Valley National Bank CEO Ira Robbins Reveals His Florida Diversification Strategy

January 17, 2019

Ira D. Robbins is President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Valley National Bancorp. Mr. Robbins joined Valley Bank in 1996 as part of its Management Associate Program and has held several key positions throughout the bank for over 20 years. In 2009, he was awarded the title of First Senior Vice President and Treasurer and then was promoted to Executive Vice President in 2013.

In 2016, Mr. Robbins was recognized for his invaluable contributions to the bank’s growth with a promotion to Senior Executive Vice President. In 2017, he was appointed as President of Valley National Bank and assumed the role of CEO in 2018.

In  this exclusive 3,252 word interview in the Wall Street Transcript, Mr. Robbins reveals the secret to his success:

“…It is important for us to enable local decision-making while maintaining centralized underwriting and operations to ensure that there is one credit culture and one operating philosophy across the entire organization.

We want to provide customers with the unique touch and feel that he or she would want based on local relationships. It is something we spend a lot of time on to make sure we have empowered customers and employees who have the tools and data necessary to make important decisions.”

The bank has expanded dramatically into regions other than the tax burdened New York and New Jersey area:

“…From an economic-trend perspective, the Florida region is definitely growing from a GDP and population perspective to a much more varying degree than is our core historic New Jersey and New York footprint. The tax implications are different in these Northeastern markets versus what they are in Florida.”

To get the rest of the detail on how a local bank can thrive at this point in the economic cycle, read the entire exclusive 3,252 word interview with CEO Ira Robbins in the Wall Street Transcript.