Ridgewood Savings Bank

Mar 26, 2020

How does Ridgewood balance digital banking with physical branches. Which draws more business? We look at it as an ecosystem—so all of those assets work together. Our customers come in for that personal touch. We're getting very good responses to both of our channels, so both are important. Do you think the mix will change? We're investing in both. For example, other banks have been closing branches. We've actually opened two branches—in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, and Plainview, Long Island—and there's one in the pipeline, for a total of 36 branches. We're going to grow both digital channels and brick-and-mortar. As far as which will grow faster than the other, I think both will continue to grow proportionately. What are the biggest changes you've seen in commercial banking in the New York area? I think it's innovation. People want things more conveniently. People want the personal touch and the attention to detail. We talk about digital, we talk about brick-and-mortar, but what we're focused on as well are the small things: free coin-counting, free coffee, notary service. The other thing we're focused on is providing our customers with free access to ID theft protection. When did that launch? We launched it in a partnership with EZShield just over a year ago. That's very important to us. If you've ever had your ID stolen, you know how hard it is to go through the process. So we have free ID restoration for our premier checking customers. With a lot of these partnerships, products and services, we've had a lot of growth in our customer relationships. And it's all organic. What do you mean by organic? All of our growth is coming from our customer base. Some other banks may leverage by borrowing funds from different sources or leveraging different things. All of our growth has come from our customer base doing more business with us. RECOMMENDED FOR YOU