Sterling National Bank:
Customer convenience and community investment

Sterling National Bank Vice President and Jamaica Branch Manager Liz Forgione believes that the combination of her bank’s commitment to making customers’ lives easier as well as investing in the community is what separates Sterling from its competitors.
Sterling’s Jamaica branch, which opened in October of 2006 and is located at 89-04 Sutphin Boulevard, is open six-days-per-week, but it also has developed programs to offer customers more convenient, banking options.
One of the newest innovations, Sterling’s remote deposit program, allows companies to scan checks from their desks around the country and transmit the image to Sterling for a deposit - eliminating trips to the bank and allowing customers to set their own hours.
“It’s amazing,” said Forgione, noting that all the customer needs is a small scanner to take advantage of this program. “It allows my customers to be their own bank.”
Since Sterling National Bank rolled out the program, Forgione said it has been a big hit with many of her customers.
“This is going to be the next thing in banking,” she said. “Anything that people can do to save time is worth something to them.”
In addition to the remote deposit program, it also offers its customers appointment banking where Sterling employees schedule times to go meet with customers at their businesses or homes. Oftentimes, Sterling representatives will meet with customers and train them in a variety of areas. Internet accounts seem to be the most popular recently.
“A lot of my customers are just too busy to come down to the bank,” Forgione said. “We go to see them and we go according to their schedules.”
Forgione, who has been with Sterling National Bank since 1988, is a Queens resident and recognizes the importance of getting involved in the community where she lives and works.
She is currently organizing seminars for residential customers in the area geared to educate first-time homebuyers as well as workshops for businesses that address retirement and health insurance issues.
In addition, Forgione is the Treasurer of the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District, which is a group taking an active role in revitalizing the Sutphin Boulevard corridor.
She is also working with the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District on assembling a business directory that lists contact information for all of the businesses along Sutphin Boulevard, which she hopes to have ready within the next three months.