When Mary Reynolds first joined Rockville Bank, she was tasked with processing loans for a woman who was not only the top loan officer in the office, but one of the top loan officers in the country.
If the assignment intimidated Reynolds, she never let on. Instead, she worked hard and learned how to correct potential problems before they became problems at all, and became the top processor at the bank.
“Mary would outthink everyone,” said Jeff Lipes, vice president of mortgages at United Bank, which merged with Rockville Bank earlier this year. “If she was asked to get a paystub from a borrower and noticed that maybe an alimony had been taken out that wasn’t disclosed on the payment, she would get in touch with the customers herself. She wouldn’t wait for it to become an issue for someone else later. She would solve issues ahead of time, and she did this with a very large pipeline of loans.”
A few years ago, changes in the housing market brought changes to the business of the bank – rather than focusing primarily on first mortgages, Rockville wanted to grow its home equity loan department – and thus Reynolds received her next challenge.
She was asked to fill the newly created role of consumer lending operations manager, where she was in charge of training, assisting and overseeing the branches as they sold the bank’s revamped home equity products.
Since she took over the department, the bank has increased its mortgage equity business by almost 200 percent.
For Reynolds, being able to tackle new challenges is exactly what she likes about her work.
“It’s nice to work at a job where things are constantly changing,” she said. “I like having people put their faith in me, and the best part is seeing how I can fix things and make them work better.”
When she’s not busy at the bank, Reynolds, who double majored in fine arts and Spanish and minored in art history at Tulane University, uses her creative streak to get involved in her community.
For the last several years, she’s donated original artwork to the South Windsor Rotary Club Auction. The club uses funds from the auction to purchase gifts for the community; in the past it has bought a fire truck and a pavilion for a local park. The club is currently printing 100 extra copies of a drawing Reynolds donated to the auction in March to raise even more money for the town.
And on top of all of her other commitments, Reynalds is currently a student at the Connecticut School of Finance & Management, where she’ll graduate in 2015.
