HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club met for its luncheon meeting on Monday, Nov. 5 and Rotarian Annette Beaton hosted Krista Putnam as the guest speaker of the day.
Putnam is the senior vice president of marketing at Katahdin Trust Company. Her talk centered on the history of Katahdin Trust Company. Celebrating 100 years, the bank was founded in Patten on March 7, 1918 and three years later opened a branch in Island Falls.
These were the only two banks for 55 years until a branch was opened in Oakfield in 1976. Eleven years later the Houlton Katahdin Trust Company opened and then in 1991 Presque Isle opened its doors.
The mid 1990’s saw the Mars Hill and Caribou branches open for business along with a new operations center in Houlton. In November of 2000, Katahdin Trust doubled its number of branch locations and increased its assets by 62 percent with the acquisition of eight Aroostook County branches of TD Bank (formerly Peoples Heritage Bank).
The Maine Financial Group in Scarborough was purchased as a commercial loan office by Katahdin in 2007. A second such operation opened in Bangor the following year.
The greater Bangor area saw the opening of a full service Katahdin Trust Company at the Bangor Shopping Center in 2010 and the Hampden branch opened one year later. A third branch opened in Bangor in May 2012 on Springer Drive where the commercial loan office relocated as well. In November of 2013, the Scarborough loan office expanded to include a full array of deposit accounts and teller amenities. By May of 2014 a third location in the St John Valley opened in Fort Kent.
Today, 100 years after opening its doors in Patten, Katahdin celebrates 16 branches, 182 employees and $800 million in assets. Their mission statement is to provide quality financial service by giving each and every customer courteous, personal and professional attention.
Employees are well trained, knowledgeable and motivated at all times to fulfill the customer’s financial needs. The bank remains an independent, locally owned and managed community bank adding to the quality of life of the communities it serves helping business to grow and to prosper. With customers expecting bigger, better and faster banking, the mobile banking app was introduced in 2013 and now boasts 15,000 deposits totaling $6.6 million in business since its inception.
On Friday Dec. 7, Katahdin Trust Company will host a thank you celebrations at all branch offices. More information about the bank can be found at any branch or online at www.katahdintrust.com.
Putnam lives in New Limerick with her husband Andrew and two daughters.
