M&T Bank is broadening its horizons into the Washington, D.C. and northern Virginia areas with the acquisition of 13 new branches from First Horizon National Corp.
The acquisition include 10 branches in the greater D.C. area including upscale and commercially-heavy locations such as Bethesda and Fairfax County, giving M&T greater access to an estimated 41,000 businesses in that county.
“It literally doubles the size of our branch network in Fairfax County,” said Woody Collins, president of M&T?s Mid-Atlantic division. “We know from our network, we generally do 90 percent of business banking within three miles of a branch. The fact we now have a robust network, we can go after those commercial clients.”
A signed agreement is in place, Collins said, and the transition from First Horizon to M&T will be complete by Nov. 30. First Horizon customers will receive M&T checks and ATM cards by that time.
The purchase is a typical acquisition for M&T Bank, which tends to be a disciplined buyer that only purchases branches at the right price and in the right locations, according to Scot Millen, director of client services for Baltimore-Washington Financial Advisors. Until a few weeks ago, Millen was a vice-president at M&T Bank.
Millen said First Horizon’s Mid-Atlantic franchise may have been a casualty of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, a market in which he said the bank was overextended. He said First Horizon has also sold branches in the Atlanta area, while M&T would continue to seek out growth opportunities in the Baltimore-Washington region.
“This market is the high growth market. The traditional M&T markets in upstate New York just don’t have this kind of growth,” Millen said. “Part of the strategy of M&T has been to be the first or second in a market. I think that’s going to continue to be the strategy to grow the bank’s penetration of this market.”
The exact number of First Horizon customers affected by the buy out has not yet been determined according to M&T spokesman Philip Hosmer, but First Horizon’s 140 employees affected by the switch would be retained, he said.
Collins declined to discuss specific terms of the agreement, but said M&T would take on $226 million of Horizon’s loans, $201 million in deposits, and $136 million in trust assets.
