Signature Bank Names Team for White Plains, N.Y. Private Client Banking Office; Opens Greenwich, Connecticut Private Client Banking Office

Signature Bank (Nasdaq:SBNY), a New York-based full-service commercial bank, announced today the appointment of a new three-person private client banking team based out of its private client banking office in White Plains, N.Y., in Westchester County.

Additionally, the Bank announced the opening of its private client banking office in Greenwich, CT., which marks its 29^th office. Concurrent with the opening, an existing three-person banking team led by Group Director and Senior Vice President Thomas P. Mooney, will relocate to the Greenwich office. Mooney’s team had been temporarily working from the White Plains office at 360 Hamilton Avenue since joining the Bank in March 2014.

Nicholas R. Melendez, named Group Director and Senior Vice President, heads the newly appointed White Plains team. Melendez spent the past 15 years at Wells Fargo Bank and its predecessor banks in White Plains, most recently as District Manager and Vice President, a position where he focused on acquiring and serving commercial clients and managing the district’s business portfolio. He also oversaw the commercial business in districts across Long Island, Yonkers and New York City during his tenure.

Melendez is joined by other team members: Keston Williams, named Associate Group Director and Sheraz Muhammad, the team’s Senior Client Associate. Williams joins from Citibank in Greenwich, where he most recently was Business Banker - Vice President. In that capacity, he served a vast commercial clientele spanning professional services firms throughout Connecticut and Westchester. Prior, he spent four years at Wells Fargo in a range of commercial banking positions, where he worked with Melendez. Earlier in his 14-year banking career, Williams worked at JPMorgan Chase locations throughout the metro-New York area. Muhammad worked with Melendez at Wells Fargo, where he held the role of Branch Manager – Assistant Vice President at the North White Plains branch, managing the branch and overseeing a staff of 11.

While Melendez and his team settle into White Plains, Mooney and his team relocate from there to the new Greenwich office, located at 75 Holly Hill Lane. Signature Bank opened the Greenwich private client banking office, signifying its entry into the Connecticut market. This process is in line with the Bank’s proven strategy to identify veteran banking professionals with an established presence in key markets, and then build offices based on the bankers’ local experience and solid relationships.

Mooney had spent a decade at JPMorgan Chase, most recently as Northeast Region Recruiting Manager, handling recruitment for the entire Northeast for nearly two years. Previously, he was District Manager, based in Fairfield, CT., with oversight of all the branches there, serving affluent business and personal clients.

Richard Carr and Joseph Cambareri are part of Mooney’s team, bringing years of experience in Fairfield County to the Bank, after having worked together at JPMorgan Chase. Carr, Associate Group Director and Vice President, and Cambareri, Relationship Manager, joined with Mooney one year ago. Susan Gladstone joins Signature Bank now as Financial Center Manager, just as the Bank opens its Greenwich office. She spent her entire 29-year banking career at JPMorgan Chase. Dorothy Fronio, with 40 years of branch banking experience, was recently appointed Assistant Financial Center Manager/Head Teller. Previously, she spent 23 years at JPMorgan Chase and worked at various banks acquired by the firm over the years.

“We are demonstrating our continued momentum of new team appointments with the addition of Nick and his team. White Plains is an area where there are many privately owned businesses and over the years, Nick’s team has forged strong relationships throughout Westchester County. We welcome Nick and his team to the Bank, and look forward to their contributions in an important market for us,” said Signature Bank President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph J. DePaolo.

“Furthermore, we are pleased to open our 29^th office in Greenwich and expand our footprint into the Connecticut marketplace. This is a primary example of how we build offices once seasoned bankers join our institution. This is a further step as we broaden our reach throughout the metro-NY area through the strength of our private client banking team network,” DePaolo explained.

About Signature Bank

Signature Bank, member FDIC, is a New York-based full-service commercial bank with 29 private client offices throughout the New York metropolitan area, including those in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Westchester, Long Island, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island and Connecticut. The Bank’s growing network of private client banking teams serves the needs of privately owned businesses, their owners and senior managers.

Signature Bank offers a wide variety of business and personal banking products and services. Its specialty finance subsidiary, Signature Financial, LLC, provides equipment finance and leasing as well as transportation and taxi medallion financing. Signature Securities Group Corporation, a wholly owned Bank subsidiary, is a licensed broker-dealer, investment adviser and member FINRA/SIPC, offering investment, brokerage, asset management and insurance products and services.

Since commencing operations in May 2001, Signature Bank has grown to $27.3 billion in assets, $22.6 billion in deposits, $2.5 billion in equity capital and $3.6 billion in other assets under management as of December 31, 2014. Signature Bank's Tier 1 and risk-based capital ratios are significantly above the levels required to be considered well capitalized.

Signature Bank was named the Best Bank in America by Forbes for 2015 and the only large cap bank to appear on Forbes’ list of America’s 50 Most Trustworthy Financial Companies. Signature Bank also was voted Best Business Bank by the New York Law Journal in the publication’s fifth annual reader survey; named the nation’s fifth top-performing bank by ABA Banking Journal; and ranked seventh on Bank Director magazine’s 2014 Bank Performance Scorecard for banks with assets between $5 and $50 billion.

For more information, please visit 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 that are subject to risks and uncertainties. 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 future results, interest rates and the interest rate environment, loan and deposit growth, loan performance, operations, new private client teams and other hires, new office openings and business strategy. These statements often include words such as "may," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," “potential,” “opportunity,” “could,” “project,” “seek,” “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 and (vi) competition for qualified personnel and desirable office locations. 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. Additional risks are described in our quarterly and annual reports filed with the FDIC. 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. In light of these risks and uncertainties, you should keep in mind that any forward-looking statement made in this release or elsewhere might not reflect actual results.