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Reminder:
Community Bankers Forum
Monday, January 23, 2012
9:30a-12:30p
One State Street
New York, NY 10004 |
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Inside IBANYS
November 23, 2011
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Happy Thanksgiving from IBANYS
Let us pause this week to spend time with friends, family, and loved ones. The staff at IBANYS would like to give our most sincere blessing for a happy holiday. We are continually thankful for your support and membership in this Association. Thank you for all you do for us, for your customers, and for your communities. Have a great Thanksgiving.
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Convention 2011: Award Winner Spotlight
Today is the second of three spotlight articles on award winners from this year's annual convention. Our spotlight this week is on Patrick Cullen, President of Cattaraugus Bank. Patrick received a Perfect Attendance Award for having never missed a convention in the last 38 years!
Patrick was present at the March 1974 meeting in Syracuse when IBANYS was formed.
He and his wife Joan have never missed an annual convention. Joan has been an officer of Cattaraugus Bank since 1990. Patrick was an Officer, Director, or President of IBANYS for approximately the first 20 years of the Association's existence. He was President in 1988.
When asked about his Presidency, Patrick says, "Our 350 conventioneers in 1988 made the difference in the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Football game in putting the Bills over the top in setting the NFL season attendance record. Bill Polian thanked me for this personally."
We congratulate Patrick (and Joan!) on perfect attendance and their continued support of IBANYS!
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New York Community Bank Best Practices
A Profile of Gold Coast Bank, Islandia, NY
During these difficult financial times it becomes difficult for a community bank to differentiate itself from the larger competitors and that task is even more difficult for a de novo bank such as Gold Coast. However true to a community bank philosophy, President/CEO, Joseph Perri says, "We believe in providing more than credit services to service the communities in which we do business. There are a number of different programs we offer in an effort to be different from our competitors", such as:
Conference Room Facilities: We offer use of our conference room facilities to community and charitable groups free of charge. This has been extremely well received and frequently used by these groups as many times they do not have adequate facilities to hold their meetings. We also provide free coffee and Wi-Fi for their use as well. In addition to these groups we allow small businesses and professionals to utilize our conference room facilities as well. This also has been well received due to the large number of small businesses and professionals who work from their homes. This program allows them to save money as they can conduct important meetings in a very professional atmosphere. We make it relatively simple for them to reserve conference room time as they can sign up right from our website...
...To read the rest of Gold Coast Banks' Best Practices,
click here!
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OCC Releases Status Report on Fixing Deficient Foreclosure Practices
WASHINGTON - The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a report today on the actions by 12 national bank and federal savings association mortgage servicers to comply with consent orders issued in April 2011 to correct deficient and unsafe or unsound foreclosure practices.
The report, "Interim Status Report: Foreclosure-Related Consent Orders," summarizes progress on activities related to the independent foreclosure review announced November 1, 2011, as well as other activities to enhance mortgage servicing operations, strengthen oversight of third-party service providers and activities related to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS), improve management information systems, assess and manage risk, and ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
While much of the work to correct identified weaknesses in policies, operating procedures, control functions, and audit processes will be substantially complete in the first part of 2012, other longer term initiatives will continue through the balance of 2012.
In addition to the interim report, the OCC also released engagement letters that describe how the independent consultants, retained by the servicers, will conduct their file reviews and claims processes to identify borrowers who suffered financial injury as a result of deficiencies identified in the OCC's consent orders. The letters identify the names of the independent consultants conducting the reviews and include language stipulating that consultants would take direction from the OCC throughout the reviews. This language specifically prohibits servicers from overseeing, directing, or supervising any of the reviews. Limited proprietary and personal information has been redacted. The review process being implemented at some companies may differ from that described in the engagement letters because of subsequent coordination with the OCC to ensure a consistent process among the servicers.
Find the OCC Interim Status Report on Forecloure-Related Consent Orders here.
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NBT Bank to acquire Hampshire First Bank
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NORWICH, N.Y. AND MANCHESTER, N.H.,
Nov. 16, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - NBT Bancorp Inc. and Hampshire First Bank announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Hampshire First Bank will merge with and into NBT's banking subsidiary, NBT Bank, N.A. The merger is valued at approximately $45 million and is expected to close early in the second quarter of 2012 subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of regulatory approvals and approval by the stockholders of HFB.
HFB is a state-chartered commercial community bank with five locations in southern New Hampshire and assets of $273 million as of September 30, 2011. NBT is headquartered in upstate New York and operates a network of 128 banking locations in four states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Massachusetts. The financial services holding company had assets of $5.5 billion as of September 30, 2011. ...Read more here.
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Frank J. Capaldo
President / CEO
Victoria Miller
Director of Administration & Membership
Erin Clark
Director of Communications, Marketing & Development
William Y. Crowell, III
Legislative Counsel
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