The Impact of New Tax Laws on New Jersey's Banks

Ira Robbins, President & CEO of Valley National Bank, and Steve Adubato sit down to talk about the current state of banking in New Jersey and how the new tax laws will affect banks.

5/5/18 #211

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"We are pleased to welcome Ira Robbins, President and Chief Executive Officer, Valley National Bank. Good to see you Ira. Good to see you Steve. Thank you for having me. I've been honored for the last few years to do some leadership and communication coaching at the bank. I've gotten to know it well. But when I met you, you were not the President and CEO? No. You've been there how long? 22 years this July. I started as a management trainee, I got a job out of a newspaper to work for Valley. Describe the job of President and CEO at this bank. The footprint of the bank is? So we have branches in New Jersey, New York, Florida, and now recently in the state of Alabama. New Jersey is our home though, that's where the bank started in 1927. So the bank's been around for about 91 years, I think the role of CEO... President is more just of a leader from a directional perspective. How do you set the tone within the organization? Set the strategy within the organization? You know, for my prior 21 years within the organization it's really been pulling up my sleeves... Operations? Attempting to really… Finance? Exactly. So was it a big...? I'm curious. You know, as a student of leadership, I'm always curious about how people make the adjustment. You're dealing with finance, you're dealing with operations, like in the weeds, and then you have to step back and be a big-picture leader? It's a big change for me at least. You know, I've always been, as you said, in the ground, in the focus, as much as I could be, to make sure that what we were looking at made some financial sense as to the path we were going down. Now it's more taking that, having a step back, and hopefully having people come up with those ideas on their own. But once again, attempting to provide that financial acumen to make sure there's a path that makes sense for us. Ira, State of Affairs focuses on public policy. I saw you with Jim Cramer, our good friend over at CNBC, and he was pressing you on a whole range of tax related questions - A, the federal tax laws led by President Trump impact not just on the banking industry but on consumers overall - different in New Jersey than in Florida and Texas? Go ahead. Absolutely. And you look at the state of New Jersey. So we've grown about 800,000 actual employees in the last three to four years. The state of Florida? Four million people have moved to the state of Florida. I think when New Jersey looks at its economics, it needs to make sure..."