A Connecticut bank best known for its graduate-student lending has planted its first flag in New York, opening a commercial banking office on the fourth floor of the Bar Building at 199 Main Street in White Plains. The move makes it DRB's third location overall and its first outside Connecticut.
DRB, which markets itself under that shorthand name, announced the opening according to financialcontent.com, which reported that the new White Plains branch is DRB's first location in New York and third overall. The office is open Monday through Friday by appointment only, the outlet reported. As Hartford Business Journal reported, DRB is expanding into Westchester County and New York City with a new hub for small business lending, serving business clients across both markets.
DRB says the office will serve as the hub for its recently announced SBA lending program with iBusiness Funding, per the same bizwire account. The bank also says the new location helps it better serve New York attorneys who require a physical location in-state for IOLA and escrow accounts, according to the same report.
From Darien Roots to a Westchester Foothold
The Connecticut Department of Banking approved the White Plains office in June 2026, Hartford Business Journal reported.
Hartford Business Journal's latest account puts DRB's assets at about $912.6 million, according to FDIC data.
The bank's financial performance has been strong this year by its own account: DRB reported a year-to-date return on equity of 30% and balance sheet growth of more than 40% year-over-year, per financialcontent.com. The bank also said in October that loan originations in its sponsor banking business have grown eightfold over the last two years, according to the same source.
A Shift Beyond Graduate Student Loans
DRB's expansion follows a period of transformation for the bank's lending focus. The bank started out with a focus on serving high net worth individuals, but now has a heavy focus on providing education loans to students in graduate programs, according to Bank Analysis Center president John Carusone, speaking to The News-Times in May. Carusone said at the time that two-thirds of the bank's loan portfolio is tied up with these loans to graduate students.
Carusone suggested the White Plains branch plans then taking shape could reflect an effort to diversify, saying the bank could be looking to open this new branch as part of an effort to diversify its portfolio into some other type of loans. He also cautioned that competing with just one branch in Westchester County will be a challenge for DRB in terms of name recognition.
Entering a Crowded Westchester Banking Scene
DRB is not the first out-of-county bank to试 test Westchester waters. Signature Bank entered the county first in New Rochelle in 2001 and later in White Plains in 2005, according to a report from 914inc.com, which also described business banking in Westchester as a growing market where many institutions are seeking additional branches while expanding their technology applications.
That same 2018 report found that 213 SBA-guaranteed loans were transacted in Westchester County in 2017, amounting to just under $75 million — a 20 percent increase from the prior year — with business opportunities flourishing in sectors such as healthcare, commercial real estate, and construction-related industries. More recently, Rhinebeck Bank expanded its own Westchester footprint by opening a retail branch at 800 Westchester Avenue in Rye Brook alongside its existing commercial banking facility there, according to Westfair Communications. That bank reported 15 locations in New York and $1.47 billion in assets as of the second quarter of 2026, per the same report — a scale against which DRB's single new branch will have to compete.
