Signature Bank Names New Private Client Banking Team to Join Its Garden City, Long Island, N.Y. Office

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Signature Bank (Nasdaq: SBNY), a New York-based full-service commercial bank, announced today the appointment of a new private client banking team that joined its Garden City, Long Island, N.Y. office.

“Another established team with a solid reputation in its market joins our growing network of private client banking teams. Veteran bankers continue to express interest in Signature Bank to focus on catering to their clients’ needs first and foremost, by serving as a single-point-of-contact”

James Young was named Group Director and Senior Vice President and leads the five-person team, which includes Associate Group Directors and Vice Presidents Michael Grubstein, Stephanie Bruno and Devon Kiernan, as well as Lourdes Mosquito, Client Associate. Most of the team members worked together for the past 10 years at HSBC Bank USA in Carle Place, Long Island, N.Y.

Young, with 35 years of banking experience, spent the past 25 years at HSBC, most recently as Vice President and Senior Branch Manager, overseeing branches in Carle Place and Garden City, Long Island. During his tenure, he specialized in business banking.

Grubstein, with a decade of banking experience, was Premier Relationship Manager and Assistant Vice President at the Garden City branch of HSBC for the past seven years. He previously was a Client Financial Analyst at Citibank NA in Mineola, Long Island. Bruno was Branch Service Manager at the Carle Place location for more than 20 years, also catering to commercial clients. Kiernan was Senior Premier Relationship Manager for six years, also in Carle Place, where he focused on serving professional services clients as well as high-net-worth individuals. During his 17-year financial services career, he served in both relationship banking as well as in wealth management positions. Mosquito spent 10 years in Carle Place, focusing on customer service and branch operations.

“Another established team with a solid reputation in its market joins our growing network of private client banking teams. Veteran bankers continue to express interest in Signature Bank to focus on catering to their clients’ needs first and foremost, by serving as a single-point-of-contact,” explained Joseph J. DePaolo, president and chief executive officer at Signature Bank.

“This new team further strengthens our Long Island presence where we now have 19 teams that operate from six private client banking offices and our soon-to-open seventh office in Hauppauge. Long Island has a concentration of privately owned and entrepreneurial-led businesses that are the type of clients to whom Signature Bank caters,” DePaolo said.

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. The Bank operates Signature Financial, LLC, a specialty finance subsidiary focused on equipment finance and leasing, transportation financing and taxi medallion financing. Investment, brokerage, asset management and insurance products and services are offered through the Bank’s subsidiary, Signature Securities Group Corporation, a licensed broker-dealer, investment adviser and member FINRA/SIPC.

Since commencing operations in May 2001, the Bank has grown to $15.9 billion in assets, $13 billion in deposits, $1.5 billion in equity capital and $1.70 billion in other assets under management as of June 30, 2012. Signature Bank's Tier 1 and risk-based capital ratios are significantly above the levels required to be considered well capitalized.

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.

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. You should not place undue reliance on those statements because they are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and may be beyond our control. 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," “potential,” “opportunity,” “could,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “will,” would,” "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, any of 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 monetary and fiscal policies of the U.S. Government, including policies of the U.S. Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; (v) changes in the banking and other financial services regulatory environment and (vi) competition for qualified personnel and desirable office locations. As you read and consider forward-looking statements, you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions and can change as a result of many possible events or factors, not all of which are known to us or in our control. Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, beliefs and expectations, if a change occurs or our beliefs, assumptions and expectations were incorrect, our business, financial condition, liquidity or results of operations may vary materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements. 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.