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In less than eight years, Signature Bank has gone from an idea to the 10th largest commercial bank in New York City. It all hinges on hiring the right people and delivering a high-touch client experience.
If Joseph DePaolo needs reminding why Signature Bank was created, he simply looks out the window of his 12th floor corner office on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Across the street is HSBC- the bank that acquired his former employer, Republic National Bank. It's the same building that Republic once called home.
On May 10, 1999, HSBC Bank USA announced the deal for the $55 billion-asset bank and DePaolo and colleague John Tamberlane began contemplating their next move because the acquirer's philosophy didn't mesh with what Republic's, recalls DePaolo, the president and CEO of Signature. From those initial talks Signature Bank was born. On April 27, 2001, 65 former-Republic employees resigned from HSBC. That night a cocktail reception was held for the new Signature workforce, and that Saturday through Monday they were trained.
On May 1 the bank opened for business, focusing on privately owned businesses in the $10 million to $500 million revenue range- and capturing the high-net-worth owners' deposits- and built on the old Republic's high-touch philosophy: build a bank for the depositors then lend to your clients, as Republic's founder, late-billionaire Edmond Safra, had said decades ago.
"The term 1TeIaUOnSlUp' is over used because every bank uses it," DePaolo says. "The major banks do a lot of branding and our philosophy is that you don't bank with a brand, you bank with a person. When we were being acquired by HSBC, they did not like the structure we had with some of our teams because the relationship was so tight between the team and the client They wanted the relationship to be between the client and the institution.
"We're not trying to attract the mass market," he says. "We're trying to deal with privately owned businesses. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying branding and advertising are not important, but it's not important for our target market."
Word of mouth and targeted hiring is what's fueled Signature's rapid expansion. The bank's net interest margin rose to 3.26 percent in the third quarter of 2008, 0.12...