Fifth Third Bancorp
Dayton city executive and senior vice president: Steve Petitjean since March 2010, with Fifth Third 20 years in February
Corp. headquarters: Cincinnati
Dayton metro deposits: $2.4 billion, 23 percent market share
Cincinnati-Dayton-Springfield region employment: 7,800
Cincinnati-Dayton-Springfield branches: 187
Philanthropic focus: financial literacy
Petitjean: “I think for us to continue to win and retain our clients, A., we need to give them a differentiated level of service and I think really make all that we do really client centric…I think the fact that we’re adding positions to the marketplace is also going to play a vital role as we go into the next year or two.”
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Dayton president and commercial bank manager: Joey Williams since 2006/2007, with Chase 15 years, in banking industry about 21 years
Corp. headquarters: New York, major regional office in Columbus, Ohio
Dayton metro deposits: $1.7 billion, 16 percent market share
Dayton employment: 270
Dayton branches: 22
Philanthropic focus: Work force development and K-12 education
Williams: “First and foremost, we want to be really focused on understanding our customers and companies that we work with to provide appropriate solutions. Second, what’s nice about working at Chase is in terms of solutions, we have almost every solution…One of the major, major selling points that we talk about to companies looking to expand overseas is we have JPMorgan employees located in those countries.”
The PNC Financial Services Group
Dayton regional president: David Melin since March 2011, in banking industry almost 22 years
Corp. headquarters: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dayton metro deposits: $1.6 billion, 15 percent market share
Employment not disclosed
Dayton-Springfield branches: 45
Philanthropic focus: Early childhood education
Melin: “Dayton is a strong community. Focusing just on the unique needs in the Dayton market allows us to be more strategic…it’s important to our culture and it’s important to our strategy.”
KeyCorp
Southwest Ohio district president: Ed Reilly retired in August after 36 years in business
Corp. Headquarters: Cleveland
Dayton metro deposits: $1.1 billion, 10 percent market share
Cincinnati-Dayton employment: 483
Cincinnati-Dayton branches: 51
Reilly: “I think the thing I’ve enjoyed the most, I’ll call it the physic reward I’ve received from helping small and medium size business grow and thrive.”
U.S. Bancorp
Market president Dayton: Ron Amos for 17 years, in industry more than 30 years
Corp. headquarters: Minneapolis, Minn.
Dayton metro deposits: $757 million, seven percent market share
Cincinnati-Dayton-Springfield employment: more than 3,500
Dayton area branches: 23
Philanthropic focus: education, affordable housing and economic opportunity, artistic and cultural enrichment
Amos: “As a banker in Dayton, I have to adapt and change and learn and employ strategies to go after those changes in the macroeconomy. I think the ones that do that best are the ones that are going to be successful. And the ones that don’t will shrink.”
Huntington Bancshares
Southern Ohio/Northern Kentucky region president: Mark Reitzes since 2008, in industry 20 years
Corp. headquarters: Columbus
Dayton metro deposits: $585 million, six percent market share
Cincinnati-Dayton-Springfield employment: 683
Philanthropic focus: Critical needs, liveable communities and financial literacy
Reitzes: “We’re calling on companies, particularly private-held companies in manufacturing and wholesale distribution, that make up most of the region…We can make decisions, where it doesn’t takes us weeks, sometimes it only takes us hours. I think that’s a really strong competitive advantage for us.”
First Financial Bancorp
Greater Dayton and Northern Ohio regional president: Roger Furrer for seven years, in industry about 30 years
Corp. headquarters: Cincinnati
Dayton metro deposits: $172 million; Liberty Savings Bank, acquired by First Financial in 2011, had $295 million
Cincinnati-Dayton employment: 955
Dayton area branches: 16
Philanthropic focus: Economic development, financial literacy and neighborhood development
Furrer: “I try to impress upon a client a banking partner is an important partner…What we have to do in an overbanked and overcompetitive situation is to do what we do best.”
SOURCES: Companies, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
If history is any indication, KeyBank’s next Dayton market president will be an important community leader.
Ed Reilly retired as Southwest Ohio district president this month for Cleveland-based KeyBank. Not only was Reilly the face of KeyBank in the Dayton-Cincinnati area, he is recognized as an advocate of Dayton and downtown.
Now the question is whether KeyBank will name a successor from inside or outside the company or externally, and whether the person will be from Dayton or another market.
That selection “kind of says what (Key’s) interest is in Dayton. I think people wonder what the longevity will be of the person,” said Roger Furrer, regional president for Greater Dayton and Northern Ohio of First Financial Bank.
Regional bank presidents are major figures on the scene, leading the bank’s local strategy for growing market share. They often become heavily involved in community efforts as they work with their large local clients.
“These days you’re not just market president, you have other responsibilities,” said Ron Amos, U.S. Bank’s market president Dayton.
Amos, for example, is the former board chair of The Children’s Medical Center of Dayton and 2002 United Way campaign chair. JPMorgan Chase Dayton president and commercial bank manager Joey Williams is also a Dayton city commissioner. Steve Petitjean, Fifth Third Dayton city executive, serves on multiple boards.
Meanwhile, the competition for business is stiffer than ever.
Reilly told the Dayton Daily News that when he started in banking 36 years ago, there were three major banks in Dayton that held most of the market share. Today, six banks, including leader Fifth Third, hold more than 5 percent deposit market share each, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. They include a mix of multinationals such as Chase and regionals such as Fifth Third and Huntington Bancshares.
Chase, Fifth Third, First Financial, Huntington, KeyBank, and U.S. Bank employ more than 13,600 people and operate 345 branches in the Cincinnati,Dayton and Springfield areas. PNC Financial Services Group does not disclose local employment figures.
While there’s more competition, Dayton is considered a no-growth market. Deposits held in the metro total more than $10.42 billion as of the end of June 2011. That amount hasn’t changed much — less than 1 percent — from total bank deposits of $10.39 billion in 2007, according to the FDIC.
“There’s still a lot of banks that are represented here for a very limited growth market. That’s a challenge; that’s not unique,” said David Melin, Dayton regional president of PNC.
Credit unions, insurance companies and credit card companies offering small business lending, for example, add to the competition, Furrer said.
Dayton’s biggest banks differentiate themselves on their size and related resources, and customer service.
“It’s really kind of hand-to-hand combat in a lot of respects,” said Mark Reitzes, southern Ohio/Kentucky region president for Columbus’ Huntington Bancshares.
Defense, health and education industries are driving Dayton’s market today, but most of Dayton’s economy is made of small- to medium-size companies, said bank officials.
“Companies between $10 and 75 million dollars of revenue, a lot of those companies are doing well too. A lot of those companies are manufacturing companies. A lot of distribution companies are doing well,” said Williams of Chase. “We’re seeing more foreign multinational companies investing in the region.”
A healthy economy is a bank’s lifeblood, Williams said. A growing business needs loans and working capital. But a concern for the Dayton economy’s long-term health is the lack of entrepreneurs, Melin added.
“The Dayton community is primarily a small business middle market-type community. You’re going to have people that are naturally exiting the business,” Melin said. “But if you don’t have anyone starting one, the number of businesses that you have would diminish. You need to have that growth in businesses.”
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