Gaspo back in CNY

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Aug 13, 2004 by Rombel, Adam

SYRACUSE - James Gaspo, a veteran Central New York commercial lender who left the area earlier this year,. is back in Upstate. Gaspo has been hired by Citizens Financial, Group, Inc. - a Providence, R.I.-based, bankholding company with about $80 billion in assets and 900 branches in seven northeastern states - to organize and build a commercial-banking operation in New York State virtually from- scratch.

Gaspo will be executive in charge of Citizen's commercial-banking activities for all of New York, and will be based in Albany. As part of his new job, Gaspo has opened a Syracuse office for Citizens and hired two bankers from KeyBank to Am it.

Charles Vita, formerly a relationship manager in Key's middle-market banking group in Syracuse, and Richard Shirtz, who was a senior relationship manager in the same group, have joined Citizens. KeyBank is actively looking for candidates to replace them, says Shelly Van Dusen, the bank's vice president of public affairs in Syracuse. When asked about support staff coming from Key, Van Dusen had no comment.

Gaspo, age 41, is a Central New York native who had served as KeyBank's Central New York district president from 2001 until January of this year, when he moved to Indianapolis to take a position as Key's Midwest regional corporatebanking executive, overseeing commercial banking in seven cities.

Citizens Financial - the 17th largest bank in the United States as measured by commercial-bank assets - currently has no corporate- or retail-banking presence in Central New York. The new office as well as a pending merger will change that.

Citizens Financial's parent, Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, in May agreed to buy Cleveland-based Charter One Financial Inc., the holding company for Charter One Bank. Charter One, which has more than $40 billion in assets, will be merged into Citizens Financial. The banks expect the deal to close by the fourth quarter [Charter One is holding a shareholder meeting on Aug. 23 to vote on the merger]. Charter One, which now has 11 retail branch offices in the Syracuse metro area, has been rapidly expanding here since 2001 when it had only one office.

At the end of 2003, Charter One had about $250 million in deposits in the Syracuse metro area, good for a 3.25-percent market share and 10th place, according to SNL Financial, a Charlottesville, Va.-based, financial-research firm.

Gaspo says Citizens Financial will leverage Charter One's retail and smallbusiness banking presence in New York, once the merger is concluded. Citizens has opened a temporary office at 250 South Clinton St. in downtown Syracuse. Gaspo and Citizens Financial officials declined to divulge additional information for this article or to talk about the bank's New York expansion until the merger with Charter One has gained state regulatory approvals.

Bankers and consultants say that Central and Upstate New York's flatgrowth, commercial-banking market is fiercely competitive. Banks that want to build a commercial portfolio from scratch need to take business from established rivals such as Bank of America, M&T Bank, HSBC Bank USA, and JPMorgan Chase Bank.

Still, at least one veteran of the Syracuse--area banking scene believes Gaspo and his team can pull it off.

"I don't have any reason to believe that Gaspo's operation won't be able to pick up business. Jim is a very talented lender," says Peter K. McShane, a local banking consultant and owner of PK McShane & Associates.

McShane says that newcomer banks are "more tenacious and more aggressive in looking for opportunities" and more willing to do deals that the bigger banks might not seek. He points to the success of Alliance Bank, N.A. in building a substantial commercial-loan portfolio in the area from scratch.

Gaspo comes to Citizens Financial after 10 years with KeyBank. Before that, he worked for Marine Midland and the Irving Trust Co. He holds an undergraduate degree from Le Moyne College and received his master's of business administration degree from the school in 2002.