NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Signature Bank (Nasdaq: SBNY), a New York-based, full-service commercial bank, announced today the launch of a new business line with the appointment of a nine-person Healthcare Banking and Finance (HBF) team. The new private client banking team will provide lending services while garnering deposits to clients within the healthcare arena.

Leading the new business and HBF team is Matthew T. Huber, recently named Senior Vice President and Managing Group Director. In this capacity, Huber will oversee all aspects of the HBF team, including managing the team’s pipeline and banking activities and building a healthcare-related portfolio spanning both lending and deposit clients.

The HBF team is focused on serving for-profit and non-profit companies which provide a range of healthcare services as well as senior housing owners and operators, hospitals, large physician practices, ambulatory surgery centers, drug and rehabilitation facilities, skilled nursing homes and facilities offering independent living, assisted living and memory care and continuing care retirement communities.

Huber brings 25 years of healthcare banking and finance experience to his new role. During the course of his extensive career, he developed a specialty niche in healthcare banking. Most recently, he was Market Manager, Healthcare Finance at People’s United Bank until it merged with M&T Bank. He managed and oversaw the healthcare finance business vertical, serving clients throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic market. Prior to that, he was Director, Healthcare Enterprise Strategy – Commercial Segment at Key Bank, N.A., in Syracuse, N.Y. He spent seven years as Senior Director and Division Manager – Commercial Healthcare Group at First Niagara Bank, also in Syracuse and was Senior Vice President and Regional Manager, Real Estate Capital Healthcare Group at Key Bank, N.A., in Cleveland, Ohio.

Joining Huber’s team are several seasoned banking professionals who also previously worked at People’s United Bank, including:

• Walter Unangst, named Senior Vice President and Group Director at Signature Bank, was formerly Senior Vice President and Senior Relationship Manager
• Ken Jamison, appointed Senior Vice President and Group Director, was Senior Vice President, Market Manager of Capital Markets
• Patricia Quint, now Senior Vice President and Group Director at the Bank, was Market Manager of Commercial Deposit Services
• Ryan Zyskowski, appointed Vice President and Relationship Manager, was Vice President-Relationship Manager
• Liam Ryan, a Vice President and Loan Portfolio Manager for Signature Bank, was Vice President-Portfolio Manager
• Kristin Maier, named Assistant Vice President and Associate Loan Portfolio Manager, was Assistant Vice President-Portfolio Manager

Additionally, other appointments to the team include Doreen Schafer, appointed Vice President and Loan Administration Manager. She was a Vice President, Senior Loan Closer at KeyBank prior to joining the Bank; and Eric Halpern, named Senior Vice President and Group Director, held the role of First Senior Vice President, National Head of Healthcare at Bank Leumi USA.

“Signature Bank had been seeking the right opportunity to enter the healthcare banking and finance space for years. Healthcare is a continually evolving and everchanging industry, as baby boomers come of age, people live longer and medical technology advances. All this places an even greater demand for healthcare services, thereby elevating the opportunity for broader lending and finance services. We identified what we believe to be a tremendous and persistent need for commercial healthcare finance nationwide. The time is right, and we welcome Matt and his team as they all bring deep healthcare banking and finance expertise to the Bank as we launch this new national business line,” said Joseph J. DePaolo, Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer at Signature Bank.

Huber commented on his new position and the Bank’s formation of its HBF business line: “Signature Bank was looking to develop a de novo healthcare group with the type of specialty my team possesses. The way in which the Bank is structured -- in terms of its focus on relationship-based banking and its single-point-of-contact approach -- was both very impressive and attractive to our team. Furthermore, the entrepreneurial model is enticing for those of us with strong client relationships and solid credit skills. The working culture of the Bank promotes balanced autonomy while also fostering significant opportunities for growth. We are looking forward to the contributions the HBF team will make to the continued success of Signature Bank.”

About Signature Bank

Signature Bank (Nasdaq: SBNY), member FDIC, is a New York-based, full-service commercial bank with 38 private client offices throughout the metropolitan New York area, as well as those in Connecticut, California and North Carolina. Through its single-point-of-contact approach, the Bank’s private client banking teams primarily serve the needs of privately owned businesses, their owners and senior managers.

The Bank has two wholly owned subsidiaries: Signature Financial, LLC, provides equipment finance and leasing; and, Signature Securities Group Corporation, a licensed broker-dealer, investment adviser and member FINRA/SIPC, offers investment, brokerage, asset management and insurance products and services.

Since commencing operations in May 2001, Signature Bank reached $121.85 billion in assets and $109.16 billion in deposits as of March 31, 2022. Signature Bank placed 19^th on S&P Global’s list of the largest banks in the U.S., based on deposits at year-end 2021.

Signature Bank was the first FDIC-insured bank to launch a blockchain-based digital payments platform. Signet™ allows commercial clients to make real-time payments in U.S. dollars, 24/7/365 and was also the first solution to be approved for use by the NYS Department of Financial Services.

For more information, please visit https://www.signatureny.com.

This press release and oral statements made from time to time by our representatives contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You should not place undue reliance on those statements because they are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and may be beyond our control. Forward-looking statements include information concerning our expectations regarding future results, interest rates and the interest rate environment, loan and deposit growth, loan performance, operations, new private client teams’ hires, new office openings, business strategy and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on each of the foregoing and on our business overall. Forward-looking statements often include words such as "may," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," “potential,” “opportunity,” “could,” “project,” “seek,” “target,” “goal,” “should,” “will,” “would,” "plan," "estimate" or other similar expressions. As you consider forward-looking statements, you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements and can change as a result of many possible events or factors, not all of which are known to us or in our control. These factors include but are not limited to: (i) prevailing economic conditions; (ii) changes in interest rates, loan demand, real estate values and competition, any of which can materially affect origination levels and gain on sale results in our business, as well as other aspects of our financial performance, including earnings on interest-bearing assets; (iii) the level of defaults, losses and prepayments on loans made by us, whether held in portfolio or sold in the whole loan secondary markets, which can materially affect charge-off levels and required credit loss reserve levels; (iv) changes in monetary and fiscal policies of the U.S. Government, including policies of the U.S. Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; (v) changes in the banking and other financial services regulatory environment; (vi) our ability to maintain the continuity, integrity, security and safety of our operations and (vii) competition for qualified personnel and desirable office locations. All of these factors are subject to additional uncertainty in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine, which are having impacts on all aspects of our operations, the financial services industry and the economy as a whole. Additional risks are described in our quarterly and annual reports filed with the FDIC. Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, beliefs and expectations, if a change occurs or our beliefs, assumptions and expectations were incorrect, our business, financial condition, liquidity or results of operations may vary materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements. You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statements made by Signature Bank speak only as of the date on which they were made. New risks and uncertainties come up from time to time, and we cannot predict these events or how they may affect the Bank. Signature Bank has no duty to, and does not intend to, update or revise the forward-looking statements after the date on which they are made.

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