Webster Bank, Stamford, Connecticut, United States: Webster Bank Corporate Communications Team

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Webster Bank is a top performing regional bank. With over $70 billion in assets, Webster offers digital and traditional service delivery through three differentiated lines of business: Commercial, Consumer and its HSA Bank division, one of the country's largest providers of employee benefits solutions. Its core footprint spans the Northeastern U.S. from New York to Massachusetts, with certain businesses operating in extended geographies.

Webster’s six-person Corporate Communications team continues to elevate the bank as a respected and trusted top-tier regional bank based on performance, leadership, values and corporate responsibility across all stakeholders. It is responsible for protecting the bank’s reputation, strengthening employee engagement and building a stronger awareness and understanding of Webster’s values, vision and strategic goals among internal and external audiences. The team works closely with the CEO and executives to elevate Webster’s reputation and brand to a national scale as it seeks to become a $100 billion company.

Collectively, the team brings over 100 years of experience working for publicly traded companies, agency experience and work with nonprofit communications. A third of the team joined Webster in 2023 with no experience working for a bank but provided invaluable experience working for large global and domestic consumer brands.

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Core System Conversion: Following a 2022 merger of equals between Webster and Sterling National Bancorp, the team led an integrated comms efforts across the enterprise to ensure timely, accurate and consistent messaging across all channels and stakeholders. Before the bank combined operating systems, the team created proactive and reactive information customized for specific audiences with graduated frequency through multiple platforms. [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]

Regional Bank Crisis: 2023 saw increased scrutiny of regional banks and the team was responsible for reassuring shareholders, clients, regulators and employees that the crisis had negligible impact on Webster’s strong financial position. Utilizing its media contacts and an integrated communications strategy, the team successfully positioned Webster’s story of strong deposit and loan portfolios to the public. A series of internal “town hall” employee call-ins with top bank executives kept employees informed and ensured the entire company of 4,200+ colleagues understood the message and company’s position when speaking with relevant stakeholders.

interLINK: The team was also responsible for an integrated comms strategy for a major acquisition of interLINK. During a time of tremendous change in the organization, the team was able to communicate effectively to ensure understanding of the overall strategic value of this additional asset. This resulted in additional positive coverage with media, analysts and investors to understand the company’s strategy and vision for these acquisitions.

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This was extraordinary pressure to delivery on our core system conversion given the tremendous challenges in the banking industry, including a not-so-successful conversion of another leader bank. The CorpComm team’s successful effort stands in contrast to other bank mergers and was highlighted as meeting and exceeding the strategic value it presented at the announcement of the merger. The team successfully upheld client relationships and mitigated negative press coverage following the successful core system conversion. [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]

The merger announcements achieved their goal of attaining coverage that was straightforward and neutral and further strengthened Webster Bank’s reputation, especially in the investment community, as thoughtful and prudent financial institution that continues to execute on its business strategy of growing loans and deposits at or above industry benchmarks.

In the team’s accomplishment of positioning the bank as a success story among regional banks in 2023, KBW’s head of U.S. bank research, recognized Webster as one of its top stock picks moving into 2024. This is further validation that the company’s messaging is making a meaningful difference with investors and analysts alike. Webster continues to remain in the top 10 of most reputable banks in the country according to Rep Track.

Likewise, the communications strategy around the regional bank crisis served to not only maintain but also enhance Webster Bank’s standing in the public eye as a responsible financial institution well-positioned to thrive even during challenging circumstances.