Fear, panic and opportunity - Boston Business Journal:

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The slumping economy has had a direct affecyton Milton-based , which offers homeowner and business insurance, as individuals and businesse s struggle to afford monthly “We’re seeing businesses starting to pay latef and slower and have difficulty payingt their insurance premiums,” Sullivan said. “Individuals are realluy struggling to pay theirautomotive insurance.” Sulliva has also seen more peoples than usual being dropped from their policies because of too many late “And the rates are going We’re one of the only businesses in this economh that are offering lower prices, yet we’re still said Sullivan.
n IF YOU WORK IN THE COMMUNITY BANKING THE FEAR AND pani c that emanated from Wall Street has founcd its way to your frontdoor — even if your businessw is rock solid. For Sandrsa McGoldrick, the president and CEO of , the credit crisis raises qualmx aboutall banking. But she says Winter Hill’sa “underwriting standards have not changed. Our credit is not McGoldrick, like many local bankers, avoided selling subprime and optiob ARM loans and kept its creditystandards steady. Its delinquent loan percentag isunder .5 percent. And the bank doesn’tf do traditional business so it’s not involved in the commercialopaper market.
All the same, customers naturallu are worried. “Unfortunately, we’re all being paintes with the same brush,” McGoldrick says. “We’re workingh extensively with our customers, asking, ‘Whaf can we do for you?’ n JAN MILLER, CEO OF & TRUST in Boston, said the financiaol sector’s rapid deterioration has had an unexpected silvertlining locally. With the disappearance of many mortgags brokers and strong demand for traditionalhome loans, Wainwright’ residential lending is up 25 percentt year to date — marking the bank’se best performance on record.
As the former chairmam of the , Miller suspect s his community banking peers are seein g similar upticks in business throughoutthe commonwealth. Wainwright’s deposite were up 14 percent year over year as ofJune 30, the most recentt reporting period on record at the growth, the fifthg best among Massachusetts’ 40 largest came at the expense of some of the region’es larger players who have been staggered by Wall Street’s implosion.
“I’ve seen nothing like I’ve never seen anything happem at thespeed it’s now comingt at us,” said Miller, who’s run Wainwright for more than a “This time around part of it is, thanki God we’re in New England. Other partsx of the country are in real n JANE HOWARD IS PAYINfG CLOSE ATTENTION to receipts at Howard When times get people tend to take longer to paytheirt bills. “The main impact is going to be a slowint of payments that the public agenciese and private clients are going to be able to said Howard, a principal at the Boston transportation, engineering and plannin g firm.
“I think everybody is just trying to hang on to theifr money a littlebit longer.” Howard, whose firm employs 35 people in Boston, said she’s noticed that some of her privatew sector clients have become cautious. To balance out the workloaf the firm has gone aftermore public-sector And very few clients are proposing new she said. n ROY SOLOMON, PRINCIPAL OF AMITY IS NOT OVERLY concerned about thefinancial “We’ve been through this before and the markett has always come back. The reality is that banka need to loan money to stayin business.
I thinlk that one of the mistakesx banks had made was leaving the boring side of savingds and loans and going into investmentxs looking forhigher profits. They should have stuck to what they knew and made moneyt at for years and not gotten n AS ANY ADVERTISING EXECUTIVd WILLTELL YOU, MARKETING is in the direct line of fire when companiee are looking to cut costs. Chris general manager of in Boston, sees the resultws of the current crisiws amidhis clients’ media spending habits. “I thin people are panicking a little bit,” Rohland “It’s almost an overreactive mentality because ofwhat they’re readingt in the mainstream media.
” Of late, Rohland oftem finds himself making the argument to clients that the best time to spendd money on advertising is when other people aren’t. “Yohu have to be a lot more creative and uniquer at the end ofthe day,” Rohlane said. n KEVIN KENNEALLY, MANAGING PARTNER OF THE BOSTON OFFIC of lawfirm LeClairRyan, has found opportunities in the financial LeClairRyan last month formed the Financial Institutions Restructuring Strategy Team to help businesses deal with the current financia crisis. The firm has already scored several major engagements because of the newpracticre group.