Final hurdle cleared in People’s bank acquisition
M&T Bank’s acquisition of Connecticut’s People’s United Bank cleared its final regulatory hurdle Friday, with the Board of Governors of The Federal Reserve voting unanimously to approve the $7.6 billion deal.
The board’s 45-page ruling came two weeks after Bridgeport-based People’s United and M&T moved to extend the closing date of the deal to June 1.
The deal is now expected to close within several weeks.
Officials at M&T acknowledged the Federal Reserve approval of the deal, but offered no further comment.
In a letter to shareholders released March 1, M&T’s chief executive officer and chairman Rene Jones said the merger will serve Connecticut and New England, which he said have seen population loss and slower economic growth than the rest of the country.
“Ours may not be the markets that garner attention for their high growth and new migrants from other U.S. regions,” Jones wrote in the letter. “But, nonetheless, they comprise 22 percent of the U.S. population and an even greater share (25 percent) of GDP. We both understand that the Northeast remains a vital region, marked not only by places that have lagged, but also by areas of exceptional affluence, from Fairfield County, Connecticut to Bethesda and Boston.”
None of Connecticut’s elected leaders commented Friday on the Federal Reserve action.
M&T Bank does business in Connecticut and 10 other states as well as the District of Columbia, according to the Federal Reserve filing. When the deal closes, the merged banks will have 157 branches in Connecticut.
When the deal closes, M&T will become the 17thlargest insured depository
organization in the United States, with consolidated assets of approximately $215.6 billion, according to the federal filing. The bank would control consolidated deposits of approximately $181.6 billion, which would represent approximately 1 percent of the total amount of deposits of insured depository institutions in the United States.