By Mary Beth Roach
The path that led Pamela Caraccioli to her current role as president and CEO of the Fulton Savings Bank has been atypical.
She had been serving on the Fulton Savings Bank’s board of directors since 2015 and was tapped for this leadership position in 2021, upon her retirement as deputy to the president at SUNY Oswego.
“At the time I was asked to serve as president and CEO, I had zero expectations I was being considered and even questioned how the board arrived at this decision,” she said in an email statement. “I’m not a CPA nor do I have a finance background, but I think the board recognized my commitment to our community, as well as the culture of our institution with the impending retirement of longstanding CEO Michael Pollock.”
She credited Pollock with helping to change the culture of the bank, pointing out that five of the seven leadership positions at the bank are filled
with women.
“Without question, his gut and intuition were solid, as he knew this was the talent needed to move the bank forward,” she said.
Caraccioli’s focus on the community remains a primary focus for her. She sees her main responsibility as providing accountability to customers, employees, her fellow trustees and to the community as a whole, since the bank has a local and regional impact, she explained.
“It is truly humbling to sit in this role where decisions affect so many lives, particularly in one of our high growth areas — home mortgages. I wholeheartedly believe that homeownership is one of the most impactful decisions made by individuals that directly contributes to the health of both the community and economy,” she said.
She remains mindful of the bank’s role to its customers and the community as she assesses its achievements over the past few years and looks forward to future endeavors.
She described how one of her first tasks was working toward moving all of the bank’s customer service representatives and tellers to a single “universal banker role.” Today, she said, those roles are “100% cross-trained throughout our branch footprint and while this has been challenging for employees, I believe they now understand how important this is for our customers and our institution.”
She added that the bank’s six branches will be “retrofitted to embody this transition,” with the Baldwinsville branch being the first one to have universal banker workstations. “Customers will not be confused or second-guess where they need to go when they come into the bank, as these state-of-the-art, customer-friendly, handicapped-accessible and obvious service areas are the first line of sight when they walk through the door,” Caraccioli said.
Like many of her female colleagues, she believes that women in banking’s C-suites are increasing, reflecting the shift in customer trends.
As earlier noted, societal changes in the 1960s and then legislation in 1974 made it possible for women to get bank accounts and credit cards in their own name. Caraccioli said that she believes that Fulton Savings Bank was the first bank in the county to appoint a female, Carolyn Rush, to its board of directors. Calling Rush a trailblazer, Caraccioli said, “I feel both lucky and privileged to count her as a mentor and colleague from the county, SUNY Oswego and Fulton Savings Bank.”
“Women in leadership positions in the financial services industry certainly bring additional perspective as our customers are also shifting—and it’s our responsibility to both anticipate and understand these shifts,” she said.
She cited an article in Forbes magazine that noted there will be an “unprecedented shift of finances over the next 20 years,” adding that “my gut tells me that this wealth transfer will increasingly include women. Just look around and you will see that the decision-makers in many households are female.”
She further noted this shift on both the state and national levels, with Adrienne Harris leading the New York State Department of Financial Services, Rebeca Romero Rainey heading the Independent Community Bankers of America and Clare Cusack as president and CEO of the New York Bankers Association.
