First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FNFG) has a new chief marketing officer.
The Buffalo–based banking company announced Avi Patel’s promotion to the post today. He is now responsible for First Niagara’s branding and marketing strategies and management of departments and agency partners charged with implementing those strategies.
Patel will remain based in Buffalo and continue to head First Niagara’s retail product development and management group, which he has led since joining the bank in January 2011 as a senior vice president. He previously worked for Wilmington Trust Co., Citibank, and FirstUSA Bank.
First Niagara Bank has 430 branches, $36 billion in assets, and 6,000 employees in upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
First Niagara Bank is number four in the Syracuse metro area deposit market with 21 branches, more than $808 million in deposits, and a deposit market share of more than 7.5 percent, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. First Niagara is also number four in the Utica–Rome market with nine branches, $405.9 million in deposits, and a market share of about 11 percent.
The bank is number two in the Binghamton market with 10 branches, $342.5 million in deposits, and a market share of 12.8 percent.
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com