The Dime Bank Promotes James Gardas

The Dime Bank Board of Directors along with President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Bochnovich, are pleased to announce that James Gardas was appointed to the position of Senior Vice President of the Wealth Management Division. Gardas is an investment adviser representative for The Dime Wealth Management, a full-service brokerage operation located within The Dime Bank. 

Gardas has almost thirty years of experience in the customer service arena including twelve years of experience in the Wealth Management Division. Gardas graduated Summa Cum Laude from Charleston Southern University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a dual major in Business Administration and Mathematics. Gardas is a registered representative of Cetera Advisor Networks LLC and is life, accident and health insurance licensed and is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary. Gardas offers stocks, bonds, mutual funds, money management, annuities, insurance products, advisory services, retirement and educational savings plans, financial and estate planning services, and trusts to individuals and businesses through the Wealth Management Division.

Peter Bochnovich stated, “Jim is an invaluable asset to The Dime Bank team. As the head of our Wealth Management division, Jim’s expertise has broadened the Wealth Management client base since taking the lead. His counsel and knowledge are a great fit for his customers, his team, and as a leader to The Dime Wealth Management division in pursuing our growth objectives.”

He currently resides in Hawley, PA with his wife, Jade, and his two dogs, Moxie and Nugget.

Ferdinand Feola is Promoted to Senior Vice President at The Dime Bank

President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Bochnovich and the Board of Directors announced the promotion of Ferdinand Feola to Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and a member of The Dime Bank’s Senior Officer team.

Feola joined The Dime Bank’s management team in 2019 as Vice President, Chief Technology Officer. Within this role, Feola leads a strategic, cohesive bank-wide technology program to align technology goals to other departmental and organizational objectives. Feola evaluates and implements new systems and upgrades existing infrastructure for the optimal use of data, information, and digital technology platforms. These efforts assist in achieving greater convenience and time saving benefits for customers and increased efficiency for the bank’s employees.

President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Bochnovich stated, “Ferd’s 25 years of technology leadership brought a wealth of knowledge to the information technology side of The Dime Bank. He brings technology to the forefront of our business with our employees and customers. We are excited to have Ferd in this elevated management role as we pledge to continue to offer the best banking solutions to differentiate the banking experience at The Dime Bank.” Feola holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Valley Forge and has completed FEMA Incident Command Training. He is a published columnist writing technology articles for national publications. Feola is also a licensed minister and together with his wife, Bonnie, they have a passion for seeing families prosper and restored. They have been involved in Foster Care for several years, served in several positions in the local church, and have led and participated in multiple short-term outreach trips to Romania and Puerto Rico.

The Dime Bank Announces Brian C. Urbas as a New Commercial Lending Officer

Brian C, Urbas has been hired at The Dime Bank as a new Vice President, Commercial Lending Officer, announced President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Bochnovich.

Urbas has 20 years of progressive banking and lending experience working at Northeast PA financial institutions serving Wayne, Susquehanna, and Lackawanna counties. Urbas’ enthusiastic and driven leadership skills coupled with his extensive experience yielded long-lasting customer relationships and strong business partnerships. His responsibilities included developing strategies to build new retail and business relationships in various industries, underwriting, and preparing and analyzing financial information for loan approval.

Urbas’ responsibilities as a vice president, commercial lending officer at The Dime Bank will be garnering new commercial customer relationships in the area as well as maintaining existing commercial relationships. Senior Vice President Chief Lending Officer William Boyle stated, “Brian’s experience and knowledge of the various financial needs of commercial customers make him a great addition to our commercial lending team. His ability to focus on business development coupled with his superb customer service will prove to be a benefit for The Dime Bank and our customers, present and future.”

Urbas has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Bloomsburg University. He lives in the Forest City area with his wife Lora and three children Claire, Max, and Marlo. Urbas is a basketball and baseball coach for the Forest City Regional Schools and a baseball coach in the Carbondale Teener League.

The Dime Bank Donated $8,000 to Support Students of Pike & Wayne County

The Dime Bank donated $8,000.00 through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program to the Pennsylvania Council on Financial Literacy (PennCFL).

PennCFL provides to all students in grades 3-12 in Pennsylvania a world-class, web-based stock simulation platform and curriculum. Students can learn how to trade all year long by using the whole curriculum, courses, and more, including two ten-week competitions. The competitions are held in the classroom, by county and state-wide.

The platform provides lessons, assignments, and grading for seamless teacher management. The cutting-edge, real-time stock game is derived from Stock-Trak’s University Platform, which is used in over 80% of the top business schools in the United States.

Teachers and students get access to our extensive experiential education teaching and learning tool designed by Stock-Trak, the world’s leading provider of investment portfolio simulations for colleges and schools. It offers an entire standards-aligned curriculum library and a distance learning-optimized lesson plan database which includes a Google Slides presentation library, teacher training webinars, a student video library, a full personal finance course and a teacher’s dashboard for student assignments, progress reports, and grading.

PennCFL President Alan W. Dakey stated “Thank you for again supporting the Wayne Pike Stock Market Program and for increasing your support.  The Dime Bank was one of our early sponsors when we were first getting started a few years ago, and your support was a great help in getting us launched in our early years.  During the past school year over 20,000 students participated in our financial literacy programs and we have dramatically expanded our online resources particularly in light of the pandemic. Thank you for being one of our founding sponsors.”