Fred Castrovinci has served as an underwriter and loan supervisor on the consumer side, a division head of commercial banking and a regional leader of retail banking. He even had a five-year run involved in all aspects of auto dealer services.
It’s safe to say his climb up the Valley Bank ladder has included a stop on every rung.
Castrovinci, who now serves as Valley’s New Jersey Regional President for Middle Market Commercial and Business Banking, is grateful to have had those experiences — even if he may have had some doubts along the way.
“I didn’t realize that that journey was as well mapped out for me in the beginning,” he said with a laugh. “Along the way, there were certain moments of hesitation and uncertainty, but, when I look at what those experiences provided me, I’m grateful.
“I had the opportunity to lead our New Jersey and New York branches from a sales and service perspective. The learnings from that — having an org chart of 1,000 employees, getting perspectives of people, service and operations, learning what customers look for remotely and what they do when something goes wrong, and why having a branch in proximity to them is important — were invaluable.”
When you combine that with the fact he has been a Jersey boy from the start — he’s a proud graduate of Lyndhurst High School and The College of New Jersey — you see the Jersey-first connection that comes with every conversation.
“I’m very proud of us being a part of the largest bank headquartered in New Jersey — and the deep roots that we have here,” he said. “That provides a reason for us to win business. But we have to continue to earn it every day.”
Valley has 130 branches in the state, where it has long been ubiquitous with its presence.
“This is still the largest part of Valley’s market share as a bank,” Castrovinci said. “Other areas are growing and we’re creating great diversity across regions, but New Jersey is the largest part of our franchise — from a branch standpoint, from a market share standpoint — and those roots here mean something.”
Castrovinci recently sat with BINJE to talk all things banking — and all things New Jersey. Here’s more of the conversation, edited for space and clarity.
BINJE: Talk about the unique banking opportunities that present themselves in the state.
Fred Castrovinci: You start with the proximity to the ports and the industrial component of so many geographies throughout the state. It’s the heart of the economy.
Whether you’re going to make it, ship it, deliver it or retail it, it’s all here. And we have customers that serve in every part of that supply chain and connectivity to all segment sizes and all revenues sizes in different industries. That’s the amazing opportunity that we have here in New Jersey and at Valley.
BINJE: Valley certainly has grown over the years. It has more than $60 billion in assets and more than 220 branches nationwide. And, although the company also has locations in New York, Florida, Alabama, Illinois and California, New Jersey still is the home base. Talk about how you are growing here.
FC: We identify regions of high opportunity, we build teams that have books of businesses and then we bring in the branches. We still see tremendous opportunity in certain markets based on commercial and industrial density, so that always will be part of the model.
But, at the same time, there’s the innovation part of the bank, which continues to explode. The ability to bank people that are out of a branch footprint continues to expand. The ability to support our customers as they grow out of that footprint is ever-growing. And the ability for us to have other lines of businesses that serve customers on a national level — that could be private wealth, insurance, equipment finance — is growing.
So, all of those different businesses give us the capabilities to grow and expand in different ways.
“I’m very proud of us being a part of the largest bank headquartered in New Jersey — and the deep roots that we have here. That provides a reason for us to win business. But we have to continue to earn it every day.”
(CEO) Ira Robbins’ vision has been to grow this bank in a way that gives us the ability to serve a client at every stage of their life cycle, in depth and in geographies that we think have high opportunity.
BINJE: Valley’s commitment to New Jersey goes far beyond goods and services. Valley has long been a leader in the nonprofit space. How does that work into Valley’s growth — and into its mission of serving the state?
FC: A commitment to community and people and integrity and values is at the heart of who we are. So that’s always been us as an almost 100-year organization.
Over the course of many years, as we’ve come across opportunities to bank and ultimately partner with nonprofits, we’ve worked really hard to develop a deeper level of expertise in that space. And we’ve hired bankers who have expertise there.
We have internal bankers who have worked more closely with those organizations to figure out what the needs really are, and we’ve helped them create those models. It inherently connects to the fiber of who Valley is.
We align first on the values, and then we show up — not just for the deposits and the loans, but for what I like to call a 360-degree relationship, where we’re giving them all their banking needs and then we’re showing up for fundraising.
We are making our volunteer workforce their volunteer workforce, because we’re giving our employees paid volunteer time off every year. They love it.
BINJE: Let’s turn back to your career. You’ve been with Valley Bank for nearly 25 years — an enormous amount of time in any industry, but especially in banking, where executives are known to move around. What has made you stay here so long?
FC: Being at Valley for so long is a special thing for me. One of the things that’s kept me here has been the growth of the company and the opportunities for those who work here.
A pivotal moment was in 2016, when Ira was staging as president and CEO. I saw the vision. I saw the excitement. I felt the opportunity. And it wasn’t just created for me, but it was created for so many people like me, who had been with the bank for a number of years, but maybe didn’t have the landscape and the platform to move across business lines.
BINJE: You, of course, have gotten that opportunity to move across lines. Your résumé certainly is thorough. Talk again about how much that helps you in the role you are in now.
FC: Getting perspective from all the different industries and from the different angles has given me not just the experience, but the ability to create a collaboration across teams.
I’ve worked with everyone from small businesses to the middle market to retail to auto finance and the consumer. The ability for me to mobilize a team around the client, around a sensitive situation, around the large opportunity — and to piece that together with the right people with the right skill sets, whether it’s a certain industry or a certain geography — is an incredibly impactful thing.
I’m ready to serve everyone.
For information about Valley Bank, go to valley.com.
