New York Community Bank Gets New CEO Amid Issues Around Oversight Weaknesses

The price of New York Community Bank stock fell 20% in after-hours trading Thursday following a disclosure from the bank about its internal risk management practices, a leadership shake-up and new losses. 

NYCB has been closely watched since a late January earnings call in which it revealed larger-than-expected losses to the tune of $252M due to troubled commercial real estate loans. The bank acquired most of the failed Signature Bank. 

The bank also told the SEC it would need additional time to file its annual report as it seeks to remedy the issues, Bloomberg reported. 

"As part of management’s assessment of the Company’s internal controls, management identified material weaknesses in the Company’s internal controls related to internal loan review, resulting from ineffective oversight, risk assessment and monitoring activities," NYCB said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Although the internal controls assessment is still ongoing, NYCB "expects to disclose ... its disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting were not effective as of December 31, 2023," the filing said. NYCB will lay out a remediation plan in its delayed annual report. 

NYCB also completed a "goodwill impairment assessment" and found that an impairment was retroactively required for the fourth quarter of 2023, indicating a reduction in value of assets it owns and resulting in a $2.4B decrease in annual net income available to common stockholders.

With this update, the bank's Q4 loss amounts to $2.7B, Yahoo Finance noted. The bank said the loss has "no impact on any of the Company’s regulatory capital ratios and does not have an impact on the Company’s compliance with covenants under any outstanding credit agreements," and will not trigger cash expenditures now. 

NYCB's stock is hovering around 22% down as of 8 p.m. ET. Year-to-date, the bank's stock is down more than 50%. 

The disclosure came on the same day the bank announced Alessandro DiNello, who was just named executive chairman on Feb. 6, would now also serve as president and CEO effective immediately. DiNello replaces Thomas R. Cangemi, who resigned on Feb. 23, according to filings with the SEC. 

NYCB also has a new presiding director of the board, Marshall Lux. He replaces Hanif Dahya, who resigned on Feb. 25. 

"It is my mandate as President and CEO, alongside our Board, to continue our transformation into a larger, more diversified commercial bank," DiNello said in a press release. "While we've faced recent challenges, we are confident in the direction of our bank and our ability to deliver for our customers, employees and shareholders in the long-term."

Regional banks like NYCB have struggled over the past few years because of their exposure to CRE, and half a trillion-dollars' worth of CRE loan maturities this year is expected to strain them further. Their retreat from CRE lending has, in turn, impacted developers and property owners, who have had to seek alternative sources of financing.