Suffolk Bancorp gets new financial officer

Suffolk Bancorp Tuesday announced a new chief financial officer to replace one who resigned after accounting issues led to late filing of some financial reports and almost resulted in the company stock being delisted by the Nasdaq Market.

The Riverhead-based parent of the 30-branch Suffolk County National Bank said it has hired Brian K. Finneran, 54, formerly of State Bancorp, where he had been chief financial officer since 1997. State was recently acquired by Valley National Bancorp, of New Jersey, which has its own chief financial officer. "There were going to be limited opportunities in that organization for me," Finneran said Tuesday.

Finneran joins Suffolk Bancorp with the additional title of executive vice president. His new job had been open since June 24, when the previous chief financial officer resigned.

Finneran's appointment follows by about a month the arrival of a new president and chief executive, Howard C. Bluver, who replaced J. Gordon Huszagh, a 29-year employee of the bank who left saying he believed that "a change in leadership would be in the best interest of our loyal stockholders."

Suffolk faces at least three shareholder suits and a low-level Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry regarding its late filing of certain financial reports and the impact on stock prices. A few weeks after Bluver's arrival at Suffolk, on Jan. 25, the bank announced it was switching accounting firms, hiring BDO USA Llp to replace Grant Thornton Llp.

Suffolk announced Dec. 21 that it filed overdue results for the third quarter of last year showing a profit of $3 million or 32 cents a share, compared with a restated loss for the period in 2010 of $3.1 million or 32 cents a share. It also filed results for last year's first and second quarters, as well as restated results for 2010's third quarter.

It filed results for last year's fourth quarter and full year on time last month, saying its profits fell by 62 percent in the final three months of last year from a year earlier and that, for all of last year, it lost $76,000. It was profitable in three of last year's four quarters.

The bank has 407 full- and part-time workers or 366 full-time equivalents.

A Queens native now of Garden City, Finneran holds an MBA from Pace University. He worked part time in college for the former Irving Trust bank in Manhattan and for a year at the former National Westminster in West Hempstead before joining State in 1990.

Suffolk's shares closed Tuesday on the Nasdaq at $12.98, up 27 cents.