Shareholders reelect three directors, support executive "Say on Pay" proposal, ratify appointment of accounting firm, approve amendment to stock incentive plan
Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI) (the "Company"), parent company of Customers Bank (the "Bank"), held its annual shareholder meeting today and shareholders approved all proposals put to a vote.
Robert J. Buford, Rajeev V. Date and Jay S. Sidhu were reelected as directors. Buford will continue to serve as member of the Board's Audit and Risk Committees; Date will continue as chair of the Board's Regulatory Affairs Committee and member of its Risk Committee and the Bank's Compliance Committee; Sidhu will continue as Chairman and member of the Board's Executive, Risk, and Regulatory Affairs Committees and the Bank's Compliance Committee. Their terms will expire in 2027.
Shareholders also ratified the appointment of Deloitte as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, and supported a non-binding proposal on named executive compensation. Shareholders also approved a non-binding proposal to review the compensation of the organization's named executive officers on an annual basis.
In addition, shareholders amended the Company's 2019 Stock Incentive Plan, increasing the total number of shares of common stock from 2,570,325 to 3,320,325. The move enhances the Company's recruitment efforts and further ties team members' compensation to performance.
"Customers Bancorp was the number one performing publicly traded bank stock in the U.S. in 2023, as measured by stock price and total shareholder return," said CEO and Chairman Jay Sidhu. "In 2023, we continued to build on our strengths, maintaining our position as a strong, high performing, forward-thinking bank.
"For 2024, our priorities remain unchanged," said Sidhu. "We will continue to excel in helping our customers succeed beyond their imagination, while moderating our growth by focusing on holistic and strategic relationships and building a strong franchise."
"We thank you for your investment in, and ongoing support of, our company and will continue to work to build long term shareholder value." Sidhu continued.
About Customers Bancorp's Reelected Directors
Robert J. Buford
Buford is the President and CEO of Planned Realty Group (PRG), Inc., a Chicago based real estate investment and management company. He began his career in manufacturing, sales and management with Proctor and Gamble, Honeywell, and Pfizer. Buford founded PRG in 1982. Over succeeding decades, he grew the firm and its assets to include a substantial portfolio of rental apartment properties. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a Law Degree from DePaul University. He lives in Chicago.
Rajeev V. Date
Date is the Managing Partner of Fenway Summer LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based investment and advisory firm (2013-present). He is also the co-founder of FS Vector, an advisory firm that counsels fintech companies on regulatory strategy, compliance, and public policy (2018 - present). Date was the first-ever Deputy Director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), leading the CFPB for most of the six months after its launch. He also served on the senior staff committee of the Financial Stability Oversight Council and as a statutory deputy to the FDIC board. Date chairs the investment committee of Fenway Summer Ventures, a specialist fintech venture capital firm. He also serves as a director for a number of innovative financial services firms, including Linden Research, Inc., a metaverse pioneer, and Circle Internet Finance Public Limited Company, a global provider of crypto infrastructure. Date has also served as a Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group at Deutsche Bank Securities, where he led the firm's investment banking coverage for the largest U.S.-based banks and thrifts and Senior Vice President for Corporate Strategy and Development at Capital One Financial, where he led M&A development efforts across the U.S. banking and specialty finance markets. He is a graduate of the College of Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley (highest honors) and the Harvard Law School (magna cum laude).
Jay S. Sidhu
Sidhu joined Customers Bank as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in the second quarter of 2009. Before joining Customers Bank, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Sovereign Bank and Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. from 1989 and its Chairman from 2002 until his retirement on December 31, 2006. Sidhu was also the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sidhu Advisors, LLC, a consulting firm from 2007 to 2009. He is a recipient of Financial World's CEO of the Year award, and was also named Turnaround Entrepreneur of the Year, while he was the CEO of Sovereign. In 2016, he was named Financial Technology Entrepreneur of the Year. He has received many other awards and honors, including a Hero of Liberty Award from the National Liberty Museum and Caron Foundation's Citizen of the Year. Mr. Sidhu also served as Executive Chairman of Megalith Financial Acquisition Corporation. Mr. Sidhu has also served on the boards of numerous businesses and not-for-profits, including as a member of the Board of Grupo Santander in Madrid, Spain, and Atlantic Coast Financial corporation in Jacksonville, Fla. He obtained a M.B.A. from Wilkes University and is a graduate of Harvard Business School's Leadership Course for CEOs. Sidhu also helped establish the Sidhu School of Business and Leadership at Wilkes University.
More at customersbank.com/investor-relations.
Institutional Background
Customers Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:CUBI) is one of the nation's top-performing banking companies with nearly $22 billion in assets making it one of the 80 largest bank holding companies in the U.S. Customers Bank's commercial and consumer clients benefit from a full suite of technology-enabled tailored product experiences delivered by best-in-class customer service distinguished by a Single Point of Contact approach. In addition to traditional lines such as C&I lending, commercial real estate lending and multifamily lending, Customers Bank also provides a number of national corporate banking services to specialized lending clients. Major accolades include:
- No. 5 on American Banker 2023 list of top-performing banks with $10B to $50B in assets
- No. 29 out of the 100 largest publicly traded banks in 2024 Forbes Best Banks list
- No. 52 on Investor's Business Daily 100 Best Stocks for 2023
A member of the Federal Reserve System with deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Customers Bank is an equal opportunity lender. Learn more: www.customersbank.com.
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