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Ledyard Financial Group, Inc.

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FY2022 Annual Report · Ledyard Financial Group, Inc.
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ADVISORS.
PARTNERS.
NEIGHBORS.

2022 ANNUAL REPORT

LETTER FROM THE CEO & BOARD CHAIR

TO OUR MANY CONSTITUENTS
Including Shareholders, Valued Clients, and Community Members

KATHRYN G. UNDERWOOD
Chief Executive Officer
Ledyard Financial Group
Ledyard National Bank

BRUCE P. KING
Retired, President & Chief Executive Officer
New London Hospital
Chair, Ledyard Financial Group

Ledyard’s motto, Plan well. Live well., has never been more relevant than in the past few years. The tagline’s  
guiding principle has helped us adapt to an ever-changing and uncertain environment. We’ve relied on strong 
teamwork and collaboration across all our divisions — along with the support of enhanced technological  
capabilities and communication channels — to thrive, grow, and exceed our clients’ expectations.

Our shared experiences and collective commitment to Ledyard’s strategies give us confidence that we can manage 
through all challenges, large and small. We remain as focused as ever on our clients, shareholders, and communi-
ties via strategic choices that reinforce one another, leading to value creation and growth. Ledyard’s success in the 
highly competitive banking industry requires agility, responsiveness to evolving needs, innovation, enhanced data 
analytics, and brand building — all stemming from an empowered, accountable organization that fully understands 
and embraces Ledyard’s values, principles, and purpose.    

With optimism and momentum driving us forward, we proudly share our 2022 annual report and results:

LEDYARD FINANCIAL GROUP’S 2022 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS:

◆ Achieved net income of $6.98 million and EPS of $2.14, the second highest annual earnings on record

◆ Increased our annual dividends to shareholders by 5% to $0.84

◆  Achieved revenue from our financial advisory business of $12.8 million, down only 3% from the prior year in the 

face of a 16% drop in the S&P 500 Index

◆ Issued $18 million of subordinated debt to help drive growth

◆ Improved our regulatory capital ratios already in excess of amounts required to be considered well-capitalized

◆ Maintained a strong liquidity profile to help ensure capacity to grow

Last year, we detailed the many ways in which the organization expanded its capabilities in the digital and  
technological space, always with the goal of providing clients with the most user-friendly, convenient, and safe 
banking experience. We continued along that path in 2022 by further improving our online and mobile banking 
platform with enhanced features and capabilities. Our simplified interface is easier than ever to navigate with 
increased speed and performance. We also upgraded our consumer lending online application tool, improving the 
user experience for those seeking to apply online for a mortgage, home equity loan, or other consumer lending 
product. Our new embedded technology and automation create an experience that streamlines the loan  
process, eliminates complicated procedures, and makes it more efficient for the applicant to supply information.  

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2022 ANNUAL REPORTLETTER FROM THE CEO & BOARD CHAIR

On a related note, we’re very close to introducing a similar technology and experience for those applicants  
seeking to apply online for a commercial loan, and we expect to introduce the process early in the new year. While 
we continued to enhance our services and product set in 2022, we also prioritized our succession planning by 
hiring top-tier banking leaders, several of whom are now members of our senior management team.

In the first quarter of the year, Josephine Moran joined Ledyard, accepting the position of  
President & Chief Banking Officer, reporting directly to our CEO, Kathy Underwood. In this 
newly created role, and as a member of the bank’s Executive Committee, Josephine oversaw 
branch banking and product development, as well as bank-wide operations, IT, human  
resources, and compliance. One of the many purposes of Josephine’s role has been to  
significantly improve the collaboration and linkages between the departments she oversees, 
thereby creating efficiencies and initiatives that focus on revenue generation and profitability. 
Prior to joining us, she was Executive Vice President, Chief Corporate Services and Consumer 
Lending Officer at Provident Bank. She also served as the EVP and Director of Retail Banking at 
Provident Bank, Senior Vice President/Regional Manager/Retirement Services Director at  
Webster Bank, and EVP/Director of Retail Banking at Columbia Bank. We’re honored and 
excited for Josephine to leverage all her years of leadership, community banking, investment 
services, and lending experience to help lead Ledyard into the future. 

JOSEPHINE MORAN
President & Chief Banking Officer

Later in the year, we welcomed Peter Sprudzs to the bank as our new Senior Vice President, 
Chief Financial Officer. Peter succeeded Greg Steverson, who worked closely with Peter on 
the transition before retiring in December after 20 years with the company. Peter has spent 
his career in finance, treasury, and risk management for public and private companies, both 
large and small. Most recently he was the Chief Finance and Risk Officer for BMG Money. He 
also served as the Senior Vice President, Treasury and Finance for Credit One Bank; the Senior 
Vice President, Finance for Flagstar Bank; and as the Director of Finance for the Federal Home 
Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). As we enter a new phase of growth for the bank, 
we’re confident that Peter’s energy and vision will help to lead Ledyard into its next chapter of 
success. At the same time, we thank Greg for his immense contribution to our organization and 
wish him joy and relaxation in his retirement.  

PETER SPRUDZS
Senior Vice President 
Chief Financial Officer

As our enhanced product set and leadership group came together, we focused our efforts on communicating with 
our clients more frequently and in a more targeted manner. Having improved our insight into Ledyard’s core- 
system data, we were able to consistently extract, segment, and translate the information into meaningful  
outreach that best matched a client’s financial needs with our product and service solutions. By regularly reaching 
out to our customers and proactively providing them with relevant financial options, we successfully developed 
even deeper relationships predicated on trust and thoughtful, data-driven guidance. For instance, we reintroduced 
products such as Zelle®, allowing clients to send money to friends and family in a fast and safe manner, while also 
promoting rewards products such as uChoose Rewards, our debit card incentive program in which clients can earn 
and redeem points for travel, gift cards, merchandise, and more.  

It’s important to note that our client communication efforts were also designed to educate readers, make them 
more astute consumers, and help them stay safer in a digital world. For example, many of our client communica-
tions, reinforced by our website and social media posts, provided information on common cyber-scams, along with 
hints and tips to recognize such fraudulent attacks and defend against them. We built upon these messages and 

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2022 ANNUAL REPORTLETTER FROM THE CEO & BOARD CHAIR

themes by introducing new products such as Ultimate ID®, an exciting element of our GenGold® Member Rewards 
program. The product addresses the growing concerns around identity theft through the program’s services, in-
cluding credit bureau monitoring, dark web internet monitoring, and inquiry alerts. And understanding that our 
business clients are as susceptible to scams as our personal clients, we introduced Positive Pay, part of our Cash 
Management services offering, as a means of reducing a company’s probability of being subjected to unauthorized 
check and ACH fraud. As a final note on security, in addition to our desire to protect clients, we also spend consid-
erable resources to protect ourselves from cyber-fraud. One of the new measures we put in place was a transition 
of our internet domain from ledyardbank.com to Ledyard.bank. Far from a cosmetic change, .bank is a gated  
domain registered specifically for banks, similar to .gov or .edu. It is subject to an annual reverification process and 
entails the implementation of additional security requirements that help protect our organization, its clients, and 
its vendors against potential breaches.

Furthering our commitment to showcasing 
our expertise and, ultimately, delivering 
the highest level of advice and guidance, 
our wealth management team designed 
and executed the first of many virtual 
workshops for clients and prospects. The 
fall workshop titled, “Navigate Retirement 
with Confidence,” was delivered over the 
course of a week and focused on the five 
essential steps to take in order to live with 
more certainty about retirement. The ses-
sions ranged from identifying the primary 
mistakes investors make and how to avoid 

them to tax planning considerations to optimize any personal situation. As the week concluded, the workshop 
attracted 130 attendees and resulted in significant new and extended revenue. We’re very excited to continue 
offering these workshops going forward, showcasing our knowledge and ability to deliver results. We envision 
this forum as an important new tool for us, and we expect to present topics that will feature our other divisions, 
including commercial banking, consumer lending, and private banking.

We’re pleased to tell you that we’ve made several new hires to the wealth 
management line of business, including Kathy LeClair, Senior Vice President 
and Director of Ledyard Private Banking. With over 40 years of banking ex-
perience in the Southern New Hampshire and Boston markets, including her 
work with high net worth individuals and families on their banking, lending, 
financial planning, and investment needs, Kathy is positioned as a key con-
tributor to the growth we see in that area as well as our ongoing interest in 
regional expansion. 

