BankUnited seizes recruiting opportunity in wake of failure

BankUnited followed through on a pledge to capitalize on recent regional bank failures. 

The Miami Lakes, Florida-based company said it hired several executives to form a new corporate banking team serving the New York metropolitan area.  

The recruits come from the former First Republic Bank, which was seized by regulators and sold to JPMorgan Chase early last week. BankUnited said in a press release Wednesday it appointed Matthew Gallo to lead the team as managing director of corporate banking. Gallo previously was a First Republic Bank managing director of business banking.  

BankUnited also named Daniel Mills and Laura Ackerman as corporate banking relationship managers. Both are veteran New York bankers who worked at First Republic.  

"As a well-capitalized bank, we are giving this team the resources they need to deliver the customized financial solutions our clients require to grow and succeed," Thomas Cornish, BankUnited's chief operating officer, said in the release.  

Chairman and CEO Rajinder Singh said during the company's first-quarter earnings call in late April that the $37.2 billion-asset BankUnited's commercial-and-industrial loan pipeline was in strong shape in large part because "out of this chaos comes also an opportunity. We've had a couple of really large bank sales and others were struggling, and they're throwing off a lot of business.  

"There is a lot of talent and a lot of business that has been thrown off. And I have actually interviewed more [loan] producers in the last month than I did all of last year," Singh said, signaling that several new hires were likely this year. "So while there is a moment of caution, it is also a moment of opportunity — and we have to capitalize on that."  

Commercial banking

'A moment of opportunity': BankUnited capitalizes on crisis

April 25, 2023 3:12 PM

First Republic's downfall followed the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March.  

BankUnited, in addition to its home base in Florida, has long had a prominent foothold in the New York area. The expansion into corporate banking there builds upon that foundation. 

Additionally, the bank recently expanded in Atlanta and Dallas. Singh said BankUnited is eager to grow its C&I book in major markets to both diversify and attract deposits that tend to come with such borrowers. Deposit competition, already intense amid rising interest rates, heated up further in the wake of the recent failures.