M&T Bank profit slips 6 percent in the third quarter

BUFFALO, N.Y. — M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB), the Syracuse area’s largest bank ranked by deposit market share, earned $275 million, or $1.91 a share, in the third quarter. That’s down more than 6 percent from $294 million, or $2.11 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Buffalo–based M&T Bank announced its third-quarter results in a news release distributed on Friday. Its stock price fell $3.30, or 2.8 percent, to $112.86 on the day.

Last year’s third-quarter profit included after-tax gains of $34 million from loan-securitization transactions that added 26 cents of earnings per share to that quarter’s results, M&T noted.

M&T Bank generated revenue of more than $743 million during this year’s third quarter, which is up from the more than $742 million in revenue generated during the same quarter in 2013.

Revenue levels were largely unchanged from this year’s second quarter, when M&T generated revenue of more than $734 million.

“Average loans grew modestly and fee income declined slightly from the strong second quarter performance. Most important was the substantial progress we have made on our key initiatives related to strengthening M&T’s BSA/AML, compliance and risk management infrastructure,” Rene Jones, vice chairman and CFO, said in the news release. “That progress led to the continuation of an elevated level of operating expenses, but we firmly believe that our decision to invest in these initiatives is money well-spent. Significantly, credit quality remained quite strong, as reflected in lower levels of nonperforming loans and net charge-offs when compared with the previous quarter.”

BSA / AML is short for Bank Secrecy Act / Anti-Money Laundering, a compliance program with a manual providing guidance on identifying and controlling risks associated with money laundering and terrorist financing, according to the online manual.

M&T Bank had total assets of more than $97 billion on Sept. 30, up 15 percent from the more than $84 billion a year earlier.

Loans and leases totaled more than $65 billion on Sept. 30, which is $1.9 billion, or 3 percent, higher than the more than $63 billion total a year earlier.

Total deposits rose 12 percent to more than $74 billion at the conclusion of the most recent quarter, up from the more than $66 billion a year ago.

M&T Bank ranks first in deposit market share in the Syracuse metro area, with $2.7 billion in deposits and a 24.1 percent market share, according to June 30, 2014 statistics from the FDIC, the latest data available. It has 30 branch offices in the area.

M&T also ranks first in deposit market share in the full 16-county Central New York area with $5.1 billion in deposits and a 19.6 percent market share, operating from 67 branch offices, according to the latest FDIC data.

M&T is a financial holding company headquartered in Buffalo. M&T’s principal banking subsidiary, M&T Bank, operates banking offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. 

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com