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A little more than a year ago, Monte Redman took over as CEO of Astoria Financial Corp., parent of Astoria Federal Savings and Loan Association, a thrift with $17.6 billion in assets, including $10.7 in deposits. He served as Astoria's president and chief operating officer since 2007 as part of a 35-year banking career. We talked with him about Astoria, regulation and a new focus on business and multifamily lending.
LIBN: Is Astoria changing its business model and if so, how? Redman: We have four business lines: residential lending, multifamily lending, retail banking and business banking. We've been having a big push on multifamily lending over the last year and we've seen some great results. We had about $350 million of originations in the first quarter, which we increased to abut $550 million in originations in the second quarter.
LIBN: Isn't going back to multifamily a return to your roots? Redman: We've been in the multifamily business since 1992. At one point, we had a portfolio of close to $4 billion. Starting in 2009, as a result of the financial crisis and what was going on in New York, we decided to temporarily get out of the business and concentrate on portfolio management. Seeing that New York has maintained...