As always, we’re incredibly proud of the ways in which we impact our  
community outside the workplace. Ledyard’s newly formed volunteer  

Ledyard’s Private Banking team

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2022 ANNUAL REPORTLETTER FROM THE CEO & BOARD CHAIR

Ledyard’s volunteer teams enjoyed working on projects for COVER Home Repair and Granite VNA & Hospice.

committee formalized the company’s commitment to help its neighbors 
in need and provided opportunities for employees to make a lasting, pos-
itive impact on the areas we serve. Our 36 volunteers, making up roughly 
a third of the bank’s employee base, recorded nearly 850 volunteer hours 
at nonprofit organizations across New Hampshire and Vermont.   

On a separate note, we’re delighted to sponsor, along with the  
Concord Monitor newspaper, a new program in the Capital Region called 
Hometown Heroes. This program seeks to honor any and all individuals 
or groups who make their communities a better place in which to live 
and work. Each week a new story is told, acting as a catalyst for others 
to draw inspiration and make a difference in their own way. Through 
Hometown Heroes, Ledyard learned so much about the area’s charitable 
organizations and, in addition to simply making a financial donation, we chose to partner with them. For example, 
recognizing the amazing work of Friends of Forgotten Children, we created an entire campaign around their mis-
sion. We used our financial centers throughout the holiday season to collect coats, scarves, gloves, and other items 
that will keep those in need warm through the winter months.

Donations from our Holiday Food Drive were collected in 
all our locations and delivered to local food shelves. 

As an extension of our community work, as well as the culture we’ve institut-
ed throughout the company, Ledyard received meaningful acknowledgments 
from our industry and community. For the third year in a row, Ledyard was 
named by American Banker Magazine as One of the Best Banks to Work For in 
2022, ranking 27th out of 90 recognized banks. Additional recognition came 
in the form of being named one of New Hampshire’s Best Companies to Work 
For by Business NH Magazine. These two awards distinguish us as a company 
that understands the new workplace realities with flexibility a consistent focus. 
Further, they underscore the bank’s efforts to build an internal culture that 
supports employee development, encourages community involvement, pro-
motes work-life balance, and offers programs that enhance healthy living, such 
as Ledyard’s many wellness initiatives. We were also ranked among the Top 200 
publicly traded banks and thrifts under $2 billion in assets in the United States 
by American Banker Magazine for the eighth consecutive year. And finally,  
Ledyard was recognized with highest honors by multiple newspapers across 

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2022 ANNUAL REPORTLETTER FROM THE CEO & BOARD CHAIR

the full range of our footprint. First, our wealth management division was voted Best 
Financial Advisor Firm by readers of the Concord Monitor in their annual awards contest, 
the Cappies. We were also voted Best Financial Planning Services Firm in the Valley News 
Reader’s Choice Awards. Our second place Cappies finish in the Best Bank category is an 
amazing accomplishment, recognizing that we opened the doors to our first branch in 
the region only two years ago. This achievement is a testament to the hard work of our 
talented Concord team and serves to motivate us even more to become the number-one 
bank of choice for those living in our southern market.  

As we head into the new year, we’d like to take a moment 
to thank Margaret Rightmire, our outgoing Board Chair, for 
her leadership and all that she’s done for the bank.  
Margaret has served on the Ledyard Board since 2011, 
served as Board Chair since 2019, and will continue to be 
an integral board director in the years ahead.

We believe that we’re better positioned than ever to address the needs of our  
personal, business, and wealth management clients through education, advice,  
guidance, technology, and product set. To do so, we’re dedicated to attracting, 
retaining, and developing the best talent. In fact, our confidence in Ledyard’s future 
success is rooted in the confidence we have in our employees — a trust that our  
people seek sustained excellence and are accountable to winning results.  

And while we continue to invest heavily in needs such as human resources and 
digital tools that transform the ways in which we interact with our customers, we’re 
also executing a plan to upgrade Ledyard’s financial centers. This year we completed 
a full makeover of our facility in Norwich, VT. Its new, innovative design is modeled 
after our financial center in Concord and boasts cutting-edge technologies includ-
ing an Interactive ATM in the drive-through, where a remote Ledyard teller can help 
complete banking transactions.  

Following our work in Norwich, we began a similar redesign effort in our Hanover, 
NH financial center with an anticipated spring 2023 completion date. These  

Newly redesigned interior of our Norwich Financial Center

Bruce King was elected 
as the new Chair of 
the Board of Directors 
of Ledyard Financial 
Group, Inc. and Ledyard 
National Bank. Bruce, 
retired President and 
CEO of New London 
Hospital, has served 
on the Ledyard Board 
since 2014 and has 
served as Co-Vice Chair 
of the Board since 
2019.  

