First Niagara in New York Forms Banking Region

First Niagara (FNFG) in Buffalo has created a banking region that includes branches it bought last year from HSBC.

The $38 billion-asset company said Wednesday that it had formed a region comprising the Lower Hudson Valley of New York; Fairfield County, Conn.; and northern New Jersey. First Niagara's Nyack, N.Y., branch will serve as the regional headquarters, supported by a branch in Norwalk, Conn. First Niagara said it is conducting a search for a regional president and other leadership positions.

This will be First Niagara's fifth geographic region. The others are upstate New York, western Pennsylvania, southeastern Pennsylvania and New England.

First Niagara bought over 100 branches in upstate New York and Connecticut from HSBC in a $1 billion deal that closed last May, adding more than 1200 employees and over 500,000 customers in the region, it said in the press release. The newly formed region will emphasize commercial lending, First Niagara said.

"The Tri-State market provides an exciting opportunity to better serve retail customers and expand our commercial lending business across this newly organized market footprint," David Ring, First Niagara's managing director of enterprise banking, said in the press release.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Community banking M&A
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER