Under Barbara Perino's Direction, IT Helps Washington Trust Compete With the Big Banks
Washington Trust Company, founded in 1800, is the nation's oldest community bank. But this doesn't mean the bank fears change. In fact, under the leadership of Barbara Perino, SVP, operations and technology, the Westerly, R.I.-based institution -- which was founded in 1800 and operates in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts -- has replaced almost all the legacy systems that were in place when she took the job. Along the way Washington Trust ($2.9 billion in assets) also has developed sophisticated customer insight capabilities that make it competitive with much larger institutions in its market.
"We might not be the largest bank in our area," Perino says of Washington Trust, "but we're very nimble [and] able to get at information that helps our customers. We're big enough to serve the large credit opportunities presented to us, yet ... we're still small enough to have the personal touch. That may be what differentiates us from everyone else."
According to Perino, an accountant by training who joined Washington Trust 21 years ago as controller, what differentiates Washington Trust's IT team is a simple summary of its mission. "Our role is basically to support the product managers," she says. "Our goal is to make sure we have a strong, scalable infrastructure. That way, as we grow and expand, we have the technology behind the scenes to support the bank's growth strategies."
Simply put, the strategic plan is geared around growth. But, Perino says, it was clear when she took on the operations and technology job 11 years ago that the capabilities of the bank's systems at the time were an impediment to growth and customer service. So the first order of business was an overhaul of the bank's customer delivery channels.
"We took a look at all of our systems and said, 'What do we have to replace, and what do we need that we don't have right now?' " she recalls. The answer to those questions has been replacement of every legacy system but one and the addition of a number of new applications.
Getting to Real Time
The bank ultimately selected Open Solutions (Glastonbury, Conn.) as its core systems provider. Among the benefits of the technology, Perino explains, are its relational database capabilities. "That was pretty much the tool that we needed to get one or two of our systems into a real-time mode," she says. ROI considerations were also a factor: "The controller in me," Perino says, drove her to commit to payback on the investment through efficiencies gained.
Subsequently Washington Trust has integrated a loan origination system with straight-through processing (STP) capabilities. "A loan is originated and can automatically be uploaded and onboarded onto our core systems," Perino says. "It was a huge undertaking, especially for a group of people who had never done a core conversion before as a team."
In addition to efficiency, this has provided Washington Trust with a wealth of insight into its customers -- resulting not only in revenue opportunities but also in better security and fraud prevention, according to Perino. "We built a strong skill set with individuals who were able to extract data and build a data warehouse for many purposes, [including] product profitability and customer profitability," she says. "You can ask me the most convoluted query about a customer -- if you want to know every customer who has a debit card and who has a mortgage and who lives in this town -- but doesn't have a checking account with us -- we can tell you that now. When we had disparate systems, that wasn't something we were able to accomplish easily."
Improved customer insight also is the goal behind a CRM initiative taking place in Washington Trust's wealth management business. The bank is deploying UNAPEN's (Wallingford, Conn.) Client Logix CRM and business intelligence platforms to integrate sales and client service activities for four wealth management divisions. Other technologies in use for the wealth management business are Advent's APX product as well as the SunGard Advantage platform on an outsourced basis.
Perino has focused on making sure Washington Trust's infrastructure can support the growth strategies. "A lot of that is making sure we have the backbone and network infrastructure that is sufficient to support the growth we've experienced, to eliminate risk and manage risk by single points of failure," she says. That backbone is provided by Cisco Systems (San Jose, Calif.), and the bank has standardized on Dell (Round Rock, Texas) for its servers, PCs and laptops. The bank outsources its general ledger administration to COCC (Avon, Conn.).
Regarding Washington Trust's key technology providers, Perino emphasizes what she expects from vendors -- and what she thinks they should expect from her: "They're not just our vendors -- the way they manage and deliver their products is very important to us," she says. When Perino requires a new spec or recommends a new feature, her request is not just about what Washington Trust needs, she says; it also addresses "what's going on in the banking industry. If we ask for something, we try to request it [so that] it's good for all [the vendor's] clients, not just us."
Perino's commitment to Washington Trust and its customers, as well as her passion for helping others, all come together in some initiatives focused on helping the bank be greener. The bank recently received an Environmental Award for its recycling efforts from Cintas Document Management (Cincinnati), which performs secure document shredding services for the bank. Washington Trust recycles approximately 5,000 pounds of paper per week. The bank has run a number of "shredding days," and in May it ran an "eWaste Recycling Day" that allowed members of the local community to bring old electronics to a branch location for recycling.
"We don't have a specifically defined green strategy, but it is clearly something we as a corporation have top of mind," Perino says. The main goal of the shredding days, she adds, is to improve security and customers' awareness of proper security procedures -- essentially, "This is what we do as a company; this is how we protect your information by shredding your documents. Let us do same thing for you."
There's a personal angle to the eWaste Recycling Day. Washington Trust works with the Westerly Innovation Network, a group in which Perino's 11-year-old son is involved, that lets local students recycle donated and discarded computers into network PCs that are donated to other children in need not only in Rhode Island but also in Mexico and Africa.
Whether it's involvement in the activities of her two children or developing her own employees, for Perino it's all about involvement with other people. "I am very people-oriented," she declares. "I love what I do, I love the people. I care about my employees, and I think that's part of what makes me a good leader. I couldn't ask for a better work environment."
Katherine Burger is Editorial Director of Bank Systems & Technology and Insurance & Technology, members of UBM TechWeb's InformationWeek Financial Services. She assumed leadership of Bank Systems & Technology in 2003 and of Insurance & Technology in 1991. In addition to ... View Full Bio