4 | OPEN FOR BUSINESS MAY 22, 2017 | VOL. 53, No. 21
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IBM spinoff charts bright future with energy analytics BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH rdeffenbaugh@westfairinc.com
T Rising Tides
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Martin Ginsburg hosted the ribbon cutting for his latest development, River Tides at Greystone on May 16. Joining him were Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano and County Executive Robert Astorino. Photo by Aleesia Forni
here’s a new world order in energy, says Chandu Visweswariah, president and CEO of Utopus Insights Inc., an energy analytics startup in Valhalla. Renewable energy is becoming more economically viable and growing rapidly worldwide. “That, however, will bring with it its share of technical problems,” Visweswariah said. “You are dependent on wind, you are dependent on the sun. So there is what we call intermittency in
the availability of energy. You need tools and intelligence to plan your energy around this intermittency.” Utopus Insights is creating those tools. “The goal of our company is to really be the leading provider of this new intelligence or new software that is necessary for utilities and energy systems,” said Visweswariah. Visweswariah previously directed the Smarter Energy Research Institute at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights. He was named an IBM Fellow in 2013. The company, which launched » UTOPUS, page 6
‘A case study’ for bank mergers in KeyBank deal BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH rdeffenbaugh@westfairinc.com
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t’s been 10 months since Cleveland-based KeyCorp’s $4.1 billion acquisition of Buffalo-based First Niagara Financial Group was approved by the Federal Reserve. Joseph F. Markey, senior vice president at KeyBank and its market president for the Hudson Valley and Metro New York, said that except for some technical hiccups, the transition has been smooth. “Bringing two massive systems and organizations together, there’s always going to be glitches,” Markey said. “But in the history of bank mergers, this one went very well. It’s actually a good case study for how to do a bank merger.”
The deal added about $29 billion in deposits and $40 billion in total assets and placed KeyBank as the 13th largest commercial bank in the nation. In October 2016, KeyBank had what was called Customer Day One, where all systems were merged and all clients from First Niagara came over to KeyBank. That part was not so smooth. Former First Niagara customers complained of being locked out of accounts and unable to reach KeyBank customer service reps. KeyBank eventually apologized and deposited $100 into each of the new KeyBank accounts of more than 10,000 First Niagara customers, according to the Buffalo News. But despite early troubles, Markey said the overall impact
of the deal, which expanded KeyBank’s network to more than 1,200 branches in 15 states, is showing several positive signs. KeyCorp reported first-quarter net income of $296 million, nearly 63 percent higher than last year’s $182 million in the first quarter. KeyCorp Chairman and CEO Beth Mooney said in the bank’s first quarter earnings call last month that the First Niagara acquisition had been transforma-
tive, particularly for KeyBank’s presence upstate. Markey pointed to a client retention rate that he said was over 90 percent following the merger. The deal required KeyBank to close 106 First Niagara and KeyBank locations in four states, 15 of which were in the Hudson Valley. That included locations in Rye Brook, Mount Kisco, Ossining and Bedford Hills.
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Markey said that all branch closures for Hudson Valley region are complete. The region didn’t require as many closures as areas farther upstate, according to Markey, because First Niagara’s presence in Westchester and the rest of the region was smaller than other parts of the state such as Rochester, Albany, Buffalo and Syracuse. » KEYBANK, page 6
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