New York Community Bancorp will undergo an abrupt change in executive leadership this week.
The board of the Westbury, N.Y., holding company said Monday that longtime President, CEO and board member Joseph Ficalora, 74, will retire from all three posts on Thursday. Thomas Cangemi, 52, the company’s chief financial officer since 2005, will become president and CEO and join the boards of the holding company and New York Community Bank.
In a press release, the company did not give a reason for Ficalora’s departure or say if the transition was planned. A spokesman said the decision was made in the past week and that Cangemi "has the necessary institutional knowledge of New York Community as well as the skills and ability the board was looking for in a new CEO."
Cangemi, who started his career at KPMG’s financial services practice, joined New York Community in 2001 as part of a merger with Richmond County Financial, where he was CFO. Cangemi said in Monday's press release that he is “dedicated to working with [the company’s] executive management team to develop ways to enhance [the company’s] performance and evolve [its] business model while maintaining conservative underwriting practices.”
“Importantly, I am firmly committed to increasing shareholder value,” he added.
Analysts in recent years have pointed to the underperformance of the company’s shares. Over the past five years, New York Community’s adjusted stock price has declined by 16% while the KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index has climbed 13.2%. Its shares were up less than 1%, to $10.48, in early afternoon trading Monday.
Michael Levine, presiding board director and chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee, said Cangemi “knows the bank extremely well and has a wide range of experience and a demonstrated ability to deliver strong operating results.”
“Tom is held in high regard inside of the organization and is well respected by Wall Street analysts and the investment community,” Levine said in the press release. “The board has the utmost confidence that he is the right person to assume the CEO role and looks forward to NYCB’s next chapter under his leadership.”
Ficalora joined a predecessor of the company, Queens County Savings Bank, in 1965 and remained with the organization for his entire 55-year career. He is credited with growing New York Community from less than $1 billion of assets and eight branches in New York into a $54.9 billion-asset company with 236 branches across five states and a specialty in multifamily lending.
But there have been challenges along the way, including the
Chief Accounting Officer John Pinto will succeed Cangemi as CFO. Like Cangemi, Pinto joined the company in 2001 as part of the Richmond County Financial deal.
The shift at New York Community is one of several recent or upcoming executive changes at regional banks. In October, Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati
Synovus Financial in Columbus, Ga., announced earlier this month that President and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Blair will
