M-T Bank Corporation is making a splash in the mid-Atlantic region. It is the holding company of M-T Bank, which offers deposit, loan, trust, investment, brokerage, and insurance services to more than two million individuals and small and midsized business customers. The bank has operates about 775 branches in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, – more... Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, DC, as well as major cities throughout the US. Its residential mortgage origination operations span more than a dozen states in the South and West. The company also manages a proprietary line of mutual funds, the Wilmington Funds. M-T is buying Hudson City Bancorp for some $3.7 billion.

Acquisitions are nothing new for M-T. The company often buys smaller banks in order to expand its reach or solidify its presence in existing markets. It has averaged roughly one acquisition a year since 1990.

The Hudson City acquisition is the latest in a series of transformational deals for the company. It will bring in 135 branches in the New York City metropolitan area and will greatly expand M-T's presence in New Jersey.

The company bought Wilmington Trust Corporation in 2011 for some $350 million. The deal, which added some 50 branches in Delaware, plus two dozen more locations throughout the US, not only grew M-T's banking operations, but should strengthen its wealth management and corporate client businesses as well. The addition helped to boost M-T's 2011 results.

M-T purchased Provident Bankshares for approximately $400 million in stock in 2009. That deal added more than 130 branches, mainly in Maryland and Virginia, to M-T Bank's network. In 2009 and 2010, the company acquired two failed institutions that had been seized by regulators, Bradford Bank and K Bank. The FDIC-assisted deals added about 15 bank branches in Maryland.

Allied Irish Banks (AIB) owned more than 20% of M-T, but divested its interest in 2010 in order to raise capital. It assumed the stake when M-T bought troubled Maryland-based bank Allfirst Financial from AIB in 2003. Now insiders own more than 20% of M-T's stock. – less