First Niagara hires former HSBC executive to lead commercial card and payments unit

BUFFALO, N.Y. — First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FNFG) on Wednesday announced that Peggy Yankovich has joined its treasury management group to lead its commercial card and payments business.

Yankovich will lead all aspects of First Niagara’s commercial payments, the Buffalo–based banking company said in a news release, including card-based services, product strategy, positioning, business management, and sales enablement.

The 28-year banking veteran joins First Niagara following eight years with HSBC Bank in New York City. Most recently, Yankovich was global head of commercial card, responsible for creating, leading and executing HSBC’s strategy to launch and manage products and enhancements across North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Previously, she was HSBC’s North American head of commercial card. She also worked at Bank of America for nine years, eventually becoming the company’s commercial card payments executive, the release stated. Yankovich began her career at NationsBank in Dover, Delaware in 1987.

“We are pleased to welcome as accomplished an executive as Peggy to our treasury management team. Her extensive experience leading domestic and global payments businesses make her the ideal candidate to help drive First Niagara’s continued commercial growth, as we work to create a superior banking experience for our commercial and business customers,” Deb Burgess, senior vice president and director of treasury management, said in the release..

Yankovich is a graduate of Queens University, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in business with a concentration in marketing.

First Niagara, through its subsidiary, First Niagara Bank, N.A., is a multi-state community-oriented bank with about 390 branches, $39 billion in assets, $28 billion in deposits, and about 5,300 employees across New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. 

First Niagara Bank ranked fourth in deposit market share in the 16-county Central New York market, according to June 30, 2014 FDIC statistics, the latest available. The bank had $2.2 million in deposits, good for an 8.4 percent share of the CNY market’s total deposits.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com