Home Loan adds CEO to management

FINANCIAL SERVICES VETERAN Dennis F. Walsh has joined Home Loan Investment Bank as its CEO. /
FINANCIAL SERVICES VETERAN Dennis F. Walsh has joined Home Loan Investment Bank as its CEO. /

WARWICK – The troubled Home Loan Investment Bank, a Warwick-based federal savings bank that has grappled with a mortgage portfolio riddled with problem loans, has appointed financial services veteran Dennis F. Walsh as its new CEO.

Walsh, who took over Jan. 1, had been working with the family-run Home Loan Investment Bank as a consultant for the last three months after federal regulators last year ordered the $230 million bank to reduce the volume of problem loans on its books.

The previous CEO, Brian Murphy, will stay on as president. Murphy’s father, John M. Murphy, bought the bank’s charter in 1974. The elder Murphy will remain as chairman.

“We’re thrilled to formally welcome Dennis to the bank’s senior management team,” Brian Murphy said in a recent statement. “We’ve witnessed firsthand his clear leadership during a tumultuous 2009 for the banking industry as a whole and look forward to tapping his extensive experience in the financial institution arena as we meet the opportunities of the coming year.”

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The bank said Walsh previously was a partner in the Boston office of the accounting firm KPMG LLC, specializing in auditing services, particularly involving mergers, acquisitions and filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. His clients included Fleet Boston Financial, Bank Rhode Island, Eastern Bank, Independent Bancorp and Washington Trust Bancorp.

Home Loan Investment Bank has been through its struggles. Most recently, it posted a $13.3 million loss in the third quarter – a loss that executives said stemmed from loan write-downs as the bank prepared to sell off about $16 million worth of bad assets as part of its recovery plan.

In November, the bank announced it had gotten a $10 million cash infusion from its shareholders, mostly Murphy family members.

Still, even before the additional money was added to the books, Home Loan’s Tier I capital ratio stood at 13.5 percent, above the threshold needed to be considered well capitalized.

“This is a unique opportunity for me to lend guidance to a financial institution that, for 35 years, has been a high-performing and extremely profitable bank with capital and profitability ratios higher than its peers nationwide,” said Walsh. “I value the strong roots and commitment Home Loan has to its customers, particularly in its home state of Rhode Island. We will remain highly focused on providing exceptional value to our customers, offering financial solutions to meet the needs of both our residential and commercial customers, and continue our commitment to financing and supporting small businesses as a crucial step in the recovery of the local and national economy.”

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