Provident of N.Y. Adds Another Team of Commercial Lenders

Provident Bank in Montebello, N.Y., has recruited another team of lenders away from a rival bank as part of its broad plan to boost its commercial lending in the New York City area.

The $3.2 billion-asset unit of Provident New York Bancorp (PBNY) said Tuesday that it has hired four veteran bankers from Herald National Bank in New York. Herald was recently acquired by the $12 billion-asset BankUnited (BKU) in Miami Lakes, Fla., and it is expected that Herald will be folded into Bankunited at some point.

The new team will be co-managed by John Hotchkiss and Richard Fisher, each of which has more than two decades of lending experience and have been partners since they first teamed up while working at Fleet Bank in the late 1990s. (Bank of America (BAC) acquired Fleet in 2004). The bank has also hired Gerald Levine as a senior credit analyst and Marie Joseph as a private client senior associate.

David Bagatelle, president of the bank's New York City market, said that the new hires have an "impressive record of success in building middle-market business relationships. They will play an instrumental role in the launch of a new healthcare financing initiative and the expansion of the banks' commercial and private banking business" in the New York market.

The new team is the sixth that Provident has brought on since January to serve the New York city market. It has also hired commercial lenders away from such rivals as Capital One Financial (COF) and First Republic Bank (FRC), as well as from banks outside the New York market.

As it continues to transition away from its traditional thrift roots, Provident is also in the process of acquiring the $450 million-asset Gotham Bank of New York, which is primarily a business lender. It also announced earlier this month that it was establishing a new wealth management unit.