Building a Better Bank: Dime Community Bank’s Regional Rise

If you follow financial headlines, you know these have been turbulent times for some banks, but at Long Island-based Dime Community Bank, things have been going smoothly. In a Dickensian world with the worst times for some, these have been arguably the best times for Dime, which grew during the pandemic and more recently has grown by bringing on board veteran bankers and billions of dollars in deposits.

While NYCB acquired Signature and ran into trouble, for instance, Dime experienced what you might call the other side of the banking coin. It grew to over $14 billion in assets and $11 billion in deposits. Dime’s loan book also diversified, including commercial real estate, industrial and residential. It has grown to 63 locations, including two opened recently in Staten Island and Westchester County.

“With both of those locations, we were able to hire teams from what were then Signature or NYCB private bankers,” says Dime CEO and President Stuart Lubow, who has spent 44 years in banking, including C-suites. “We saw that as an opportunity to grow our footprint in areas that don’t have a lot of community banks.”

Dime under Lubow has been on a roll, hiring a national deposit team from another institution, expanding and hiring a head of its healthcare business, deepening and broadening expertise.

“We’re focusing on creating a diversified commercial banking platform,” Lubow says. “Enhancing our commercial and industrial loans, and our not-for-profit lending.”

The new head of their not-for-profit group joined from Webster, as Dime attracts bankers who see a relationship-based, service-focused bank with industry-leading technology, culture and diversified business.

“There’s been disruption in the marketplace, M&A activity and financial issues at some institutions,” Lubow says. “We’ve taken advantage of that and have been able to bring on some talented staff and business lines.”

COMMUNITY BANKING

Dime, whose roots go back to 1864, falls in the middle of the profile of community banks, often defined as under $100 billion from a regulatory standpoint. That community banking model is working, as it diversifies and expands.

“We have local decision makers. We’re part of the fabric of the community,” says Lubow. “We bank people where we live, people we know, businesses we know.”

Dime’s footprint spans the area from Montauk to Manhattan, Staten Island and Westchester County. Lubow says Dime is closer to its customers in its footprint than giants are, better serving them and the bank itself.

“We make decisions based on understanding their business, their needs and local folks who support the community as opposed to larger institutions with national programs,” Lubow says. “Their underwriting is all around the country. Everything has to fit into a box. We try to be flexible and understand the needs of a customer.”

Dime has grown through combinations as well as organically, merging BNB (formerly Bridgehampton National Bank) into its operations in 2021. Rather than adopting one of the two systems, Lubow says they adopted the best technology, getting bigger and better.

“We’ve enhanced our treasury management systems, our online banking systems, wire transfer systems and escrow management system,” Lubow says. “We’re always focused on security. We enhanced that as well. Our technology is better and more user friendly than most banks.”

Technology attracts bankers and customers, since it makes both of their lives easier. Still, Lubow knows, at its core, banking is about people. If you focus on people, profits can follow.

“Our two biggest assets are our people and our customers,” Lubow says. “That’s what we focus on as an institution. If you take care of those two things, you’ll have a strong institution.”

TEAM PLAYERS

Lubow joined Dime in 2017 as president and COO, taking the more-than-a-century-old institution from a thrift to a solid business and commercial bank.

While some companies hit the pause button during the pandemic, Dime issued over $2 billion in Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans.

“We were quick to market in servicing the marketplace,” Lubow says. “We were second only to Chase in terms of issuing PPP loans within the marketplace.”

Dime arranged forgivable PPP loans for companies that then gave them more business, growing the bank past the pandemic.

“The vast majority were not our customers,” Lubow says of PPP recipients. “They were banking elsewhere with other institutions, mostly larger ones, that couldn’t adjust to the environment, the new PPP process and what the SBA was doing. We were able to deal with it very quickly.”

Lubow more recently led Dime’s growth, hiring 14 private banking teams, including many from Signature and NYCB. They brought in six Signature teams after the Signature/NYCB deal and others earlier this year.

