Valley National Bancorp Announces Earnings Enhancement Program

WAYNE, N.J., Dec. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Valley National Bancorp (NYSE: VLY), holding company of Valley National Bank, announces the initiation of a comprehensive and sustained effort to further improve the operating performance of the Company.  Valley has embarked on a program that will seek to identify operating expense reduction and at the same time revenue enhancement opportunities, which together are expected to contribute to sustained earnings improvement for years to come.  The program, which will be called "LIFT", will be conducted over the first half of calendar 2017 with the implementation phase beginning soon thereafter.

Valley has selected EHS Partners, LLC to help us achieve success with this Project.  EHS Partners is a New York based consulting firm that specializes in leading such efforts.

Gerald Lipkin, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "This program follows our success in recognizing over $19 million in operating cost savings derived from a program announcement made in 2015 and executed in 2016."  "While Valley has shown its ability to produce strong growth as evidenced in the first three quarters of 2016, exceptional financial performance requires a commitment to accomplishing growth on an expense platform that is efficient and effective and delivering a customer experience that is second to none, said Lipkin."  "The ultimate cost savings and revenue enhancement targets that spring from this endeavor will be owned by our most senior line of business executives supported their line managers and dedicated project teams who will do the heavy lifting of identifying, valuing and presenting the many individual outcomes of the overall program," Mr. Lipkin continued.  "We will provide periodic updates to Valley's earnings enhancement initiative in our 2017 quarterly earnings discussions."

About Valley

Valley National Bancorp is a regional bank holding company headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey with over $22 billion in assets. Its principal subsidiary, Valley National Bank, currently operates 209 branch locations serving northern and central New Jersey, the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, and Florida. Valley National Bank is one of the largest commercial banks headquartered in New Jersey and is committed to providing the most convenient service, the latest in product innovations and an experienced and knowledgeable staff with a high priority on friendly customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For more information about Valley National Bank and its products and services, please visit www.valleynationalbank.com or call Customer Service, 24/7 at 800-522-4100.

Forward Looking Statements

The foregoing contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are not historical facts and include expressions about management's confidence and strategies and management's expectations about new and existing programs and products, acquisitions, relationships, opportunities, taxation, technology, market conditions and economic expectations. These statements may be identified by such forward-looking terminology as "should," "expect," "believe," "view," "opportunity," "allow," "continues," "reflects," "typically," "usually," "anticipate," or similar statements or variations of such terms. Such forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties and Valley's actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to those risk factors disclosed in Valley's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.

SOURCE Valley National Bancorp