AUGUST 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 23
BNB-DIME MERGER
RELATIONSHIPS A PREMIUM
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
When Dime Community Bank and
BNB Bank announced their merger
last month, at the heart of the deal it’s
relationships — not just the bottom line
— that executives have in mind.
Dime, based in Brooklyn, had been
more of a family lender with branches
mostly in New York City, while Bridgehampton
headquartered BNB does
more commercial banking in Nassau
and Suffolk counties. When they blend
their balance sheets under the Dime
brand with a new headquarters in
Hauppauge, together they’ll account
for one in five deposits in the greater
Long Island area. The merger will
allow the new and improved Dime to
better serve customers big and small.
“The transactions that have occurred
over the years have been local banks
purchased by out-of-state banks, so
you’ve lost that hometown feel,” said
Bridge Bancorp. President and CEO
Kevin O’Connor, who will be CEO of
the merged bank. “This is an opportunity
for two local banks to get together
to create scale without having that
happen.”
The Dime and BNB leadership has a
relationship that predates the merger.
Stuart Lubow, president of Dime, sold
his previous company, Community
National Bank, to BNB in 2015,
midway through O’Connor’s
tenure as head of the East End
financial institution.
“We truly are a commercial
bank, relationship-based,
service-oriented community
bank, just as BNB is,”
said Lubow, noting that the
two have similar culture
and values. “Which makes
it a merger that just makes
sense. You’ve got
two $6 billion or
so community
c omme r c i a l
banks merging
together
where one
plus one equals
three.”
Known as a merger of equals, or
MOE for short, as the two banks are
about the same size, the company will
include the best talent of each bank
when the $489 million deal closes
in early 2021. That includes a deep
bench from Dime, founded 156 years
ago, and BNB, where O’Connor has
been recruiting rainmakers since he
became CEO in 2008.
“When I go to visit potential
customers, I don’t ask who their
bank is, I ask who their banker
is,” he previously told the Press.
“If they do know and like that
person I try to go meet them
and see if they’re happy where
they are. We aggressively
pursue good bankers to hire
and build businesses around
them.”
The result is one bank customers
can count on.
WHOLLY MOLI
BNB President and CEO Kevin O’Connor. (Photo by Bob
Giglione)
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