Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, is planning to open commercial and private banking offices in major cities across the country.
The $18.8 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that it is forming banking teams in Dallas and Orlando, Florida, while expanding its operations in Chicago. Bankers will provide treasury management solutions and commercial loans for companies with $5 million to $100 million of annual revenue.
“We’ll deliver the entire bank,” David Patti, director of communications and marketing at Customers, said in an interview.
“While the teams are primarily lenders by training and background, they can also work with deposit products and treasury management and, by virtue of the internet, deliver anything else,” he added. “If someone needs Small Business Administration lending, equipment lease financing or a home mortgage … we’ll hook them up.”
The expansion plans come as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Sam Sidhu, who managed the company’s Paycheck Protection Program lending, prepares to
Sidhu is the son of Customers Bancorp Chairman and CEO Jay Sidhu.
Customers has ample capital to support more lending.
The company is expected to generate $400 million of pretax revenue from its PPP activities, said Will Curtiss, an analyst at Hovde Group.
Customers has several business lines that operate nationally, including SBA and mortgage warehouse lending and equipment leasing.
Customers executives were discussing expansion plans as far back as 2018, Patti said.
“The idea of managing a team that is 2,000 miles away via an online meeting doesn’t seem like a big deal after we’ve been managing everybody in online meetings” during the pandemic, Patti said.
During an April 29 conference call, Jay Sidhu said Customers would consider additional expansion opportunities, but would probably wait about 18 months “to concentrate in these markets and really see how things are going.”
The interval could be even shorter. Patti said more expansion could occur within a year.
Customers tapped Jake Danielski, who has been with the company since 2013, to serve as market executive in Dallas. Joseph Nowland, a longtime Florida credit union executive, will oversee the company’s team in Orlando.
Nowland was president of the $574.3 million-asset Jax Federal Credit Union in Jacksonville, Florida. Before that he was chief business services officer for the $10.8 billion-asset
Customers also added Mary Haley, a veteran banker with extensive experience in treasury and cash management servicing, to its Chicago team.
