The Scituate branch of Bank of America, located at 135 Danielson Pike, has been targeted for closing. Bank Rhode Island hopes to get some of its customers.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

It may not jibe with the home-and-hearth image of a community lender, but Bank Rhode Island is moving aggressively to capitalize on the troubles of its larger rivals.

As Citizens Bank, Sovereign Bank and Bank of America lighten their payrolls, Bank Rhode Island is boasting of hiring additional lenders and business-development officers.

The Providence-based lender accepted a $30-million federal bailout, but having avoided the subprime loans that dragged down its giant competitors, Bank Rhode Island was able to deploy the cash for small-business loans and to offer low rates for mortgage refinancing.

“Business is very good,” said senior vice president Stephen R. Hourahan, poached from the Duffy & Shanley public-relations firm in January to revamp Bank Rhode Island’s marketing. “We see this as an opportunity to build market share.”

That apparent confidence, noteworthy in a generally painful time for financial-services companies, is evident in Bank Rhode Island’s newest advertising campaign.

The ads, being published in four newspapers, target customers of the two Bank of America branches that closed this month in East Providence and Scituate. “Has your bank moved on?” the ad asks, showing a photograph of a man in a trench coat, standing alone at a beach holding a suitcase. “Maybe you should too.”

Fifteen thousand potential customers from the shuttered branches –– including 3,000 businesses –– are also hearing that pitch in a letter that highlights Bank Rhode Island’s “local decision-making” and its headquarters “right here in Rhode Island.”

The bank was even more direct in unveiling the campaign, designed by Pannos Winzeler Marketing in New Hampshire. The announcement mentioned Bank of America by name and promised to lay out the red carpet for its “displaced” depositors.

Bank Rhode Island, with 275 employees and 16 branches, is not the only mid-sized lender hoping to cash in on the financial crisis. Nationally, regional banks have been promoting their cozy, personalized service and less complex balance sheets to spooked depositors eager for a “flight to safety.”

“It’s a pretty popular approach among the smaller, community banks,” said Damon Delmonte, a banking analyst for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. “It can be reassuring for some customers to have the comfort of a local bank.”

Bank of America did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

It is not yet clear if the strategy is working. The most recent federal data showing the distribution of deposits in Rhode Island is from June 2008, before the financial crisis. At the time, Bank of America was outpacing Bank Rhode Island by a large margin, holding 24 percent of deposits compared with Bank Rhode Island’s 4-percent share, according to VERIBANC, a research firm in Woonsocket.

There are signs, however, that the big dreams of small lenders are more than wishful thinking.

For the first three months of 2009, the total deposits at Rhode Island’s 24 credit unions grew by 5.8 percent, compared with a 4.1-percent growth rate over the past four years.

On Monday, Navigant Credit Union opened a new branch in Smithfield. On Thursday, Pawtucket Credit Union opened a branch in Cranston.

Unlike Bank Rhode Island, the credit unions have not directly taken aim at the large banks. But according to Daniel F. Egan Jr., the head of the Credit Union Association of Rhode Island, they don’t have to.

“It’s about being small and being local,” Egan said. “They read in the paper every day that there are problems with those [large] institutions.”

These days, Rhode Island is not an easy place for a bank of any size. The unemployment rate is 12.1 percent, third-highest in the country. As more Rhode Islanders lose their jobs, banks may see more borrowers failing to pay off their mortgages and loans.

In a research note in April, Delmonte predicted that Bank Rhode Island would see “rising levels of stress in its portfolios” as it “navigates through the choppiness of a down economy.”

Still, as its rivals grapple with toxic assets and strict government oversight, Bank Rhode Island says it’s entitled to a bit of swagger.

“We have dollars to lend,” Hourahan, the bank’s senior vice president, said. “Other lenders are not able to put out the capital, and Bank Rhode Island is.”

bgedan@projo.com