Consumers National Bank Expands Northeast Ohio Presence

Consumers National Bank is expanding its reach in Northeast Ohio with ambitious growth plans that reflect improving economic conditions for community banks. The Minerva-based institution is planning to open a new branch in Massillon in the first quarter, which will mark the 22nd location in the bank’s footprint.

“Margins bottomed out. Deposit costs have stabilized and started to come down pretty rapidly. And we’re seeing loan demand start to stabilize and pick back up,” said Ralph Lober II, president and CEO of Consumers, the banking subsidiary of Consumers Bancorp Inc. He highlighted mortgage volumes that were up more than 20% in the company’s first quarter for fiscal year 2025.

Like most banks, Consumers grappled with a business downturn as the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 2022 to combat high inflation. As rates quickly increased, loan demand softened across all types of lending. Following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank a year later, deposit costs soared as banks competed to keep cash by offering higher rates to customers.

Now, with some anticipated pent-up loan demand and general momentum, Lober said it’s a great time for the bank to continue expanding its reach in Northeast Ohio. “We do think there is some pent-up demand that will start coming around 2025 and beyond,” Lober said. “We are hiring more commercial lenders, more mortgage originators, and we just hired another indirect dealer representative.”

The bank has a loan production office in Boardman that Lober says has been performing well, and banks often follow those with physical branches. Lober said Mahoning County is a region where he wants to increase the Consumers presence while also building on its budding presence in Summit County, where the bank currently has just two locations.

In Stark County, the community bank with $1.1 billion in assets ranks as the sixth-largest bank by deposit market share behind much larger companies like Huntington Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank and KeyBank. The bank serves diverse market areas from very small communities to agricultural communities to metropolitan areas.