At Sterling Bancorp, we’ve built our business by providing the highest level of personal service. We’ve also invested in the latest technology to respond to our customers’ needs. Our goal is to simplify their banking and financial services transactions and provide them with the quickest, most efficient access to their data and funds. Our products and services aim to rival or surpass those available at most other financial institutions.

We are proud to have created proprietary new products that specifically address our customers’ needs. When they ask us if we can do something, we invariably say “yes”—and then challenge our top-quality technology team to develop it, if it doesn’t already exist. That is how, for example, we created EZ-Cert, which enables attorneys to print out signed certified checks without visiting a bank branch; and TimeFrame™, which allows nursing homes to receive direct deposits of government checks, credited to their residents’ accounts.

In 2002, we made several new technology-based products available to our customers. We added Sterling CheckingPlus, which allows customers to view online both the front and back of paid checks, via Sterling Internet Banking. Monthly E-mail Statements, with images of all paid checks, are now accessible through a secure online connection. Our new Controlled Disbursement service enables commercial customers to better manage their cash positions by viewing which checks have cleared the Federal Reserve by 10 a.m. and will be charged against their account that day. And to enhance their record keeping, we can provide high volume clients with compact disks containing all their banking transaction information on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis.

Internally, we created a new Credit Facility System that enables account officers anywhere in the Company to view loan relationships online, to better monitor credit exposure and speed up the approval process for customers. We made all our banking forms available electronically, so they can be printed out when needed, assuring that a branch is never caught short.

Of course, technology will never replace our personal service. We never demand that our customers adopt new technology; if they prefer face-to-face interaction, we are happy to oblige. That is inherent in our motto, “Our Doors Are Open All the Way to the Top.”