Community Bank completes acquisition of HSBC locations

DeWITT — Community Bank has completed its acquisition of 16 HSBC branches across Western, Central, and Northern New York.

The locations opened today as Community Bank branches. The sites were in Adams, Alexandria Bay, Avon, Fulton, Geneseo, Gowanda, Lowville, Newark, Oswego, Palmyra, Plattsburgh, Springville, Watertown, Watkins Glen, and Westfield.

“We are delighted to welcome these 50,000 new customers to Community Bank,” Mark Tryniski, Community Bank CEO, said in a news release. “We have worked hard to make the transition as simple as possible for customers, and I am grateful for the effort put forth by both the Community Bank associates and the HSBC Team and we’re pleased to welcome our new colleagues joining from HSBC.”

The branches were part of the recently closed acquisition of 195 HSBC locations in upstate New York, Westchester County, and Connecticut by First Niagara Bank of Buffalo. First Niagara agreed to sell some HSBC locations and some of its own branches to Community Bank, Five Star Bank, and KeyBank as part of the deal.

Community Bank will acquire another three First Niagara Bank locations in Geneva and Canandaigua in September.

DeWitt–based Community Bank, Inc. (NYSE: CBU) has $7.5 billion in assets and 190 branches in upstate New York and northeastern Pennsylvania. The banking company also operates subsidiaries in employee benefits, insurance, investment management and advising, and wealth management.

For more on this story, see the Aug. 3 issue of The Central New York Business Journal.

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com