M&T Bank's Bohemia branch will help its middle market lenders

Long Island Business News, Mar 25, 2005 by David Reich-Hale

Brian Stone used to work for Washington Mutual, a bank that has plenty of bank branches throughout Long Island. So he's keenly aware how middle-market lenders are assisted by having a solid branch network.

Now the middle-market manager for Long Island at M&T Bank, Stone said that the Buffalo-based bank's decision to open a branch in Bohemia will help bring his group new business.

Anytime you have a branch in a place where there's a lot of middle-market businesses, it's a big help, Stone said. That, like Hauppauge, is a hotbed of middle-market businesses.

It's a very competitive market, so every bit helps, and when you have a branch in the community, you're in front of them, added Stone, who, along with five of his cohorts, joined M&T in October after Washington Mutual pulled out of the market. People know who you are. Branches give you a competitive advantage.

M&T is competing in that space against some of Long Island's banking giants, such as North Fork, Citibank and J.P. Morgan Chase. Each of those three has a proliferation of branches on Long Island. On the other hand, Bohemia is the site of M&T's seventh branch.

M&T is a well known bank in Western New York and it makes a good living in middle-market lending, according to its earnings reports. It has $52 billion in assets and 650 branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. And 24 percent of its revenue is derived from its middlemarket business.

But on Long Island, its middle market lending was minimal until the former Washington Mutual employees came on board, said Kevin Pearson, M&T regional president for metropolitan New York.

Pearson wouldn't say what percentage of Long Island's business comes from middle-market lending. He also wouldn't say how much business Stone brought over from Washington Mutual.

Pearson, however, said that more bank branches will be opened on Long Island - though it won't be an aggressive push.

Our key to branch expansion is defining areas that have a high concentration of business, Pearson said.

He wouldn't identify where M&T was headed next.