Seven huge national banks have significant operations in Ulster County. Ranked by size of Ulster County deposits, they are: Bank of America ($428.2 million), M&T ($351.2 million), Key $297.8 million), Wells Fargo ($167.6 million), Citizens ($147.4 million), TD ($141.6 million), and JP Morgan Chase ($141.5 million). Their total deposits as of June 30 of this year were $1.676 billion.
Eight community banks operate in Ulster County. Ranked by Ulster County deposits, they are Ulster Savings ($598.3 million), Rondout Savings ($293.5 million), Sawyer Savings ($186.7 million), Wallkill Valley Federal ($114.4 million), Catskill Hudson ($85.6 million), Rhinebeck ($49.6 million), Walden Savings ($24.1 million), and Greene County Bank ($17.5 million). Their total Ulster County deposits amounted to $1.370 billion — some $300 million in deposits less than what the national banks reported but having a higher local market share than in most counties.
Four other banking institutions in Ulster County with a lesser presence have not been included in this analysis. Credit unions, which keep their data differently but are strong in the mid-Hudson region, are excluded from these calculations. If they were included, the locally controlled depository institutions would have more deposits than the national ones do.
As they were the year before, the local banking institutions of Ulster County were a bit more successful in the past year in attracting local deposits than the national ones were. Deposits in the local banks grew by 7.5 percent, whereas the local deposits of the national banks grew by 5.6 percent. The 2017 data reflects an adjustment for the merger of First Niagara Bank into Key Bank. Last year First Niagara (listed as a non-local bank) had $27.8 million in deposits in its single Ulster County branch office at the Kings Mall in the Town of Ulster. With the merger, the increase in deposits at the Key Bank branch across Ulster Avenue increased by $29.8 million — far more than the growth of deposits at any other local Key branch. That’s counted here as a deposit transfer, not a growth in deposits
Change in the banking industry is increasing. The influence of non-banking financial institutions on banking services has been significant. Though banks are still the most powerful players, consumers and businesses seeking capital have fintech alternatives.
It hasn’t been a bad year for retail banking in Manhattan. Deposits increased by about ten percent for the year ending June 30, which they’ve done on annual average for the past decade. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much to you. Because of the size of the New York banking market, however, it’s more than chump change.
Manhattan FDIC-insured bank deposits for the year ending June 30, 2017 increased $106 billion to 1.131 trillion dollars (more than five percent of the national debt). There’s almost as much money deposited just in Manhattan as there is in all the banks of the entire state of California. And just the increase is more than six times the combined bank deposits in Dutchess, Orange and Ulster counties.
According to the FDIC, two out of three dollars deposited in New York State (67.8 percent) are in Manhattan. The entire state had $1.683 trillion in deposits at the end of this June.
Part of the increasing concentration of bank capital in Manhattan has been from Gotham’s position as a world financial center. But part of it has also come from a concentration within New York State. As in many other parts of the country, huge amounts of deposit money has been sucked out of smaller cities, suburbs and towns into a handful of major financial centers. In 1997 Manhattan (New York County) had 43.6 percent of New York State’s deposits. Ten years later the proportion was 52.3 percent, and five years after that it had jumped to 64.1 percent. In the past five years it’s edged up to this year’s 67.8 percent.
The outer boroughs, as Gotham-centric Manhattan classifies Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island, boasted a respectable 15.4 percent of deposits to Manhattan’s 43.6 percent. This year, they had dropped in percentage terms to 10.5 percent to Manhattan’s 67.8. The gap has gotten wider each year.
Those numbers refer to market share, not amount of deposits. The amount of deposits in the other counties is increasing, but it’s not increasing at anywhere near the same pace as Manhattan deposits are increasing. With $491 billion in Manhattan deposits ($415 billion of it stashed in two branches at 401 Madison Avenue), JP Morgan Chase manages almost incalculable wealth.
With one exception, the inner ring of the New York State suburbs (Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland counties) have followed the same pattern. As an aggregate, their combined market share has dropped from 20.0 percent to 14.36 percent of the state’s deposits. Westchester County banks, perhaps because they’re somewhat less dependent on Manhattan commutation, have grown their market share from 4.89 percent in 20 years ago to 5.94 percent this year.
State market share in the remainder of the Hudson Valley (Putnam, Sullivan, Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, Greene and Columbia counties) had dropped steadily from a combined 2.78 percent of state deposits 20 years ago to 2.80 percent a decade ago to 1.26 percent in June of this year.
According to the FDIC data, the three counties of Dutchess, Orange and Ulster recorded $16.8 billion in bank deposits this year, up from $15.6 billion last year, $13.1 billion five years ago, $10.9 billion a decade ago, and $8.1 billion 20 years ago. In the 20-year period that mid-Hudson bank deposits took to double, Manhattan deposits increased by 6.6 times.
Though without the resources of the national institutions, local banks often have a better insight into local needs and come up with new ways to cater to them. Last week Ulster County government announced a film financing program with commitments of two million dollars from each of four local banks. The program, administered by the financial institutions, will be available to film, media and television production and post-production businesses in Ulster County.
At a meeting at BCDF Pictures in Kerhonkson to announce the program, Ulster County executive Mike Hein thanked the presidents of the four banks, Donald Gibson of the Bank of Greene County, Kevin McLaren of the Catskill Hudson Bank, Bill Calderara of Ulster Savings Bank, and Mike Horodyski of Wallkill Valley Federal S&L. The new film finance program would “make filming and setting up post-production businesses easier and bring more jobs to our community,” he said.
According to a press release, the program will provide funds for cash advances on distribution contracts, issue bridge financing for state tax credits, set up local accounts for qualified production companies, and make loans for property, equipment, capital improvements and lease fit-outs for post-production facilities.
According to Horodyski, the program does not involve risk pooling among the four cooperating banks. They will decide separately whether to participate in individual projects.
McLaren said his expectation is that all four banks are likely to participate in film financing deals. He gave credit for getting the program started to Calderara. “Bill was instrumental,” McLaren said. “He did a lot of legwork.”
“Ulster County has a long and distinguished history of supporting the creative arts, and it has been one of the defining cultural strengths of our region,” McLaren said. “We are hopeful that this will help differentiate Ulster County as we seek to increase our share of this market.”
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