NYCB Appoints CEO Joseph Otting to Additional Chairmanship By Reuters

(Reuters) – Local lenders New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:) said Tuesday it has expanded the role of President and CEO Joseph Otting to include the role of chairman.

The bank also said Alessandro DiNello will step down as non-executive chairman when the company closes on June 5. He will continue to serve as a member of the Board of Directors and senior advisor to the CEO.

Shares of NYCB rose 1.2% in extended trading.

Since January, about a year after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, stock sales have shed billions of dollars off NYCB’s market value. signature bank (OTC:) has raised widespread concerns about the health of the sector.

NYCB has made several top management changes this year to weather the crisis.

Otting, a former Comptroller of the Currency, was appointed CEO in March when the bank received a $1 billion lifeline from a consortium of investors led by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s Liberty Strategic Capital.

NYCB has since pledged to develop a turnaround plan to return to profitability over the next two years and shrink its balance sheet by reducing non-core assets.

There have been ongoing concerns over banks’ exposure to the stressed commercial real estate (CRE) sector. NYCB has pledged to reduce the size of its CRE loans.

CRE loans accounted for 16% of the bank’s total as of March 31. The lender also reported a loss in the first quarter as it built up more credit loss provisions to cover potential defaults on loans.

Later that month, the embattled lender also signed a deal to sell $5 billion of mortgage warehouse loans to Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:) to shore up liquidity.

The bank has been trying to ease investor anxiety and revive battered stocks, which have fallen about 69% so far this year.