Astoria Bank Expands Business Banking Team to Support Growth

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Aug. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Astoria Bank, the second largest community bank headquartered in New York, today announced it has added additional staff and expanded its business banking team to support growth and strengthen its offering to business customers. This includes the hiring of two new relationship managers, as well as the creation of seven new small business relationship manager roles.

"We have a solid growth trajectory for our Business Banking Group. Adding new relationship managers is an important step toward furthering our commitment to Business Banking," said Stephen Sipola, executive vice president and Managing Director of the group. "Our relationship managers are on the front lines working with businesses to understand their needs and develop solutions – the relationships they build with our customers are what set us apart from other banks."

Davi Tserpelis will serve as senior vice president and relationship manager in Astoria Bank's Business Banking Group. Tserpelis brings strong commercial banking experience with relevant background expanding across structuring, negotiation, underwriting and relationship management. Previously, she served as senior vice president of commercial banking for Citibank. She has also held roles with CapitalSource Finance and Sterling Bancorp.

Annarrisa Gajadhar joins Astoria Bank as a vice president and relationship manager in the Business Banking Group. Gajadhar has more than eight years of banking industry experience. Prior to joining Astoria Bank, she served as business banking relationship manager for Citibank. She has also held roles with JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.

Both Tserpelis and Gajadhar will be based in the bank's Jericho, Long Island office and will report to Timothy Juliano, team leader for relationship managers and senior vice president in the Business Banking Group.

Increased Regional Support for Small Business Lending
To help support growth in small business lending and better serve customers' needs, Astoria has created seven new small business relationship manager roles, which will each be responsible for one of the bank's primary regional markets. The new positions were filled with a combination of internal and external candidates who bring small business banking expertise and experience to their new roles.

"We're committed to being a partner for small businesses in greater New York because we believe these businesses can really benefit from our expertise and are critically important to economic growth and job creation in the communities we serve," said Sipola. "Our new small business relationship managers work with branch managers in their respective regions to provide banking solutions and support for business owners."

About Astoria Financial Corporation
Astoria Financial Corporation (NYSE: AF), with assets of $15.3 billion, is the holding company for Astoria Bank.  Established in 1888, Astoria Bank, with deposits in New York totaling $9.2 billion, is the second largest thrift depository in New York and provides its retail and business customers and local communities it serves with quality financial products and services through 87 convenient banking branch locations, a business banking office in Manhattan, and multiple delivery channels, including its flexible mobile banking app.  Astoria Bank commands a significant deposit market share in the attractive Long Island market, which includes Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties with a population exceeding that of 38 individual states.  Astoria Bank originates multi-family and commercial real estate loans, primarily on rent controlled and rent stabilized apartment buildings, located in New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area and originates residential mortgage loans through its banking and loan production offices in New York, a broker network in four states, primarily along the East Coast, and correspondent relationships covering 13 states and the District of Columbia.

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SOURCE Astoria Bank

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