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2022 ANNUAL REPORTLETTER FROM THE CEO & BOARD CHAIR

physical transformations, along with Ledyard’s high  
level of personalized service, offer an enhanced  
experience that meets the personal and business  
banking needs of the community, helps to support local 
businesses, and contributes to the economic growth 
of the area. Regarding this last point, we want to be 
certain that our work is meaningful and impactful. To 
that end, we partnered with a company that specializes 
in measuring and improving customer satisfaction and 
loyalty. We now utilize a consistent, formal approach 
across all divisions to ask for honest client feedback 
with an emphasis on what we do well and what we 
need to improve upon. To date, we’re thrilled with 
the overall results of aggregated measurements and 
detailed comments. At the same time, we see opportu-
nities for continuous improvement and will integrate 
those ideas into our future deliverables.  

Looking to 2023 and beyond, we’ll be working on 
ways to reinforce our vision for growth. As we further 
develop infrastructure that helps our staff conveniently 
provide more and better products and services, we will 
strive to become the bank that really makes life  
better — for our clients, our team members, and our  
communities.

With these objectives in place, we expect to extend our 
track record of financial strength and profitability.

Thank you to our shareholders, clients, employees, and 
board members for their trust, support, and confidence 
in our company. You have been, and will continue to be, 
the key to Ledyard’s success.

KATHRYN G. UNDERWOOD
Chief Executive Officer
Ledyard Financial Group/Ledyard National Bank

BRUCE P. KING
Retired, President & Chief Executive Officer
New London Hospital
Chair, Ledyard Financial Group

William Kidder, SVP & Senior Lending Officer, was 
awarded one of NH Business Finance Authority’s 
Granite State Awards in recognition of his  
exceptional work helping businesses access capital.

Bill received the award for Loan Participation of 
the Year for FitKids Childcare & River Valley Club 
in Lebanon which will add 60 new, much-needed 
childcare spots in the Upper Valley along with 70 
new jobs.

“These lenders have gone above and beyond in 
their efforts leveraging BFA programs, making 
loans happen to help New Hampshire businesses 
succeed,” stated James Key-Wallace, Executive 
Director of the New Hampshire Business Finance 
Authority. “The Granite State Awards are an 
important recognition of the critical work done 
by lenders across the state. The health of our 
communities depends on the health of our  
economy, and these lenders have worked  
diligently with local businesses to create  
hundreds of jobs for New Hampshire families.”

6

2022 ANNUAL REPORT2022 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS (dollars in thousands, except “Other data”)

YEARS-ENDED DECEMBER 31,

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

FINANCIAL CONDITION DATA

Assets

Investments & interest bearing deposits
Gross loans, including loans

  held-for-sale

Allowance for loan loss

Net loans, including loans

  held-for-sale

Deposits

Advances from Federal Home Loan Bank

  and other borrowings

Subordinated debt and accrued expenses

Shareholders’ equity

OPERATING DATA

Net interest income

Ledyard Financial Advisors income

Other non-interest income

Securities gains (losses)

Total revenue

Provision for loan loss

Non-interest expense

Pre-tax income

Income taxes

Net income

OTHER DATA

Earnings per share, basic*

Dividends per share*

Tangible book value per share*

Shares outstanding,

  net of treasury*

Return on average assets

Return on average equity

Efficiency ratio

Stock price 

- high*

- low*

- average*

Assets under management

  and custody (millions)

Equity to asset ratio

Allowance for loan losses

to total loans

Allowance for loan losses

to non-performing assets

Texas Ratio

$  

743,465  

$  

771,143  

$  

684,707  

$  

500,391  

$  

488,062

314,810

364,650

276,594

137,621

143,306

362,057

(3,843)

358,214

570,332

87,978

32,155

52,999

362,677

(7,469)

355,208

675,082

5,627

17,728

72,706

371,916

(7,958)

363,958

589,512

6,729

21,582

66,884

325,268

(5,213)

320,055

393,011

29,783

21,463

56,134

$  

18,686  

$  

18,274  

$  

16,762  

$  

16,076  

$  

12,779

1,400

(2,966)

29,899

(3,634)

26,036

7,497

515

6,982

13,169

1,699

168

33,310

(450)

25,287

8,473

708

7,765

11,614

2,023

1,431

31,830

2,700

21,838

7,292

563

6,729

10,887

1,843

(40)

