Regulators approve merger between M&T and People’s United banks

Regulators in Connecticut and New York have approved the merger between Buffalo-based M&T Bank and People United Bank, which is headquartered in Bridgeport.

News of the regulatory approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services and the Connecticut Department of Banking came Thursday after the close of U.S. financial markets to complete the merger of M&T Bank with People's United Bank. Officials with M&T said the merger was unanimously approved by both regulatory agencies.

The deal, which shareholders of both banks approved in May, is still awaiting federal regulatory approval, according to Maya Dillon, an M&T spokeswoman. She declined further comment when reached Thursday evening.

The $6.7 billion deal was announced earlier and raised the ire of state political leaders when M&T filed a notice with the

Connecticut Department of Labor in July that it planned to lay off 747 employees starting this month and continuing through May 20, 2022.

M&T pledged to retain approximately 80 percent of People’s United workforce, which was at 5,600 when the announcement of the layoffs was first made. That pledge included a promise to retain all of the 1,068 People’s United employees who deal with the public.

M&T officials also said they would keep at least 1,000 people in Bridgeport within a year after the two banks merge their computer systems in February 2022.

John Carusone, president of the Bank Analysis Center, a Hartford-based industry consulting firm, said among the approvals that must be obtained for the merger to be completed are the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Department of Justice, which will review the deal to determine if it is anti-competitive. He said there are safeguards in place that would prevent M&T from reneging on the promises it has made.

“They have to file a business plan, a plan of reorganization with all the regulatory agencies,” Carusone said. “In those plans, they have to layout what the implications the merger will have to all of the local economies served by People’s United. They would risk a tremendous loss of confidence with regulators if they were to be cute and deviate from that plan in any way.”

Carusone said he is surprised there hasn’t been more community activism surrounding the deal in an effort to extract more concessions as part of the merger.

“It’s disappointing that these transactions have become so ho-hum, so run of the mill that activists aren’t really paying attention to them,” he said.

In addition to New York, M&T has banking offices in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.