First Niagara Promotes Jeffrey J. Maddigan To Serve As Treasurer

BUFFALO, N.Y., Oct. 4, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:FNFG) named Jeffrey J. Maddigan, a 19-year veteran of the bank, to serve as its Treasurer, effective immediately.

Prior to this, Maddigan served as Senior Director of Balance Sheet Strategy, overseeing the team responsible for the company's investment portfolio, wholesale funding, capital management, and product pricing.

As Treasurer, Maddigan will now also be responsible for interest rate risk, capital, and liquidity management for the holding company and its bank subsidiary.

"Jeff brings a tremendous depth of knowledge in balance sheet management to the position, as well as an outstanding breadth of experience gained over his nearly two decades with First Niagara," Chief Financial Officer Gregory W. Norwood said. "Jeff has played critical roles in our Treasury activities, including executing our HSBC pre-closing securities strategy and our investment securities portfolio repositioning completed in June.  I look forward to our benefitting even further from his skills and experience in his role as Treasurer."

During his tenure with the company, Maddigan has also served First Niagara in a number of other key finance department roles, including asset-liability management, budgeting and forecasting, and profitability analysis.

An active member of the community, Maddigan is currently a board member, Treasurer and Finance Committee chair at Buffalo's Irish Classical Theatre Company, and he has also served on the Town of Amherst Youth Board and the Lockport YMCA board of directors. Maddigan earned his M.B.A. in finance and his bachelor's degree in accounting from Canisius College. 

About First Niagara

First Niagara, through its wholly owned subsidiary, First Niagara Bank, N.A., is a multi-state community-oriented bank with nearly 430 branches, approximately $35 billion in assets, $28 billion in deposits, and approximately 6,000 employees providing financial services to individuals, families and businesses across Upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.firstniagara.com .

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