The head of Fleet-Norstar Financial Group was in Bangor Wednesday to meet with the board of directors of Fleet Bank of Maine and to speak at a luncheon meeting with directors, members of the bank’s regional board of directors and with representatives of some of the bank’s larger customers.

J. Terrence Murray said that the economic slowdown in the Northeastern United States hadn’t reached the proportions in Maine that it had elsewhere, and that Maine’s economy should be healthier than the economies of its neighbors to the south in the coming months.

The Providence-based banking executive told the officials that filling the chief executive position for the Bangor area was a top priority of the board of directors of the Maine bank. He said his company was committed to naming a “seasoned, experienced” management team to replace John C. McGinn who retired earlier this year. Such a person or persons should be in place in 60 to 90 days, he said.

The Bangor area is important to Fleet, Murray said. But because Fleet already has a significant presence in the area, the bank probably wouldn’t look to purchase any additional branches, he said. But he would consider acquiring additional deposits.

Fleet had negotiated to buy Maine National Bank from its struggling parent, the Bank of New England. Murray said that the two parties couldn’t agree on a price and there currently were no negotiations regarding such a sale. But he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of more negotiations in the future.

According to Murray, Fleet is interested in more acquisitions in Maine, particularly in the southern part of the state, where its presence isn’t as strong as it is in the Bangor area.

“We would like to use acquisitions to posture ourselves to be a dominant part of Maine banking for the next decade,” Murray said.

For the time being, Murray said, bank examiners are through examining Fleet’s loan portfolio. According to the new federal guidelines, Fleet has about $1 billion in non-performing loans, but about 40 percent of that total is performing by traditional standards. This means they are less than 90 days past-due, or being paid on time but with inadequate collateral or some other condition deemed inadequate by the examiners.

The interest earned on these “performing, non-performing” loans is not treated as income by the bank, but is applied to the principle. These new federal rules, which Murray thinks are too conservative, were established in the wake of the S&L crisis.

But, Murray said, “It’s irrelevant what I think. It’s what we’re doing and what we’ll continue to do in this environment.”

The procedure obviously hurts Fleet’s earnings totals, but the bank did earn a profit of $60 million in the second quarter. This followed a loss of $98 million in the first quarter. During the first quarter, the bank had to set up a big reserve to cover poor loans.

Murray says that he expects his institution to turn a profit for the year. And, he says, the bank should be able to continue its long history of dividend payments. Current dividends cost the bank about $38 million a quarter. Murray indicated that Fleet’s capitalization of more than $2.2 billion made the awarding of dividends an easier proposition.

Meanwhile, Murray said his bank continued to work to improve its liquidity position, its amount of working capital, and to improve the quality of its assets.

He thinks it’s a strategy that will serve the institution well until the economy improves.