-
The current M&A cycle has its first cautionary tale in John Koelmel and his departure from First Niagara. The Buffalo bank expanded rapidly but erred in its deal for the HSBC branches.
March 20 -
The Buffalo, N.Y., company is bolstering its commercial lending and auto finance businesses while it looks to replace ousted CEO John Koelmel.
July 19 -
First Niagara Financial Group (FNFG) in Buffalo, N.Y., met quarterly earnings estimates as its lending income ticked up and margins widened.
July 19 -
Peyton Patterson. Cathy Nash. Al de Molina. These and other names surfaced as possible successors to John Koelmel, who was ousted this week as CEO of First Niagara in Buffalo, N.Y.
March 21
First Niagara Financial Group (FNFG) in Buffalo, N.Y., has promoted Tom Faughnan to become senior director of its residential mortgage business.
Faughnan, who joined First Niagara as senior vice president of residential lending in 2010, will be responsible for managing day-to-day operations and developing and executing strategic and financial goals. He succeeded Gary Suess, who left the company in July.
Faughnan "has played a pivotal role in formulating and executing on our current strategic initiatives in the Residential Mortgage business," Andy Fornola, First Niagara's managing director of consumer finance, said in a press release Tuesday. "He is the ideal person to help us further our strategy to become a leading residential mortgage lender across our four-state footprint. Tom and his mortgage team will also work closely with our retail banking team to further enhance First Niagara's value proposition to our deposit customers."
Before joining First Niagara, Faughnan was chief executive and director of Home Funding Finders. He has also held senior roles at Coldwell Banker and New York Business Development Group.
First Niagara has been
The $37 billion-asset company has 447 branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.












