CF Bankshares Inc. (CFBK) and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, CFBank, N.A. announced John J. Catalano has joined as President of CFBank Equipment Finance.

Catalano will lead the equipment finance and leasing line of business, reporting directly to the CEO and working closely with all regional commercial banking teams. He has over 30 years of industry experience and has operated at a C-level with CBI Leasing, Inc. (fka The Vaughn Group, Inc.) and Bush Truck Leasing, Inc. with earlier equipment finance experience at Key Bank.  Catalano also has experience managing and consulting to various financial service businesses as well as serving 10 years in the U.S. Army and Army National Guard.  

Based in Cincinnati, OH, Catalano will be charged initially with building a middle-market and small-ticket equipment finance operation serving the equipment financing needs of commercial businesses regionally, as well as providing custom and flexible solutions for the equipment financing needs of existing customers, along with opening doors for new-to-the-company business customers.

Equipment financing is a natural extension of the company’s Commercial Banking services, to which we will bring to the table its familiar way of doing business, which combines being both highly responsive and user-friendly. As a national Commercial Bank, company officials believe the Equipment Financing line of business has the potential to become a national platform, similar to its Mortgage Lending business.

Timothy O'Dell, President and CEO, commented, "We are excited to welcome John Catalano to our CFBank Commercial Team. John's extensive background and experience with successfully building and growing Equipment Financing businesses will allow us to both better serve the equipment financing needs of our CFBank customers, along with opening the doors for us to begin relationships with new Commercial and Business customers."

CFBank is an Ohio-based boutique full-service commercial bank, and national residential mortgage lender. CF has a presence in four major Ohio metro markets including Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and Akron, in addition to operating two Community Bank locations in Eastern Ohio.