M&T Bank Corp. has quietly established a presence in Stamford, the New York giant”™s first in Connecticut, even as both states brace for details on Bank of America Corp.”™s plan to close branches nationwide.
Bank of America said last week it would cut 30,000 jobs nationally, with the Wall Street Journal reporting the number could hit the 40,000 mark over multiple years. The higher number would amount to a 14 percent reduction in its current workforce, with Bank of America saying some of the cuts would be achieved through normal workforce attrition.
After entering the Fairfield County market in 2004 via the acquisition of Fleet Bank, Bank of America initially saw slight attrition in its deposit market share here, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. passing it on that front. Last year, however, Bank of America held its ground on deposits as Chase and People’s United Financial Inc. both lost market share, with Wells Fargo gaining deposit market share following its acquisition of Wachovia.
M&T ranks among the seven largest banks in New York according to deposits, but in neighboring Westchester County it holds only a token presence while Chase has a commanding market share. Still, with 16,000 employees in seven states and the District of Columbia, M&T numbers among the largest regional banks in the nation.
M&T”™s first Connecticut office is at 4 High Ridge Park. As first reported by Buffalo Business First, that was previously an office for Wilmington Trust Wealth Advisory Services Inc., which M&T acquired last May. An M&T spokesman told the newspaper M&T has no plans at present to rebrand Wilmington Trust under the M&T motif but is considering offering more traditional commercial banking products, presumably to include loans.
If M&T moves ahead on that front, it would introduce a formidable new competitor to the Fairfield County market on the heels of First Niagara Financial Group Inc., which this year acquired NewAlliance Bank.
M&T touts its conservative lending profile, saying it suffered the lowest level of credit losses in the Great Recession among the 20 largest commercial banks in the nation.
M&T did see a “modest” uptick in commercial and industrial (C&I) loans through mid-summer, according to CFO René Jones in a conference call to review the bank”™s second-quarter results.
“As loan demand has remained weak, pricing is pretty competitive,” Jones said. “Real estate ”¦ seems slow, but I would caution you on that because there”™s still a lot of pay-downs, right? And we”™ve got loans that we”™re working out. Also in the quarter, we had a number of ”˜participation outs,”™ sort of credits that were in the process of being participated or syndicated. So there”™s probably very modest growth in C&I.”
Bankers throughout the region agree commercial and industrial loan demand is weakening, according to researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and said they were tightening their standards for commercial mortgages and loans. As reported this month by the Fairfield County Business Journal, Connecticut banks slashed overall loans outstanding by $4.7 billion in the second quarter, along with 1,000 jobs.
Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated the status of Wells Fargo’s deposit market share in Fairfield County.
