Ivanka Trump Leaves Signature Bank's Board

Ivanka Trump is too busy to be a bank director.

The 31-year-old designer, reality television star and daughter of Donald Trump is not seeking re-election to the board of Signature Bank (SBNY), the company said this week. Ivanka Trump, who became a director at the $17 billion-asset New York bank in 2011, cited her "highly demanding schedule" as her reason for stepping down.

"I have seen firsthand [Signature's] significant growth and watched it flourish in the commercial banking marketplace," Trump said in a statement Signature provided to American Banker. "Unfortunately, constraints in my highly demanding schedule make it difficult for me to continue in my position on the board."

Her resignation is effective April 24, the date of Signature's annual meeting. Her departure from the board was hinted at in the proxy statement Signature filed last month, which said that Trump would not seek re-election to the board's compensation and risk committees. Signature confirmed to American Banker on Tuesday that Trump is not seeking re-election to the overall board.

But it's safe to say that Trump's schedule will remain booked even after her stint in banking ends. As an executive vice president of development and acquisitions for her father's Trump Organization, her day job involves overseeing the renovation of Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York. She sells creations from her namesake fashion business — including shoes, jewelry, handbags, fragrances — in Bloomingdale's and Macy's. When not modeling her fashion products, Trump spends some of her remaining free time as a reality show co-host of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice."

Trump declined to comment further on her time at Signature, according to her publicist Matthew Hiltzik, whose client roster includes Katie Couric and Alec Baldwin.

But while Signature is losing Trump's advisory leadership, it's retaining her family business. Trump's father and her husband, real estate developer Jared Kushner, are both Signature customers. The bank has extended two standby letters of credit, totaling $212,301, to the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., according to Signature's proxy statement. Both letters of credit are secured with cash.

Kushner and his father, Charles, have a personal line of credit with Signature; the loan's outstanding aggregate principal, as of Dec. 31, was $4 million. Signature did not identify how the Kushners use the proceeds. In addition to his role in the family's Kushner Properties, Jared Kushner also owns the New York Observer newspaper.