The Rise and Fall of First Niagara Bank
First Niagara Bank was at a time Federal Deposit Insurance Company-Covered regional Banking Organization. Its headquarters was situated in Buffalo, New York.
As of June 30, 2013, its parent corporation, First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. was ranked the number 44 among the largest banks in the United States with assets worth over $37.1 billion.
History
The company was founded in 1870 as Farmers and Mechanics’ Savings Bank. It was then renamed Lockport Savings Bank in 1967.
The bank was again renamed First Niagara in 2000. Formerly, the bank was situated in its home county, Niagara till in the 1990s when it grew and spread to the nearby county, Buffalo, New York, and its environs Erie County.
This fast growth could have contributed to the collapse of the Empire of America and the Buffalo-centric banks Global.
Though the bank purchased the Warren-Hoffman & Associates Inc., an insurance brokerage company, its growth was not associated with the purchase of other company's assets but by the recruitment of new customers.
Corporation Affairs
The company is headed by Gary M. Crosby (CEO and the President), Joe Saffire (Executive Vice President), Greg Norwood, Chief Financial Officer, and Mark Rendulic, the Executive Vice President.
The company mainly deals with financial services. Its total assets are estimated to be worth $40. 02 billion as of 2016.
The company has more than 5,000 employees. It is traded as NASDAQ: FNFG. The company used to a public company before it was acquired by KeyBank.
Its current headquarters is located at Larkin Terminal Warehouse 726 Exchange Street Buffalo in New York. It serves the Mid-Atlantic, New England.
Acquisitions
Ever since its inception, the company has acquired some of the most successful financial service companies which include:
i. National City
The company agreed to buy 57 branches of National City branches in Western Pennsylvania from PNC Financial Services on April 7, 2009. They officially took over the branches from National City on September 8.
This was after National City suffered losses in the subprime mortgage crisis. As required by the United States Department of Justice, PNC had to sell 50 National City branches in Pittsburgh and 11 more branches in Erie to its competitors.
ii. Harleysville National
On July 27, 2009, the company also agreed with the Harleysville National Corporation to acquire its Philadelphia-based financial services company in an all-stock transaction valued at about US$ 237 million ($5.5 per share).
This deal provided First Niagara with approximately $5.6 billion in assets, $3.6 billion in loans and $4.1 billion in deposits across their 83 branches in nine Eastern Pennsylvania counties.
iii. HSBC
The company again on July 31, 2011, announced that they would purchase of close to half of UK-based Company, HSBC Holdings plc's USA branch network.
This included 195 branches for a price of US$1 billion.
This deal expanded its presence in the Northeastern U.S. The deal nearly doubled the company’s branch network to approximately 450 branches, US$ 30 billion in bank deposits and US$ 38 billion in assets.
Sum Up
The acquisition of HSBC came with its disadvantages. First Niagara was required by the United States Department of Justice to dissociate itself of 26 branches.
This made the company spin off 64 branches, KeyBank acquiring 37, Community Bank 19 and Five Star Bank taking 8.
On October 30, 2015, the company finally settled on agreements to be acquired by KeyCorp.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Niagara_Bank
https://www.key.com/personal/index.jsp