First Niagara to open new mortgage center in Syracuse

SYRACUSE — Increased mortgage volumes are pushing First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FNFG) to open a new mortgage processing center in Syracuse.

Mortgage originations are up more than 66 percent over the past year at Buffalo–based First Niagara. The processing center in Syracuse will join others in Buffalo and New Haven, Conn. and will serve customers in First Niagara’s Central and Eastern New York regions.

“Obviously we’ve grown significantly in Central New York over the past 12 months with the HSBC acquisition,” says David Kavney, market executive for Central New York. “We’ve seen a significant increase in our residential mortgage business here in Central New York and across Upstate.”

Adding the center will create 25 new jobs at the bank. The center will be located in downtown Syracuse at 333 W. Washington St., where First Niagara already has a branch.

The 6,700-square-foot space was occupied previously by HSBC, but left vacant when the bank relocated remaining staff members following First Niagara’s acquisition earlier this year of the HSBC branch network in upstate New York.

The site will handle underwriting for loans once customers submit their applications, according to First Niagara. It will also set up loan closings.

And while already increasing mortgage volumes sparked the need for the new center, the site will also help the bank continue to grow lending in the future, says Tom Faughnan, senior vice president at First Niagara.

“I think number one, it gives us the ability to maintain and provide a great level of service,” he says. “But we also intend to fully leverage [the center] to increase that volume.”

The center will be up and running by Dec. 1, Kavney says. First Niagara already has about five of its staff members in place and expects to add another five in a week or so.

The goal is to be fully staffed by January or February, Kavney says.

The staff at the mortgage center will be new hires to the bank, Faughnan notes.

“One of the strategic opportunities we have here is that there’s a lot of good mortgage talent in the Central New York market and we want to be able to take advantage of that,” he says.

First Niagara has 49 branches and about 500 employees in its Central New York region, which stretches from the North Country to Binghamton and Auburn to the Utica-Rome area.

First Niagara 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.

SYRACUSE — Increased mortgage volumes are pushing First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FNFG) to open a new mortgage processing center in Syracuse.

Mortgage originations are up more than 66 percent over the past year at Buffalo–based First Niagara. The processing center in Syracuse will join others in Buffalo and New Haven, Conn. and will serve customers in First Niagara’s Central and Eastern New York regions.

“Obviously we’ve grown significantly in Central New York over the past 12 months with the HSBC acquisition,” says David Kavney, market executive for Central New York. “We’ve seen a significant increase in our residential mortgage business here in Central New York and across Upstate.”

Adding the center will create 25 new jobs at the bank. The center will be located in downtown Syracuse at 333 W. Washington St., where First Niagara already has a branch.

The 6,700-square-foot space was occupied previously by HSBC, but left vacant when the bank relocated remaining staff members following First Niagara’s acquisition earlier this year of the HSBC branch network in upstate New York.

The site will handle underwriting for loans once customers submit their applications, according to First Niagara. It will also set up loan closings.

And while already increasing mortgage volumes sparked the need for the new center, the site will also help the bank continue to grow lending in the future, says Tom Faughnan, senior vice president at First Niagara.

“I think number one, it gives us the ability to maintain and provide a great level of service,” he says. “But we also intend to fully leverage [the center] to increase that volume.”

The center will be up and running by Dec. 1, Kavney says. First Niagara already has about five of its staff members in place and expects to add another five in a week or so.

The goal is to be fully staffed by January or February, Kavney says.

The staff at the mortgage center will be new hires to the bank, Faughnan notes.

“One of the strategic opportunities we have here is that there’s a lot of good mortgage talent in the Central New York market and we want to be able to take advantage of that,” he says.

First Niagara has 49 branches and about 500 employees in its Central New York region, which stretches from the North Country to Binghamton and Auburn to the Utica-Rome area.

First Niagara 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.