Patriot National in Connecticut freed from order with OCC

Patriot National Bancorp in Stamford, Connecticut, has been freed from a formal agreement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that called for it to improve oversight of its board and strengthen the auditing of its loan-loss allowance.

The $963 million-asset parent of Patriot Bank said in a regulatory filing late Tuesday that it received notification from the OCC that the agreement, in place since November 2018, had been terminated.

The OCC concluded that the agreement was no longer necessary because the bank’s safety and soundness had improved and its compliance with laws and regulations met expectations.

The lifting of the agreement is important in part because it removes a barrier to growth. While under an OCC order, banks are often expected to focus on improving compliance, not focusing on growth. Patriot’s asset growth has essentially been flat since the order was put in place.

Though the accord with the OCC did not come with any fines, the regulator said in 2018 that Patriot was in “troubled” condition and needed to improve its corporate governance, capital and strategic planning, internal auditing, credit administration, methodology for loan and lease losses, administration of leveraged loans, asset-liability management and interest-rate risk modeling.

Among other changes, Patriot was required to appoint a compliance committee of at least three directors, a majority of whom could not be employees or controlling shareholders of the bank.

Though not linked by Patriot to the OCC matter, the company announced a leadership change in July of last year, naming Robert Russell Jr., formerly the chief operating officer at Millington Bank in New Jersey, its president and CEO.

Russell succeeded Michael Carrazza as CEO and Richard Muskus Jr. as president. Muskus resigned in April 2020. Carrazza remains the company’s chairman.