Julieann Thurlow, president and CEO of Reading Cooperative Bank, successfully merged her bank with a neighboring one in a deal that brought the asset size of the Massachusetts-based mutual bank past the $1 billion mark this year.
However, this wasn't your average bank M&A deal. Since both institutions are mutual banks there were no price negotiations, even though the merger co-mingled the two banks' assets to a combined $1.23 billion. Instead, Thurlow focused her negotiations around relationship building and aligning the mission and goals of each institution to ensure a smooth transition for their members.
Thurlow told American Banker that a mutual bank merger allows each bank to do more for their communities working together with a combined asset size than they could do separately.
"There is no stockholder of a mutual institution, and the capital is owned by the community at large, and so the board members' fiduciary responsibility is to protect that capital," she said. "The decision to combine two mutual [banks] really is an alignment of values and purpose in such a way that you can ensure that the community assets are deployed in the best way possible."
Reading Cooperative Bank and Wakefield Cooperative Bank officially finalized the merger in August 2025. The newly formed organization is retaining Reading's name, and Thurlow will continue to serve as its CEO after passing the title of president to Wakefield Cooperative's CEO Jeffrey Worth.
While she was busy with the mutual merger, Thurlow also served as the chair of the American Bankers Association from November 2023 to October 2024.
Her advocacy efforts for community banks have been a part of her work for most of her 18 years as CEO of Reading Cooperative.
"It's my belief that if you have an opinion and don't express it, then you don't have any right to complain," she said.
During her tenure as ABA Chair, she focused on advancing the industry for all banks regardless of size or charter, bringing her experience as the CEO of a small community bank to the head of the table of America's largest bank trade association. In 2024, the ABA took an aggressive stance on what it called regulatory overreach while acknowledging the need to modify outdated regulations.
"When regulators and legislators in D.C. are writing policies reacting to a financial crisis and you as a community bank were not the cause of the crisis and didn't write toxic mortgages, that's what drove me to jump up and down, even though I'm only five foot two, and say, 'This is not fair,'" Thurlow said. "You need to consider the entire industry when you're writing regulations and think about the unintended consequences."
Thurlow also serves as co-chair of the Massachusetts Fintech Hub, an organization that works with many of the states' top universities such as Harvard and MIT to encourage young entrepreneurs to establish their fintech startups in Boston.
"We're lucky enough to have some of the leading universities in the nation, and a lot of really great thought leaders are coming out with ideas and inspiration and entrepreneurial interests," she said. "The goal of the Massachusetts Fintech Hub is to make sure fintechs stay in Massachusetts, developing and enhancing and growing our tax base here and keeping our young people here."
