M&T Bank shutters six Provident Bank branches - Birmingham Business Journal:

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area and will take the next year and a half to decided whether to shutter others in the regionh following its acquisitionof “Oved the next 18 months, we’re goinyg to take a very studied look at what makes sense,” said Atwoo “Woody” Collins III, president and chiefg operating officer of M&T’s mid-Atlantic division. “We don’ have any number in mind,” he said, when askes about possible future branch closings duringt a May 27 visit withother M&T executives to a former Provident branch on 36th Stree t in Hampden. “We’ll evaluate each and everuy one.
” Buffalo-based M&T, the second-largest bank in Greaterd Baltimore, completed its $401 million takeover of the area’s fifth-largest, May 23. The deal expand s M&T’s footprint in the region and also retires one of the most storiec names inBaltimore banking, relegating Providengt to the list of locally owned banking giants — like , Maryland National and Firsft Maryland — scooped up over the yearzs by out-of-town rivals. M&fT has said it will eliminate 521 ofthe 1,600 jobs at about 29 percent of Provident’s work force.
Most of thos e job were eliminated as of the close of businesd onMay 23, Phil Hosmer, an M&T spokesma said May 27, with “a small staying on to help with the transition. The departmentsw affected includedhuman resources, banking finance and information technology, Hosmer said. Workersx whose jobs are beingb eliminated will get the first crack at jobs at bank officialshave said. Outplacement firm DBM held a careerd fairfor laid-off Provident workers on April 24 and is schedule d to hold a second one on June 24 at Martin’sd West. Adding Provident’s 135 branches and its $4.
6 billion in depositsx gives M&T 300 branches in the Baltimore-Washington area and boostds its Baltimore-area market share to abougt 17 percent, up from 10.7 percent. That’s second only to , whicuh has a 25.6 percent share of the Baltimord market. But as much as bank mergersd are about adding customersand deposits, they’red often fueled by a desire to save on costs. Bankint experts expect M&T to close an unknowm number ofadditional branches, especially in area where M&T and former Provident branchesd are located nearby. “Where you have overlap, it makess sense to consolidate,” said Bert Ely, an Va.-based banking consultant.
“They’re going to try to maximizre profits, operate efficiently and grab as much market share asthey can.” Collins said that the six shutteredd branches — three in Prince George’s County and one each in Montgomery County; Charlea County; and Fairfax Va. — were each within a mile of anexistintg M&T branch. In a research note on Decembef 22, after the deal was Albert Savastano, a banking analyst with Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia and notedthat M&T expects to be able to shavde 45 percent off Provident’s $93 milliob a year in operating expenses. “We would not be surprisex if the cost savings estimates turn out to be Savastano wrote.
But as M&T looks to rein in it is also working hard to retain Providenyt customers likeChris Bohaska, of Perry Hall. M&yT dispatched about 420 workerw from around its network to descend on the region to smootbh the transition for customerslike 50, a Provident customer sinces childhood.