itself as the leading regional commercial bank in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut).
External Competitive Environment There are a number of international banks headquartered or represented in New York City that are far larger and have far greater resources than North Fork Bank (NFB). Many of these have strong retail banking arms. NFB is very active in the residential mortgage market that is historically not an area of emphasis for Citicorp, Bank of New York and Morgan/Chase or most of the other majors in the tri-state area.
Internal operating environment In the presentation made at the 2005 shareholders meeting considerable emphasis was placed on assets per employee and earnings per employee. This indicates a very intense effort to keep overhead and particularly personnel cost under control. This is clearly a strength. The corollary is that intense management effort to minimize personnel may lead to impersonal or poor customer service. A bank is a service organization. Emphasis on productivity is good personnel policy, but over emphasis on productivity can become a moral problem.
Strategies to utilize strengths and correct weaknesses The New York metro area is a mature market. In order to build a larger and stronger bank it will be necessary to increase market share at the expense of competition. NFB is actively seeking to increase its share of the retail market where it already has a strong position, and is utilizing its mortgage lending capability to help build this element. It is also aggressively building and acquiring new branch locations with the object of gaining location advantage. It should be pointed out that the desirability of brick and mortar branches has been a subject of discussion and controversy in banking circles for more than a quarter century. There is also a strong effort to build a commercial lending capability that will transform the organization from what is ess...