The Invisible Bank

Washington Trust Bank's president and chief operating officer Jack Heath says the bank has used different strategies to enter different markets.

Drive around Spokane, and you're bound to encounter one of Washington Trust Bank's 15 branches. Peruse the city's downtown skyline, and it's tough to miss the 16-story building with the 108-year-old institution's name atop it.

But spend time west of the Cascade Mountains, and you won't see the name unless you happen to wander onto the 47th floor of the Two Union Square building in downtown Seattle or the 11th floor of Bellevue Place in Bellevue.

Those are the bank's only locations in the Puget Sound region, and all it has needed. When Washington Trust entered the Seattle market in 2000, it was nothing more than an experienced banker-Western Region President Scott Luttinen-and his contacts. Since then, the bank has put together a commercial and industrial banking portfolio with assets totaling $750 million, as well as a large private banking practice. With two offices and 41 employees, the Seattle locations are responsible for nearly 25 percent of the bank's asset base.

"We're 10th in market share in Seattle," Washington Trust President and Chief Operating Officer Jack Heath says. "It's a very efficient model."

Largely concentrated in eastern Washington for most of its history, Washington Trust has expanded into a handful of markets in the western United States during the past decade. In addition to its Seattle entrance, the bank has moved into the Tri-Cities, Portland, Boise and Salt Lake City.

In late 2009, the privately held bank had $4 billion in assets and $2.5 billion in its wealth-management asset group.

In each market the bank has entered, it has used somewhat different strategies to gain a foothold, Heath notes. In Boise, for example, the bank felt the market was small enough that it could build a brick-and-mortar branch system that would give it good coverage and make it a player in retail banking there. Within a few years, the bank had seven branches serving Boise.

To get an equivalent retail banking presence in the Seattle market, Washington Trust would have had to build 40 branches, which wasn't feasible, Heath says. Rather, the bank decided to focus on commercial banking and private banking for high-net-worth individuals. To do so, it hired bankers who already had relationships in the market and leveraged technology to serve those customers. For example, many of

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