Investors Bancorp in Short Hills, N.J., is starting up an equipment finance group.
The $25 billion-asset company said in a press release Tuesday that the group will be led by Kenneth Walters, who will oversee a seven-person team of equipment finance professionals. Walters will report to Mark Noto, head of Investors' commercial and industrial lending group.
Investors originated $663.4 million in commercial and industrial loans last year.
Walters’ team will be based in Iselin, N.J. Walters most recently served as a senior vice president of business capital originations for EverBank, which sold itself last year to TIAA. Walters joined EverBank in 2014 with a background in private equity and corporate lending. Before EverBank, he was president of Emigrant Business Credit.
Investors said it expects existing clients, particularly those in New York and New Jersey, to bring business to the new group.
"After reviewing its equipment financing operations, our executive team decided that ... Walters' group is the perfect fit for us,” Kevin Cummings, Investors' president and CEO, said in the release. “They know the market, are based in New Jersey, serve clients nationwide, possess solid portfolio management skills, and complement our way of doing business."
Investors, once an active acquirer, has been sidelined since it was hit with an informal agreement to correct deficiencies in its Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering operations. Investors agreed last year to terminate an agreement to buy Bank of Princeton.
