Signature Bank Adds Two Private Client Banking Teams to Its Network and Appoints New Group Director to Current Team

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Signature Bank (Nasdaq: SBNY), a New York-based full-service commercial bank, announced today it has named two private client banking teams to its growing network. Concurrently, the Bank expanded one of its existing teams with the addition of a new Group Director, bringing the total number of Group Directors to 98.

George Taitt was appointed Group Director and Senior Vice President, while John Millwood was named Associate Group Director and Vice President and Cindy Sankar, Senior Client Associate. They will be based out of the Bank’s Jamaica, Queens private client banking office, marking the second team to join this recently opened office.

Taitt brings more than 30 years of banking expertise to Signature Bank. Most recently, he served for five years as Branch Manager and Vice President for CapitalOne Bank in Jamaica. He previously was Vice President and Branch Manager for JPMorgan Chase in the Bronx, after spending 20 years there serving in various roles.

Millwood, with a decade of banking experience, joined from JPMorgan Chase, where most recently he was Assistant Vice President and Business Banker, catering to real estate and property management clients.

Sankar worked with Taitt at CapitalOne for the last five of her 10-year tenure there. She was a relationship banker focused on serving commercial clients.

Vincent E. LoPreto and Keti Dervishi were each named Group Director and Senior Vice President while Claudia E. Aviles was appointed to the post of Senior Client Associate. This team will work out of the Bank’s 261 Madison Avenue (at 39^th Street) private client banking office.

The team joined from Metropolitan National Bank where they worked together for a total of 10 years at both this institution as well as HSBC. LoPreto, with 25 years in banking and a specialty in serving real estate entities, spent the past eight years there as a Branch Manager and Vice President in midtown Manhattan.

Dervishi was a Relationship Manager and Vice President working with LoPreto and also developed an expertise in serving commercial real estate firms. Previously, she was a Corporate Sales Officer and Assistant Vice President at HSBC, where she dedicated her 17-year career to business banking.

Aviles has a decade of banking experience, most recently working with LoPreto as a Senior Account Representative. While at HSBC, she held several roles including customer service representative, consumer banker and branch operations assistant.

Concurrent with the team expansion, Signature Bank named Todd Flamenbaum Group Director and Senior Vice President. Flamenbaum joins David Saunders’ team, which is based in Melville, Long Island. Flamenbaum, a former colleague of Saunders, brings more than 20 years of experience in banking and finance to Signature Bank. Previously, he was a Senior Vice President/Senior Client Relationship Manager at Bank of America in Melville. During his 12 years there, he also was Market Manager for the Long Island Business Banking Group.

“The ongoing acceptance of our single-point-of-contact model, coupled with our proven financial performance, has enabled us to seize opportunities for quality bankers to join us. We are adding a second team to our recently opened Jamaica, Queens office, with the appointment of George Taitt and his team. George and his colleagues are well known throughout the Jamaica area, and his team rounds out the capacity of our private banking office there. We are also pleased to welcome Vinny and Keti’s team, who, for the past decade, have established solid commercial relationships across Manhattan. Additionally, Todd brings two decades of private client commercial banking expertise to the Saunders team, which will further cement our growing reputation on Long Island,” noted Joseph J. DePaolo, President and Chief Executive Officer at Signature Bank.

“The year is off to a solid start with the appointment of these two private client banking teams and the expansion of the Saunders team,” DePaolo explained.

The new bankers cited the opportunity to work more closely and personally with clients through Signature Bank’s single-point-of-contact approach as the most appealing factor in drawing them to join the Bank.

About Signature Bank

Signature Bank, member FDIC, a New York-based full-service commercial bank with 24 private client offices throughout the New York metropolitan area, serves the needs of privately owned businesses, their owners and senior managers through dozens of private client groups. The 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 24 offices are located: In Manhattan - 261 Madison Avenue; 300 Park Avenue; 71 Broadway; 565 Fifth Avenue; 950 Third Avenue; 200 Park Avenue South; 1020 Madison Avenue and 50 West 57th Street. Brooklyn - 26 Court Street; 84 Broadway and 6321 New Utrecht Avenue. Westchester - 1C Quaker Ridge Road, New Rochelle and 360 Hamilton Avenue, White Plains. Long Island - 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 - 36-36 33rd Street, Long Island City; 78-27 37th Avenue, Jackson Heights and 8936 Sutphin Blvd., Jamaica. Bronx - 421 Hunts Point Avenue, Bronx. Staten Island - 2066 Hylan Blvd.

Since commencing operations in May 2001, the Bank has grown to $11.7 billion in assets, $9.44 billion in deposits, $944.5 million in equity capital and $1.86 billion in other assets under management as of December 31, 2010. 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, competition, capitalization, new private client team hires, new office openings, the regulatory environment 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 and regulatory 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; (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; and (iv) competition for clients, loans, deposits, 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.

Signature Bank
Investor Contact:Eric R. Howell, 646-822-1402
Chief Financial Officer
[email protected]
or
Media Contact:Susan J. Lewis, 646-822-1825
[email protected]

Source: Signature Bank