One of Connecticut’s largest independent banks, People’s United, is be acquired by M&T Bank based in Buffalo, NY in a $7.6 billion deal. M&T says it will site its New England headquarters at People’s current Bridgeport base, and acquire more than 400 new branches throughout New England - 170 of them in Connecticut.
M&T CEO René Jones described the rationale for the deal on a Monday conference call.
"Not only are our geographies complementary, so to are the talent, the product sets and the credit cultures, creating a solid platform that we can collectively build upon," he told analysts.
But the deal will bring with it $330 million cuts to achieve cost savings. Executives said that customer facing employees will likely be retained, but they did not give a number either for job losses or branch closures.
