For 88 years, there has always been a Green leading Firstrust Bank in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Its current CEO, Richard Green, is 70 years old. His son Jeff is 27 and — ironically — still too green for the role.
"He needs to have a few more gray hairs, or no hair at all," the elder Green said.
The $4.7 billion-asset Firstrust will instead promote Timothy Abell, its president since 2004, to be CEO starting January 1.
Richard Green, grandson of Firstrust's founder Samuel Green, will continue as executive chairman following the transition, which he said will give him more time to focus on developing the Green family's charitable foundation.
Green has been CEO since 1995, and Abell's appointment is designed to ensure continuity at Firstrust. As CEO, Abell will manage Firstrust's day-to-day operations, including subsidiaries Apex Commercial Capital, Firstrust Financial Resources and the $226 million-asset Hatch Bank in San Marcos, California, which focuses on relationships with fintechs.
"Tim and I have worked together for 18 years." Green said. "Most of that time he's been president…It's a matter of long-term planning for the future of the institution, which I want to ensure is well-taken-care-of."
It would be a mistake to view Abell's appointment as a lessening of the Green family's commitment to Firstrust, according to Robert Kafafian, chairman and CEO of The Kafafian Group, a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based consulting firm. "There clearly is not going to be any outside pressure for a sale," Kafafian said.
"In my mind, the change in titles is really no big deal," Kafafian added. "Tim Abell has been working with the Green family for a long time. I don't see much changing other than Richard Green spending more time outside the bank and Tim Abell spending more time doing what he's been doing."
Samuel Green founded Firstrust as a mutual thrift in 1934 in his mother's South Philadelphia kitchen after raising $7,500 from friends and neighbors. Its history remained closely intertwined with that of the Green family. Samuel was succeeded by his son, Daniel, who in turn hired his son, Richard Green, in 1977.
After more than 50 years as a depositor-owned thrift, Richard and Daniel Green were able to convert Firstrust to stock ownership, simultaneously acquiring a majority stake in 1987. Since then, Richard Green has transformed the company from a home lender to a full-service commercial bank.
While Richard Green has ruled out making major strategic changes such as selling the bank or taking it public, Firstrust plans to continue its efforts to capitalize on disruption in Philadelphia's banking market — something a family bank is uniquely positioned to do, Abell said.
"We've been able to hire people and attract customers because of the talent we have here and our consistency," Abell said. "It feels like we have a great opportunity in front of us."
Indeed, a number of that city's most venerable bank brands have disappeared as a result of merger-and-acquisition activity. In March, for example, the $25.3 billion-asset Fulton Financial of Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
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As for Firstrust, its assets have grown 37% since the end of 2018.
"We can be more focused long-term," Abell said. "We're not operating on the basis of, `What do we need to show the street this quarter?' … As Richard likes to say, he's not disinterested in how we are doing, but he is willing to be patient. Dealing with public shareholders and other investment groups, that's sometimes hard to do."
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Other family-owned banks have exhibited similar patience, according to Paul Davis, director of market intelligence for Memphis, Tennessee-based Strategic Resource Management.
First Citizens BancShares, a $107.7 billion-asset bank in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a "classic" example of this; between 2009 and 2017, First Citizens acquired 10 failed banks in 8 states, Davis said.
"Family-owned banks are generally not pressed into short-sighted decision-making," Davis said. "It's easier when your shareholder meetings can be held around a kitchen table, assuming everyone gets along."
Though Richard Green is downsizing his own role at Firstrust, his son Jeff is completing an MBA degree at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and may consider a career at the bank once that's complete.
"I don't want to put a lot of pressure on him [but] I have high confidence we'll do something together," Richard Green said. "He's interested in the intersection of finance and technology, which is where banking is headed, but he's 27."
