Connecticut

James Smith said his late enrollment in the state’s Republican Party meant he would be ineligible to be a candidate in its August primary and that he did not want to disrupt the nomination process.

Since stepping down as CEO of Webster Bank last month, James Smith has spent much of his time co-chairing a panel tasked with solving his home state’s fiscal and economic woes. Banks, and perhaps even fintechs, could be a part of its comeback story, he says.

Patriot National in Connecticut would become the latest community bank to ramp up small-business lending with its $81 million deal to acquire Hana Financial's much larger SBA lending unit.

The Connecticut company, which is nearing the threshold to become a systemically important financial institution, has bought three businesses in the past year.

But the Connecticut company says the efficiencies of its recent acquisition of Suffolk Bancorp will begin to be realized soon.