Piermont Bank, the first de novo bank charter issued by the state of New York since 2009 opens for business

NEW YORK, July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Piermont Bank, a newly chartered full-service commercial bank in New York announced today that it is now open for business at 4 Bryant Park. Piermont Bank has completed the required capital raise and received final regulatory approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services ("NYSDFS") as well as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC").

Piermont Bank is the first independent de novo bank charter approval for New York State in the last decade, and there are many unique aspects to this new bank player. It is also a FDIC designated Minority Depository Institution, and a women-led and women majority board bank.

Piermont Bank seeks to take advantage of a tremendous market opportunity with small and medium-size businesses, especially those businesses that have outgrown their local community bank's product offerings and yet do not prefer the mass market product and service approach by the larger banks. It is taking a refreshing approach to commercial banking – it has built a fully integrated and digitized platform leveraging the best financial technology, which allows it to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and tear down departmental silos. It has also taken a holistic approach to support business owners' both business and personal financial needs through a single point of contact and total relationship pricing, making banking easy, relevant and purposeful.

"For clients, this means simplicity and efficiency. We can turn around commercial loans from application to funding in a much-reduced timeframe than what you typically would experience," says Wendy Cai-Lee, President and CEO of Piermont Bank. "We are combining the best of two worlds – we automated and digitized everything non-client facing and invested outsized human resources in client-facing functions. This approach allows us to deliver services the old-fashioned way with a fully dedicated relationship advisor, one meeting at a time, with greater time and cost efficiency. There are no 800 numbers for our customer to navigate; we strongly believe this is a people business."

Piermont Bank is founded by a highly accomplished group of senior banking executives, each with decades of financial services experience. These executives have been serving the privately owned businesses in the Greater New York area for over 30 years and have extensive track records in helping clients successfully build and grow their businesses.

Wendy Cai-Lee, the President & CEO, is a former Executive Vice President of East West Bank, responsible for overseeing its consumer banking, real estate and commercial lending businesses, and built successful de novo lending businesses across several industries and geographies.  She started her banking career with Chase and spent her entire career in financial services. 

Chief Financial Officer, Frank Fusco, is the former CFO of Astoria Bank, which was once a $20+ billion bank that was successfully merged into Sterling National Bank. Chief Banking Officer, Steve LaFredo, spent majority of his banking career with CitiBank in various roles in corporate, commercial and private banking. Chief Credit Officer, Robert Tolomer most recently served as the CCO at Greater Hudson Bank (currently part of ConnectOne Bank). Chief Information Officer, Robert J. DeStefano is the former CIO of Astoria Bank with extensive technology and operations experience. 

Piermont has put together an impressive Board of Directors consisting of experienced executives with a wide variety of backgrounds and previous bank board experience.

The Bank was advised and assisted by Carpenter & Company, as consultant, and Arnold & Porter, as legal counsel, for the de novo chartering process.

For more information about Piermont Bank, please visit www.piermontbank.com

Disclaimer

The information contained in this press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any offer to sell securities will be made only by distribution of a confidential private placement memorandum to persons that qualify as "accredited investors" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and only in compliance with applicable law.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes a number of forward-looking statements that are based on the expectations of and reasonable assumptions made by the Bank's management.  Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors (many of which are beyond the Bank's control) that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.  The inclusion of forward-looking statements in this press release should not be regarded as a representation by any person that the expectations of the Bank's management will be achieved.  Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and the Bank has no obligation to update such statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For press inquiries, call: 

Wenni Wu
Head of Customer Experience & Marketing
212.266.9215
[email protected] 

SOURCE Piermont Bank

Related Links

https://www.piermontbank.com/