“They were focused on servicing their customers,” Lubow says. “It fit really well with our private banking group.” In addition to bringing on board $1.5 billion in deposits to date, these private bankers brought in more than 3,000 customers and 8,000 accounts, he says.

“While everyone was looking at where to get the next deposit, we’ve grown deposits $1.5 billion in the last year,” Lubow says. “I think that’s a credit to the bank and our vision of taking the offensive during this period of time.”

Dime can smoothly integrate private bankers, in part because its “sweet spot” is based on a single point of contact in which business customers have private bankers.

“They are the person they can go to for depository services,” Lubow adds. “If they need a loan, that’s the person they contact. You don’t get a run-around.”

A LIFE IN BANKING

While banking has seen a lot of change, Lubow brings leadership seasoned by work in the banking business much of his life.

“I’ve been in this business for 44 years,” he says. “I started my career at Chase in 1979. I’ve gone from the largest banks to starting two banks.”

Lubow served as COO at Dollar Drydock and helped turn around Garden State Bank in New Jersey. The best way to understand a business is to build it from the ground up. Lubow started and served as chairman, president and CEO of Community National Bank and started New Jersey-based Community State Bank, before coming to Dime.

“When I joined Dime, my role was to grow it into a diversified commercial banking institution,” he says. “It didn’t have the business relationships that a commercial bank would want or would make the most sense for the franchise. I was building a bank within a bank.”

Dime in 2017 had just over $6 billion in total assets, primarily from retail deposits.

“On the depository side, it was a retail bank focused on savings accounts and CDs and operating accounts and relationships,” he says. “They were not really a relationship bank.”

Lubow in 2021 led the merger with BNB, creating the largest independent bank on Long Island and moving its headquarters to Hauppauge.

“Putting Dime and BNB together made for a synergistic opportunity in terms of creating a powerhouse on greater Long Island, in terms of an independent commercial bank,” he says. “We have a full gamut of lending opportunities. We’ve come a long way in seven years. The structure of the bank has changed.”

Dime has more diverse depository and loan bases, including adding a residential lending group to service customers seeking home mortgages. “We developed that,” Lubow says. “We have the bank running on all cylinders.”

Lubow is excited about 2025, as rates drop, and the economy and demand improve for commercial lending, believing Dime is “well positioned” to lend to business from manufacturers to multi-family, commercial real estate to construction, business credit lines to healthcare and nonprofits.

A BETTER BUSINESS BANK

Lubow clearly likes leading a Long Island-based bank involved in the region’s economy. He brings experience and expertise, but also a culture that mixes growth with diversification.

And he is involved with several nonprofits, including The Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research and the Eric Feltman Memorial Foundation. A commitment to the community that also drives the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) program at its core has led to an Outstanding rating by regulators, a rare feat in banks.

A past president of the New York Bankers Association, Long Island Division, and the Community Bankers Association in New Jersey, he is a banker’s banker, a leader at his bank and in his industry.

“It’s an opportunity that I enjoy,” he says of serving as Dime CEO and president after leading other banks. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. If you do something this long, you better enjoy it. I like building an organization, building its profitably, serving the community and customers.”

In addition to strategically leading the organization, Lubow meets with some prospective, new and longtime customers.

“I’m always there for our customers,” Lubow says. “I can get a call from a loan officer or a private banker with important clients who want to meet with decision makers. I do it all the time. Smaller customers are big customers for us. They’re big fish in a smaller pond.”

Dime has a Manhattan location and may expand there. “We do a lot of business in Manhattan,” he says. “We’ll probably look to open additional locations there.”

While they don’t have Florida locations, they serve many businesses with Florida operations through improved and expanded online services.

“That’s why we can do business down there without a location,” Lubow says of a digital world. “Over time, we might follow some of our customers down there. At this point, we’re comfortable with the fact that our digital capacity can handle all customers.”

-PARTNER CONTENT