Savings Bank and will serve homebuyers in the Allston/Brighton area. Blanchard, who was previously at Bank of America, will work with homebuyers out of the bank’s Franklin lending center. Connolly will work in the Brockton area and some parts of Boston. Farley will cover Rockland Trust branches from Hyannis to the Lower Cape.
Misner will serve communities in the North Shore region, including Malden, Medford and Everett. Torres-Arias will serve the Merrimack Valley from her office in Lawrence. Vo will be based in the bank’s Medford lending center and will work with homebuyers in Cambridge, Medford, Somerville, Norwood, Westwood and Quincy. Wellbeloved will work with Cape Cod area homebuyers out of the bank’s Falmouth mortgage office.
Carvalho added, “We’re very happy with what we’ve done from a recruiting perspective.”
