Sawyer Savings Bank Announces changes to Senior Management and Board of Trustees

Sawyer Savings Bank, in business since 1871, is proud to share news of the following changes to Senior Management and to the Board of Trustees as of January 1, 2019.

Gabriel F. Sottile has stepped down as President of Sawyer Savings and remains Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Board. Mr. Sottile’s 40-year tenure has included posts from Auditor to AVP, VP, EVP, President and Trustee, as well as his current positions.

Mr. Sottile is and has been an active member of the Hudson Valley Community, serving as Chairman of the Board for Benedictine Hospital and continuing as Trustee and Chair of the Finance Committee for Ulster County Community College.

James P. Whitaker has been appointed Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of Sawyer Savings. He has held positions with the bank in customer service, underwriting for commercial loans, IT and more for over 18 years. He has an Associates’ Degree from UCCC.

Mr. Whitaker is a lifelong resident of Saugerties and graduated from Saugerties High School. He is a member of both the Sons of the American Legion and the Kiwanis Club where he serves on numerous committees.

Cynthia Saporito, currently Senior Vice President (SVP) and Chief Operating Officer (COO), has been elected to the Sawyer Savings Board of Trustees. Over the past 33 years, she has held positions as an Internal Auditor, AVP Lending, VP of Operations, CRA and Compliance Officer prior to her becoming SVP and COO in 2005. She is a graduate of SUNY Ulster and Marist College with a BS in Business.

Ms. Saporito is a resident of Saugerties who serves on the Board of the Saugerties Public Library and is a member of the Kiwanis Club. She was also on the Board of the Kingston Boys & Girls Club for over 10 years.

Looking to stay up to date with all the things that are happening at Sawyer Savings?  Follow us on social media at Instagram@sawyersavingsbank and Facebook.com/SawyerSavingsBank

You may have heard about people who are “hired” to be “mystery (or) secret shoppers”.  The shopper receives a check with instructions to deposit it in a personal bank account, withdraw the amount in cash, and wire (or send) it to a third party. The scam is that the check is a fake…It may seem that the check has cleared and that the money has posted to the account, but when the check turns out to be a fake, the person who deposited the check and wired the money will be responsible for paying back the bank. It is never a good idea to deposit a check from someone you don’t know.

TIPS to keep yourself safe:

1) Scammers like using names of well-known companies to gain your trust, so do your research;

2) You do not have to pay to get into the “mystery shopper” business;

3) NEVER deposit a check from someone you do not know;

4) NEVER give personal financial information online.

Click here to learn more

Alert: Wall Street Journal reports that an Equifax Data Breach Potentially Affected 143 Million consumers in U.S.

To check if you may have been affected, click https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/ to check your status. If you are affected, follow the instructions in the link.

Sawyer Savings Bank is pleased to introduce CardValet^®, a mobile card management application that helps reduce account fraud by allowing cardholders to monitor accounts with their smartphone and control how, when and where their debit card is used.

CardValet is free, no obligation service that is available in the Apple^® App Store or Google^® Play. Once CardValet is set up, cardholders have the ability to “turn off” their card when not in use, establish transaction spending limits and decline a transaction when the amount exceeds a predefined threshold.

Real-time smartphone alerts can be customized based on the types of information each cardholder would like to receive. For example, a cardholder can set up an alert to be notified when a card is used, when a transaction is approved and exceeds any of the permitted use policies, or when a card transaction has been attempted but has been declined based on the parameters established.

CardValet offers cardholders the capability of linking additional accounts to better monitor dependent spending. So, by using the GPS system in their smart phone, geographic use restrictions can be established for college students along with restrictions on merchant type and spending limits.

CardValet is also ideal for small businesses. All transactions can be monitored or controlled for specific merchant categories, such as travel, restaurants or entertainment, and can be denied or reported for types of merchants deemed not business related.

For more information regarding this free service that is available to you through Sawyer Savings Bank please call 1-888-772-1871 and ask to speak to a customer service representative.

Join us once again as we welcome the jolliest elf around. On Friday, December, 16, 2016 between 3:30- 5:30 pm Santa will be in our Saugerties Branch. All children will receive a free photo and gift from Santa.

What is an EMV Chip Card?

EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa- the developers of the microchip embedded in the card that stores and protects your card data. EMV Chip cards do everything your current magnetic strip cards do – but, more securely. The computer chip embedded in the card enables more secure processing by producing a one-time use code for each transaction.

Be on the lookout for updates on when you can expect to receive your new Sawyer Savings Bank EMV chip debit card.

Please bring non-perishable food items to replenish local food pantries that help our communities. All donations stay local.

Saugerties food collected will be donated to the Saugerties Food Pantry

Marlboro food collected will be donated to Lattingtown Baptist Church Food Pantry

Highland food collected will be donated to St. Augustine Food Pantry