Signature
Bank (Nasdaq:SBNY), a New York-based full-service commercial bank,
announced today that it has formed a new subsidiary, Signature
Financial, LLC, marking the Bank’s entry into the specialty financing
arena. Concurrently, the Bank appointed a major middle market team on
Long Island while expanding its presence in Manhattan by adding one team
and expanding another.
Signature Financial is a specialty finance company, focused on equipment
finance and leasing, transportation financing and taxi medallion
financing. Combined with the Bank’s current taxi medallion finance
business, Signature Bank enhances its market position in this field.
A well-respected, veteran management team was appointed to lead
Signature Financial, which will be based in Melville, Long Island. The
team, whose management possesses more than 175 years of combined
experience within specialty finance and has worked together for 25
years, will be led by Walter Rabin, who will join Signature Financial as
President in June 2012, after a 90-day waiting period.
Additional members who have already joined Signature Financial are
Richard J. Antonacci, with 25 years of specialty finance experience, who
was named Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President; Anthony
Fantauzzi, a seasoned financing executive with more than 30 years of
commercial finance and banking experience, named Chief Risk Officer and
Executive Vice President; Anthony Perettine, Executive Vice President,
with nearly three decades spanning both commercial finance and banking;
Joseph Fantauzzi, appointed Executive Vice President and Capital Markets
Division Head, bringing 26 years of financing and leasing expertise to
his new role; W. Kerry Mach, Senior Vice President and Director of
Business Development, another 26-year banking and financing veteran
specializing in middle market equipment leasing; and, Daniel Craffey,
Senior Vice President and Director of Operations who has spent 15 years
in the specialty finance industry.
Also joining Signature Financial are Steve Robbins as Director of Asset
Management; Steve Jason as Director of Vehicle Finance; and, John Cetta
as Director of Taxi Medallion Finance. Each bring more than 20 years of
industry experience to Signature Financial.
All join from Capital One’s All Points Capital subsidiary, a financing
and leasing company specializing in funding for independent lessors
nationwide, with the exception of Joseph Fantauzzi, who most recently
was Senior Vice President and Head of the Capital Markets Division at
Wells Fargo Equipment Finance, Inc., where he was employed for the past
17 years in various financing-related roles. In total, the Bank has
added in excess of 30 professionals to Signature Financial to support
its anticipated growth.
Furthermore, Signature Bank appointed a new middle market team with
long-standing commercial banking roots in Long Island. The four-person
team will be based in the soon-to-open Hauppauge private client banking
office, which will mark the Bank’s 26th office.
The team is led by Gary Sarro and Alan Giaimis, both named Group
Directors and Senior Vice Presidents, joined by Robert J. Caruana, Jr.,
Associate Group Director and Vice President.
Sarro brings 35 years of middle market banking experience to Signature
Bank, most recently serving as Senior Vice President and Team Leader at
HSBC Bank in Melville, where he was employed for 30 years. In this
position, he focused on serving middle market commercial and industrial
clients. Giaimis has built a 25-year banking career, most recently
spending 11 years at HSBC in Melville as Senior Vice President where he
served privately held middle market entities. Prior, he was a Vice
President and Relationship Manager at European American Bank. Caruana
spent the past eight years as Vice President and Relationship Manager at
HSBC and previously, was a Portfolio Manager and Assistant Vice
President in commercial banking at Bank of America in Melville. The team
has worked together for nearly 10 years, garnering a significant
presence within the commercial arena throughout Long Island. Jessica
Alagna, with two decades of financial services support experience, was
named Senior Client Associate for this team.
To further solidify its presence in Manhattan, the Bank named Roseann
Manos, Group Director and Senior Vice President and Darshini Mahadeo,
Senior Client Associate at its 261 Madison Avenue private client banking
office. Manos spent 30 years dedicated to commercial banking in midtown
Manhattan, developing a diverse portfolio including real estate and
healthcare clients. She spent most of her career at Capital One Bank,
formerly North Fork Bank, in midtown Manhattan, in private banking, as
Team Leader and Senior Vice President. Mahadeo has worked directly with
Manos and her clients for seven years.
Additionally, Carlos Salvador joined the private client banking team
headed by Group Director and Senior Vice President John Gonzalez, as
Associate Group Director and Vice President, at the 950 Third Avenue
location in New York City. Salvador joins from TD Bank (previously
Commerce Bank) in midtown, where he spent 12 years as Business
Development Officer handling acquisition and retention of new business
banking relationships.
