Mr. Cummings has installed a set of core principles during his time as president and CEO of the bank. They’re all aimed to provide value to all customers, regardless of size—something that’s led the bank to prosper in the current market.
“We think we can service that real estate entrepreneur who has maybe 8 buildings,” Mr. Cummings explained. “He’s not sexy—he’s just a regular guy.”
“Our average loan is that $3 million to $10 million space—a lot of people aren’t playing in that space,” he said. “We’re just trying to be more of a relationship banker to that middle market borrower.”
The bank closed on eight mortgage transactions at the end of 2011, each valued at $10 million or more for a total of $137.5 million. The deals included a $13 million adjustable rate mortgage to refinance the loan on one multifamily housing property with 80 units in Jamaica, N.Y. and an $11.5 million fixed-rate mortgage to refinance multifamily structures on Leonard and Scholes streets in the booming Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
Hoping to further reach clients in the five boroughs was one of the main impetuous for the bank’s acquisition of Brooklyn Federal last year, an acquisition that allowed it to pick up five new branches, as well as Brooklyn Federal’s commercial real estate loan portfolio.
However, Mr. Cummings and Investors didn’t stand still for that long, flipping the majority of the portfolio for $200 million to a real estate investment fund less than six months later.
“It was close to 25 percent of non-performing loans—so why have any guesswork on what other problems they might have in the portfolio?” Mr. Cummings said of the deal.
Investors kept the cleanest of the bunch—$88 million in residential loans—but admittedly might have given up on some other good ones to stick to its principles.
“We probably gave someone a great opportunity, but at the end of the day it let us put our time where it’s more important,” he said.
Growing the bank in a way that continues to provide value to its customers and clients has always been goal number one for Mr. Cummings, who learned many of the lessons he uses today during his studies at Middlebury College and while getting his MBA at Rutgers.
“Accounting is the liberal arts education for business,” he said. “It taught me the importance of business development, mentoring and client development.”
The son of an ironworker, Mr. Cummings was raised in Jersey City, where he played basketball as a child. The sport is still a passion for him today.
“I play every weekend with a bunch of old guys,” he said with a laugh. “Ugly basketball.”
He lives less than a mile away from Investor Bank’s main office and said that his commute, short as it is, doesn’t even allow him to hear a whole Billy Joel song unless he hits a traffic light.
His office is on the second floor of the a rather nondescript building in Short Hills, a town best known for the large shopping mall that sits directly across from the entrance to the office. Just outside his office, a green sign hangs with a quote from Mr. Cummings similar to one once spoken by New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio: “I’d like to thank the Good Lord for making me an Investors Bank employee.”
It goes without saying that Mr. Cummings believes in the change that has been ongoing at the bank under his watch.
Since the new management took over, 37 of the top 40 people are new to the bank, in what Mr. Cummings called “evolution, not revolution.” His real estate group is currently made up of 14 people, a figure he’s like to increase by 50 percent over the short term.
“It’s more important to know what you don’t know, then trying to be the smartest guy in the room,” he said. Mr. Cummings praised a number of his employees for the success the company has seen, including Richard Spengler, the company’s executive vice president and chief lending officer, who joined from First Savings Bank in 2003, when Mr. Cummings was still COO.
That praise goes both ways. Reached by phone, Mr. Spengler used terms like “amazing” and “high energy” to describe his boss.
“He’s a unique CEO in the sense that when we talk, he doesn’t ask me to do more for him, he asks me what can I do to make your life easier—what can I do to help you originate more loans?”
Mr. Spengler went on to add that Mr. Cummings is more dialed in that any other CEO he knows, jumping into the trenches with his employees and focusing on better utilizing their talents.
