Valley rally: Bank accelerates march into Florida

Ira Robbins was a 30-something banker, on the rise at the only bank he ever worked for, New Jersey-based Valley National, when then-CEO Gerald Lipkin taught him a lesson he has never forgotten.

It was in the mid-2000s, when the bank’s growth had slowed. Although it hadn’t posted a losing quarter — it’s never had a losing quarter in its 90-year existence — there was pressure on it to get into the financial product of the day: subprime lending. But at a meeting with analysts and bank officials, Robbins recalls that Lipkin pounded his fist repeatedly on the table. “We will not make a subprime loan because it isn’t right for the communities we operate in,” Lipkin said at the meeting, Robbins says.