Regional and community banks play an outsized role in commercial real estate lending even in a volatile market.

Joe Slovick isn’t shying away from making commercial real estate loans these days. His rivals not so much. Developers are clamoring for loans and he sees a huge opportunity for Eastern Savings Bank to capitalize on that demand. Competitors — and the banking industry as a whole — see such a strategy as too risky. Slovick said that while rising interest rates and a possible recession might scare other bankers away, he believes that his bank has the right strategies in place to benefit.