Eagle Bancorp in Bethesda, Maryland, has hired a veteran commercial and industrial lending team from rival Capital One.
The hires, announced Thursday, come about a year after Eagle signaled its intent to
Eagle's first move, in August, was to lure Evelyn Lee from Truist, where she had been a regional president, to serve as chief lending officer for C&I lending.
Lee told American Banker on Thursday that she has been hiring actively the past four months. "We've definitely added talent in the commercial lending ranks, in portfolio management, administration and a couple of other areas," Lee said.
Lee described the addition of the three-person team led by Bryan Pynchon as her most "newsworthy" move. "It's a nice accelerator in what's been an upward trajectory since I got here. … We have folks we've either onboarded or who've accepted offers."
In addition to Pynchon, who will serve as C&I market president for Maryland, lenders Ian Joseph and Andrew Brkic joined Eagle from Capital One as relationship managers. A Capital One spokesperson had not responded to a request for comment at deadline.
Lee said her goal is to build a "diversified C&I practice" that can serve companies with revenues of $5 million and up. "We have bankers that have expertise in different industry segments … but what we don't do is tell them, 'You can only do X or you can only do Y,'" Lee said. "There are definitely upsides to specialization, but it really puts limitations on what good, locally connected bankers can do."
Eagle has seen increased levels of problem CRE loans for the past year, reporting a modest loss in the first quarter, then a whopping $83.8 million loss in the second quarter of 2024, as it boosted its allowance for credit losses, charged off tens of millions of dollars of loans and recorded a substantial goodwill impairment. The company
While its turnaround remains a work in progress, Eagle is making solid headway, Janney Montgomery Scott Director of Research Chris Marinac said Thursday.
"Evelyn Lee has an excellent reputation," Marinac said. "All that we need is just a little bit of patience to let a few quarters pass, then you'll start to see the deposits flow, the loans flow. The transition is absolutely happening."
"I think this company looks a lot different in 12 months. That I think is safe to say," Marinac said.
Other CRE-focused banks will need to move in a direction similar to Eagle's, according to Marinac.
"It really is the necessary recipe for success in 2025 and 2026," Marinac said. "Most banks know the regulators are very keenly aware of concentrations. … The blocking-and-tackling at the examiner level is very focused on CRE concentrations."
Lee said she is anticipating strong results in 2025. She cited an increase in business confidence across the Washington, D.C., region. "Its been pretty striking," Lee said. "Directly after the election, almost every appointment we went on the client had something new that they planned to [pursue] in 2025."
"Post-election, whether or not you preferred the outcome, there was certainly great clarity, and there's just a lot of pent-up demand. I think the pipelines are going to grow," Lee said.