28,766

0

22,102

6,664

848

5,816

310,776

(5,215)

305,561

409,066

16,433

14,071

48,493

15,484

10,512

1,682

0

27,678

0

21,752

5,927

775

5,152

$  

$  

$  

2.14  

0.84  

15.83  

$  

$  

$  

2.42  

0.80  

21.70  

$  

$  

$  

2.13  

0.76  

20.14  

$  

$  

$  

1.85  

0.74  

17.19  

$  

$  

$  

1.66

0.70 

15.02

3,348,395

3,350,624

3,323,110

3,265,475

3,328,532

0.94%

12.77%

87.10%

1.07%

10.95%

75.91%

1.11%

10.97%

68.59%

1.15%

10.99%

76.81%

$  

$  

$  

25.70  

17.80  

21.12  

$  

$  

$  

27.25  

18.99  

24.13  

$  

$  

$  

26.00  

15.16  

18.75  

$  

$  

$  

25.00  

19.10  

21.05  

$  

$  

$  

$  

1,705  

$  

1,976  

$  

1,709  

$  

1,723  

$  

9.44%

8.35%

8.78%

10.74%

1.06%

10.82%

78.51%

24.00

21.05

22.17

1,459

10.11%

1.06%

2.06%

2.14%

1.60%

1.68%

260%

1.73%

526%

2.04%

543%

2.36%

446%

2.18%

153%

6.76%

* Adjusted for 3-for-1 stock split. Complete Ledyard Financial Group 2022 audited financial statements can be found under “Investor Relations”
at ledyard.bank. Certain reclassifications have been made to the prior period information to conform to the current period presentation.

7

2022 ANNUAL REPORT 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM*

BOARD OF DIRECTORS*

KATHRYN G. UNDERWOOD 
Chief Executive Officer

JOSEPHINE MORAN 
President & Chief Banking Officer

GREGORY D. STEVERSON 
Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer  
& Chief Financial Officer (Retired 12/31/22)

PETER SPRUDZS 
Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

MICHAEL HAKOUN 
Executive Vice President & Managing Director 
Ledyard Financial Advisors

CATHERINE BARDIER 
Senior Vice President & Human Resources Director

KATIE-LEE P. BLAKE 
Vice President & Regional Retail Manager

BLISS DAYTON, CRCM 
Senior Vice President & Compliance Officer

SUSAN FERNALD 
Senior Vice President & Senior Banking Operations Officer

WILLIAM E. KIDDER, JR. 
Senior Vice President & Senior Lending Officer 

JEFFREY H. MARKS 
Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer

MICHAEL M. PARISI 
Senior Vice President & Director of Sales  
and Product Development

MICHAEL T. URNEZIS 
Senior Vice President & Senior Mortgage  
and Consumer Lending Officer

MARK BELIVEAU 
Partner, Gallagher, Flynn &Company, LLP 

JAY BENSON 
CEO, Simon Pearce US

COTTON M. CLEVELAND 
President, Mather Associates

BRUCE P. KING 
Retired, President & Chief Executive Officer 
New London Hospital 
Chair, Ledyard Financial Group

JUDITH M. MALOY 
Director & CEO, Polaris Direct 

WILHELMINA DINGEMANS MILLER 
Director, Downs Rachlin Martin, PLLC

MARGARET M. RIGHTMIRE 
Civic Leader

TERESA RHODES ROSENBERGER 
Senior Advisor, Bernstein Shur

ANDREW A. SAMWICK 
Professor & Chair, Department of Economics 
Dartmouth College 
Co-Vice Chair, Ledyard Financial Group

KATHRYN G. UNDERWOOD 
Chief Executive Officer, Ledyard Financial Group

ROBERT O. WETZEL 
Retired, Senior Partner, Accenture plc 
Co-Vice Chair, Ledyard Financial Group

* As of December 31, 2022

LEDYARD.BANK   CONCORD | HANOVER | LEBANON | LYME | NEW LONDON | NORWICH, VT | WEST LEBANON   888.746.4562

Personal and business banking relationships within the retail bank are subject to FDIC insurance coverage limits. Investment, tax and wealth management services 
offered by Ledyard Financial Advisors are not insured by the FDIC, are not deposits or other obligations of, or guaranteed by the Bank or any affiliate, and are subject 
to investment risk including the possible loss of principal amount invested.

EQUAL HOUSING LENDER MEMBER FDIC

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2022 ANNUAL REPORT