EBSB Always Available for their Customers

East Boston Savings Bank Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Gavegnano has often said the key to EBSB’s continued success is being a ‘big bank with a small bank mentality’. 

“People answer the phones here,” said Gavegnano. “Everybody who wants to get a hold of me calls up and I answer the phone. All our lenders return phone calls. We really still provide quality interaction by getting back to people, solving problems, helping them solve problems and that’s what we are here for. It’s those values that we work hard on every day. All our employees are all trained to provide quality service and you can’t do that overnight. It’s a culture. It’s embedded in our culture that we are a big bank that does things the old fashioned way. Customers can talk to people here directly and get things done.”

Putting a continued emphasis on community banking EBSB just posted record Fourth Quarter numbers. 

“I couldn’t be more proud of the team,” said Gavegnano. “What we do shows up in our numbers and those numbers show what we do for customers.”

Gavegnano said EBSB reported record net income of $18.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2020, an increase of $1.1 million, or 6.2 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, and $65.1 million for the year 2020. 

While the COVID19 pandemic presented many challenges Gavegnano said the EBSB team worked diligently with customers to ensure the bank was providing top-notch customer support to best help navigate through these unprecedented times. 

“The quarter was a very good quarter,” said Gavegnano. “It kind of reflected all the things that we were tweaking and building on from January 2020 forward that matured into wins and blossomed in the Fourth Quarter. We started to initiate some frugality during the year because of the COVID pandemic. However, we maintain to keep all our branches open and provide service to all our customers either through having the branches open, using the drive thru or using all-electronic banking. We did all this with the correct protocol to protect all our employees from any exposure to the virus. I’m so very proud of all the employees–their loyalty, their performance for our customers–I just cannot say enough good things about them. I get a lot of letters and emails from customers that go out of their way and say they cannot believe how people responded to their needs during this crisis. That was very gratifying.”

Gavegnano said despite the pandemic and subsequent economic downturn in the nation EBSB was still able to take care of their employees. 

“Throughout the pandemic we’re still able to pay all our employees and were even able to deliver bonuses to our employees,” he said. “The year 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic have posed unprecedented challenges to the integrity of the economy and financial markets, especially the financial services industry. Management’s depth in industry experience, along with strong capital and liquidity positions, have EBSB prepared to meet the challenges of 2021 and beyond. We will continue to support our customers and communities we serve through these difficult times, testing our steadfast resolve to be a true community bank.”

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