Are there any steps that Spencer Savings Bank has taken to help its lending customers during this difficult time?
When Covid-19 emerged and the New Jersey economy was principally shut down, Spencer Savings Bank remained open as an essential business for our customers and communities. Whether a consumer loan or commercial loan, we recognized that many borrowers would not be able to make their loan payments. We quickly reassigned staff and formed a “Covid-19 team” to deal with all these new issues we were now facing. We received payment deferral requests from our borrowers and worked with each one individually to understand the difficulties they were facing.
We came up with a two-phase plan with programs to help borrowers through this: HLP 1 and HLP 2 (Hardship Loan Programs). With HLP 1, we gave customers who were facing hardship specifically due to Covid-19, an immediate 90-120 days to get stabilized, alleviating the fear of a bank foreclosure. (Most of these borrowers have now recovered from their hardship, returned to work and are now paying their mortgages.) Subsequently we offered HLP 2 which is a program that provides customers in dire financial condition, a much broader restructuring plan. Five months later, we are pleased to see that the amount of remaining deferrals has dropped considerably, with many people now back to work.
What business sector do you see being affected the most? How are banks adapting to help?
Customers with commercial space (i.e. retail) have been hit the hardest. We have met with these borrowers to identify their issues and figure out how, when and if they are going to repurpose their facility to bring in new tenants. If there is a big retail box tenant, for example, and that tenant is leaving then the space could be divided to provide for multiple smaller tenants. It doesn’t do the borrower, or us, any good frankly to foreclose on a loan – which is a long and protracted process. What we are saying to borrowers is for them to have some good faith here. We are asking them to work together with us, as a strong team, to come up with a financial structure that can help them get through this very difficult and challenging time. At the end of the day, if we both work together and come up with a logical solution to a problem it will be a great success.
Do you feel the lending industry or real estate landscape may be permanently changed due to Covid-19?
In the commercial real estate world, there’s now a glut of office space with so many working from home which may be permanent. I think that will cut a new wave in the real estate market going forward. What we also see is a big hit to the retail space sector (i.e. retail malls and small retail strip centers). There was little to no retail activity for months. Now retailers are trying to re-open in an environment with a limit of only 25% occupancy and online shopping at an all-time high, which presents many challenges. As businesses continue to close, you will see a whole new reconfiguration of retail space and changing structure in terms of how buildings will be repurposed. Perhaps they will be converted into micro offices. I believe you’re going to see a lot less retail and office space than you have in the past and a big repurposing.
Multi-family housing values dropped in NYC by 10% and may eventually drop here in NJ. Those with more affordable rents, appealing to a broader range of tenants, are less susceptible to the variabilities that are shutting down the economy. Many of the people in high-end apartments can no longer afford the rent or now wish to distance themselves from the crowds of NYC. They have been moving to the NJ suburbs, where they can buy a home with some land. We have seen an uptick in residential purchase financing as a result of this recent trend. The moderate multifamily space, however, has remained stable. People are still paying rent like they used to, even throughout Covid-19.
On the commercial side of the bank there are some things that are also different. Many of the small businesses that had shut down are now re-opened, but we can’t rely on any of the old historical trailing financial results. If that company, for example, pre Covid-19 had 25 customers that they sold product to but now only 15 survived, we don’t know if those sales are going to be there going forward. There are no guarantees. We have no idea how they are going to get trade credit from suppliers. You have a lot of different elements on their balance sheet that are different today in a post Covid-19 world than before. And that’s the big challenge, particularly for small companies.
Is there anything that is surprising to you about this time?
We had an economy that was shut down for three months with millions of people unemployed. Being in this business for 40 years, I’ve never seen anything like this. However, now I am also shocked that you still see highly functioning equity markets. You see record equity levels because of the expectation of value. Unemployment is still high, but when you’re out on the road you see a lot of cars, like it is all normal again.
Despite all the disruption arising from Covid-19, demand for credit remains surprisingly strong. I believe banks have now become modestly more conservative in how they make loans, given all the uncertainty that surrounds a potential virus resurgence. Having said that, what is happening now on the residential side is property values have all increased, so it makes it easier assuming people are employed and many have not had a Covid-19 hardship (furloughed or laid off). The majority of our residential customers either work from home and continue to receive salary or had savings and were able to continue to make their payments because they were getting paid.
Is Spencer Savings Bank doing anything differently in servicing lending customers? What makes the bank stand out?
Banking products, for the most part, are very homogeneous and commodity-like. What makes our bank different is how we conduct our business and the type of people we carefully choose to be on our team. What we bring to the table is that our entire team is committed to the notion of being “your private bank”. The experience we offer is like “boutique banking” – nothing but the best service, attention and products for our clients.
If you expect that level of service from a big bank, you will surely be disappointed. I know because I’ve worked at them. It’s just a different philosophy here, a different way of doing business, and our customers love it. Much of the business we have taken from big banks is because of this and the stories are always the same from our customers. People want to know that you are there – they want answers, they want speed, they want execution. I recently met with one of our larger borrowers just to see how he is doing. He has my cell number and I have his. He has been so happy with our team that he moved the entirety of his business over to us (almost 30 loans). He feels very comfortable with us here and has told us that he feels like we are the type of bank that he can have a solid relationship with, because we understand him. You can’t put a price on valuable things like this – peace of mind.
John C. Duncan is Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer with Spencer Savings Bank, headquartered in Elmwood Park, N.J. The bank, a leading New Jersey-based community bank for over 100 years, has financial centers in Bergen, Essex, Union, Morris and Passaic counties. It specializes in delivering premier banking products and services to consumers and businesses. John has over 40 years of industry experience, including many years working on Wall Street, and manages all of Spencer’s consumer and commercial product offerings and lending departments (Mortgage Originations, Consumer Lending, Commercial Real Estate, Construction Lending, Commercial & Industrial Lending and Loan Operations).