Crystal Dionne, now president and CEO since February 2024, joined Primary Bank’s senior management team during its startup phase, when the bank was still a holding company. (Photo by Brittany Grimes)
As an entrepreneur and real estate developer, Bill Greiner never intended to establish a bank, but then the 2008 financial crisis hit. Large banks began shutting off their lending pipelines to small businesses, while local banks that stepped in to help continued to consolidate with larger, out-of-state banks.
When banks merge, it leaves small and medium-sized businesses with fewer and fewer options for access to capital. It’s a troubling trend that continues even today.
Among New Hampshire banks that have announced mergers this year are Northway Financial, acquired by Camden National Bank; and Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank, acquired by Bar Harbor Bankshares. Both banks are based in Maine.
“If history is any indication, a lot of those deposits and a lot of those resources will be taken out of our state,” Greiner said.
As co-owner of New Hampshire restaurant brands T-Bones, Cactus Jack’s and Copper Door, and owner of real estate development firm Greiner Investments, Greiner has felt the broader impact of the financial crisis firsthand.
“I had always done business with large banks,” Greiner said. Then one day, around 2008, he went to apply for a loan with Citizens Bank and was turned down. He was told that the reason had to do with the bank’s own balance-sheet problems, not his credit.
Having been kicked out the door by Citizens, Greiner said that’s when he turned to community banking. With three restaurant locations on the line at the time, he and co-owner Tom Boucher needed ongoing financing to grow and scale their restaurants.
Bedford-based Centrix Bank & Trust stepped up and then, again, when they needed lending to open the Copper Door in Bedford, which celebrated its grand opening in December 2011.
Things were progressing smoothly until Massachusetts-based Eastern Bank Corporation acquired Centrix Bank in a deal that closed in March 2014. Due to the bank downsizing its loans, Greiner, once again, was forced to take his business elsewhere.
Birth of a new bank
That’s when Greiner decided to take matters into his owns hands. He would open a new locally owned and operated bank, ensuring that its funds would directly support local businesses and strengthen New Hampshire’s economy. To do that, he’d first need to raise capital, and lots of it.
He first called his friend, Andy Cruz, then-chief executive officer of Manchester-based AutoFair Automotive Group. “I said, ‘We need to start a bank.’ He said, ‘That’s a great idea, but we don’t know anything about banking.’ I said, ‘No, we don’t, but we do understand small businesses. We’ll find bankers.’” Find bankers, they did. With the help of three other founding partners, the team of like-minded businessmen raised $30.4 million in capital from over 421 shareholders during its first round in 2015, the largest amount of capital ever raised for a New Hampshire-based community bank.
Primary Bank was founded by a group of local business owners and investors in July 2015 to serve as an alternative to large banks. It operates in Bedford, Manchester, Derry and Nashua. (Photo by Brittany Grimes)
Primary received conditional approval for a state bank charter from the state of New Hampshire Banking Department in February 2015 and became insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) one month later.
It was a significant feat, marking it the first bank to open in New Hampshire since the recession, and just the second commercial bank to open nationwide since 2010. “Nationally, we are seeing less and less banks,” Greiner said. According to the FDIC’s historical trend data, FDIC-insured financial institutions plummeted from 8,976 in 2004 to 4,487 in 2024.
Referring to Primary Bank’s beginnings, Greiner said, “There were some naysayers that said, ‘You’re crazy. The regulations have changed since the financial collapse. You don’t want to be starting a bank in this environment.’” Describing himself as someone who has “always gone against the general consensus,” skeptics didn’t deter him. Many businesses in New Hampshire needed that void to be filled, he said.
In July 2015, Primary Bank celebrated its grand opening in Bedford. William Stone, who had spent the previous 12 years as Bank of New England’s president, came on board as its founding president and CEO. He remained at the helm until September 2023, seeing the bank through three other ribbon-cutting ceremonies in Manchester, Derry and Nashua.
A community staple
Crystal Dionne, who was named Primary Bank’s president and CEO in February 2024, describes community banking as the “cardiovascular system of the U.S. economy: We take local deposits. We lend them to local small businesses to grow, which grows jobs in the local economy, which generates income … that is then infused back into the local economy. It’s a beautiful cycle.”
Dionne is among those who joined the bank’s senior management team during its startup phase, when Primary was still a holding company going through its capital raise. She soon became its CFO. Prior to that time, she had spent the first 20 years of her career in government finance, including nearly 15 years as CFO for the town of Bedford.
Many small businesses that Primary Bank has helped over the years were startups with nothing more than a dream, Dionne said. “The only way those businesses can get funding is to find a community bank that is going to believe in them,” she said. “That is what we have done countless times.”
It’s not just small businesses that Primary Bank helps, but nonprofits as well. Among those is Amoskeag Health, a nonprofit federally qualified health center founded in Manchester in 1993 that offers a wide range of community services, including primary care, behavioral health services, chronic disease management and case management services.
Amoskeag Health CEO Kris McCracken said they turned to local banking after the national bank that had served it for many years put an end to its funding support. “Primary Bank was willing to step up,” she said.
“That says a lot.”
McCracken said she appreciates how much Primary Bank’s board members, including Greiner and Dionne, know the community, know the organizations in the community, and are directly involved in supporting their communities. “There would be no way for me to have a phone call with the CEO of a national bank,” McCracken said, adding that she has had many face-to-face conversations with Dionne.
Primary Bank’s staff is “kind and understanding,” she said. “I’ve never had to wait more than two hours to get a response on anything. Their team is amazing.”
Primary Bank has supported community organizations like Bedford High School’s athletics program, symbolized by a statue of a bulldog, the school’s mascot. (Photo by Brittany Grimes)
Jessica Stevenson, co-owner of Kinstruct Tiny Homes, a family-owned and -operated business that constructs accessory dwelling units (ADUs), said that she, too, appreciates the sense of “familiarity and trust” and “consistent presence” that Primary Bank’s team brings to the community.
Stevenson first approached Primary Bank in 2020 when, as a real estate broker during the COVID-19 pandemic, Primary Vice President Scott Kingsley helped her apply for a Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loan. “He made the process so straightforward,” she said.
Fast-forward to the present day, in celebration of Primary Bank’s 10-year anniversary, it recently ran a contest opened to all businesses headquartered or incorporated in New Hampshire, offering one lucky business the chance to win a professional, 30-second TV commercial and a 10-week television ad campaign.
With the most votes, Kinstruct Tiny Homes won. That opportunity would not have presented itself had Stevenson not met Lauren Neves, assistant vice president and branch manager at Primary Bank, at a local networking event for business owners, who encouraged her to enter the contest.
“It seems to be that, no matter where I go or which way we pivot, Primary Bank is there as a trusted source for us as business owners,” Stevenson said.
Reflecting its dedication to the communities it serves, Primary Bank has received many accolades. Most recently, Granite State Development Corporation in 2024 recognized it as a “Top Lending SBA Partner,” for its support of small businesses through the Small Business Association (SBA) lending program.
Also, in 2024, Capital Performance Group ranked Primary Bank in the top 100 publicly traded banks nationwide, with assets under $2 billion.
In July 2025, Primary Bank will celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Since its inception, it has reinvested more than $1 billion back into New Hampshire’s economy and has helped countless businesses in a wide range of sectors, including real estate and construction, hospitality, retail, manufacturing, transportation, education and social services.
“What we have been able to accomplish in 10 years is pretty remarkable,” Dionne said. “We’re very proud of it.”
