EDITORIAL: However We Got Here, New Bank’s Success Will Benefit All

Since it seems everyone involved is under a gag order from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, it’s a little hard to figure out what happened at Wilber National Bank over the past year.
First, the president & CEO  abruptly resigned last Aug. 6 at a board meeting.  Then, within weeks, it was announced that Community Bank System, based in the Syracuse suburb of Dewitt, would be acquiring Wilber.
Friday afternoon, April 8, papers were to be signed finalizing the $102 million acquisition that will bring an end to a venerable Otsego County institution, founded in 1874 in Milford and now expanded into seven counties.
Being a small county consisting of small communities and one small city, few secrets remain secrets and scenarios do abound, and this is a condensation of the most commonly repeated ones.
After the economy dipped in 2008, longtime customers began approaching the bank:  They could no longer meet their full  obligations.  Fine, some were told: Pay the interest and catch up when the economy rebounds.
When an inspector from the Office of the Comptroller showed up and became aware of the practice, he ordered it ended.  Receiving resistance, he ordered a managerial shakeup and told the Wilber board to prepare to be absorbed. 

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The Office of the Comptroller then acted as matchmaker with Community Bank System, which has $5.5 billion in assets compared to Wilber’s $870 million.
Another contributing factor, one scenario has it, is that Wilber lacked the administrative firepower to keep up with the chunks of new rules arriving monthly from bank regulators in the wake of the banking crisis.  Banks simply have to get bigger to comply.
(Ironically, the crisis was a big-bank one; community banks like Wilber generally avoided the smash-up.)
A spokesman for the Comptroller declined to discuss what may or may not have happened, so it’s hard to know with any certainty.  Sure, the regulators are there to ensure consistency, that all customers are treated the same.  Still – if this scenario holds – it seems like a harsh outcome.

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When the news of the Wilber sale first surfaced, Rob Robinson, president of the Otsego County Chamber, praised the bank’s central role in community development in recent years and expressed fears it would be diminished.
The Wilber chief executive, after all, was president of the county Industrial Development Authority when all this began, and Wilber had been front and center for decades on virtually every major community undertaking.
The late Al Farone, the Oneonta attorney, was the major Wilber stockholder by the end of his life, and his bequests – to the city’s St. Mary’s Catholic parish and school in particular – continue to benefit local entities.
And that’s the shame of it.  Congressman Tim Holden, from Saint Clair, Pa., used to say, “I’m the only person in Congress who wakes up every morning and says, What can I do for Schuylkill County today?”
And so it is.  Undoubtedly, no executive in Dewitt will be waking up every morning saying, “What can I do for Colliersville” – or Cooperstown, or Decatur, or Hartwick – “today?”
Happily, senior management remains in place in bank headquarters at 245 Main, Oneonta.  When the Cooperstown branch reopens Monday, April 11, as Community Banks, branch manager Janice Eichler will still be greeting customers with a smile, as she always has, as will managers through the Wilber system. 
Some of Community Banks’ fees are lower than Wilber’s, according to Joe Sutaris, Wilber interim CEO who will be the new bank’s chief executive in the region, so that will benefit local customers.  Plus, Community’s e-banking options are more sophisticated than Wilber’s.
And there are other competitors – Norwich-based NBT, for instance, and the Bank of Cooperstown –  that are seeking to position themselves as truly local options.
So the pudding remains to be et, as Jed Clampett might say.
The acquisition led to 63 back-office layoffs, since those duties accounting, human services, etc. – can now be performed in Dewitt.  But if the hold-over managers can gain the full confidence of their new bosses and can show results – better, sterling results – the bank will be positioned not only to serve its stockholders but to resume its traditional role as one of our foremost business citizens.
Who knows?  Perhaps even THE foremost one it has been.