First Niagara Financial Group Inc. completed its acquisition of HSBC Bank branches in Connecticut and upstate New York, overnight more than doubling its base of operations in Fairfield County.
HSBC entered the Fairfield County market in 2007, and in just two years built a deposit base of more than $600 million at 10 branches before deciding to divest its area retail banks.
Buffalo-based First Niagara initially entered the Fairfield County market via its acquisition of NewAlliance Bank, picking up eight branches with more than $266 million in deposits as of June 2011 when it announced the HSBC deal. On Monday, May 21, more than 100 former HSBC offices reopened as First Niagara branches, with First Niagara adding 1,200 employees and 500,000 retail customers.
In an April conference call, First Niagara CEO John Koelmel said HSBC had re-domiciled larger corporate deposit balances to its Manhattan offices in advance of the deal”™s close.
“We”™re certainly respectful of the team HSBC has on the ground across the footprint, as with all of our competition, but our results speak for themselves and I remain very comfortable with the opportunity for us to take further share of the commercial market,” Koelmel said. “We typically compete against the larger players, HSBC historically and prospectively being one ”“ so yeah, know that we”™ll continue to actively work that.”