“We are excited to attract one of the most talented management teams in
the specialty finance and leasing arena today. Their relationship-based
approach and decades of experience allows us to broaden our lending
activities and to also further enhance the breadth and depth of the
capabilities we bring to our clients. Their experience and history,
particularly at NorthFork Bank, makes this a great fit for our
organization,” explained Joseph J. DePaolo, President and Chief
Executive Officer.
“In addition, we are pleased to have one of Long Island’s most respected
CI-focused, middle market teams joining the Bank with the appointment
of the Sarro/Giaimis team. All these appointments – for both the
specialty financing subsidiary as well as our traditional private client
banking teams – reflect our continued ability to draw some of the most
highly qualified financial services professionals to our growing banking
network,” he said.
Scott A. Shay, Chairman of the Board, noted: “Our strategic decision to
enter the specialty finance and leasing business will allow us to
further diversify the asset side of our balance sheet while expanding
our client offerings. Additionally, the newly added Sarro/Giaimis team
will increase our predominantly floating rate commercial and industrial
loan portfolio infusing more floating rate components to our revenue
streams.”
About Signature Bank
Signature Bank, member FDIC, is a New York-based full-service commercial
bank with 25 private client offices throughout the New York metropolitan
area. The Bank’s growing network of private client banking teams serves
the needs of privately owned businesses, their owners and senior
managers.
Signature Bank offers a wide variety of business and personal banking
products and services as well as investment, brokerage, asset management
and insurance products and services through its subsidiary, Signature
Securities Group Corporation, a licensed broker-dealer, investment
adviser and member FINRA/SIPC.
Signature Bank’s 25 offices are located: In Manhattan (9) – 261 Madison
Avenue; 300 Park Avenue; 71 Broadway; 565 Fifth Avenue; 950 Third
Avenue; 200 Park Avenue South; 1020 Madison Avenue; 50 West 57th Street
and 2 Penn Plaza. Brooklyn (3) – 26 Court Street; 84 Broadway and 6321
New Utrecht Avenue. Westchester (2) – 1C Quaker Ridge Road, New Rochelle
and 360 Hamilton Avenue, White Plains. Long Island (6) – 1225 Franklin
Avenue, Garden City; 279 Sunrise Highway, Rockville Centre; 68 South
Service Road, Melville; 923 Broadway, Woodmere; 40 Cuttermill Road,
Great Neck and 100 Jericho Quadrangle, Jericho. Queens (3) – 36-36 33rd
Street, Long Island City; 78-27 37th Avenue, Jackson Heights and 8936
Sutphin Blvd., Jamaica. Bronx (1) – 421 Hunts Point Avenue, Bronx.
Staten Island (1) – 2066 Hylan Blvd.
Since commencing operations in May 2001, the Bank has grown to $14.7
billion in assets, $11.8 billion in deposits, $1.4 billion in equity
capital and $1.7 billion in other assets under management as of December
31, 2011. Signature Bank’s Tier 1 and risk-based capital ratios are
significantly above the levels required to be considered well
capitalized.
For more information, please visit www.signatureny.com.
This press release and oral statements made from time to time by our
representatives contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are subject
to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include
information concerning our future results, interest rates and the
interest rate environment, loan and deposit growth, loan performance,
operations, new private client team hires, new office openings and
business strategy. These statements often include words such as
“may,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “estimate”
or other similar expressions. As you consider forward-looking
statements, you should understand that these statements are not
guarantees of performance or results. They involve risks,
uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These
factors include but are not limited to: (i) prevailing economic
conditions; (ii) changes in interest rates, loan demand, real estate
values, and competition, which can materially affect origination levels
and gain on sale results in our business, as well as other aspects of
our financial performance, including earnings on interest-bearing
assets; (iii) the level of defaults, losses and prepayments on loans
made by us, whether held in portfolio or sold in the whole loan
secondary markets, which can materially affect charge-off levels and
required credit loss reserve levels; (iv) changes in the banking and
other financial services regulatory environment and (v) competition for
qualified personnel and desirable office locations. Additional
risks are described in our quarterly and annual reports filed with the
FDIC. You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statements
made by Signature Bank speak only as of the date on which they were
made. New risks and uncertainties come up from time to time, and we
cannot predict these events or how they may affect the Bank. Signature
Bank has no duty to, and does not intend to, update or revise the
forward-looking statements after the date on which they are made. In
light of these risks and uncertainties, you should keep in mind that any
forward-looking statement made in this release or elsewhere might not
reflect actual results.
