ITHACA — Tompkins Financial Corp. (NYSE Amex: TMP) closed its acquisition of VIST Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: VIST) of Wyomissing, Pa. on Aug. 1 and Tompkins’ leader says the banking company’s top priority moving ahead is clear.

“Our job one is to get this right,” Tompkins Financial President and CEO Stephen Romaine says. “We need to integrate this properly and make it grow and make sure it provides all the benefits we feel there will be.”

Tompkins Financial first announced its plans to acquire VIST in January in an all-stock deal worth $86 million. It’s the first push into Pennsylvania for Ithaca–based Tompkins.

Although the priority in the months ahead will be integration, more acquisitions in the market could emerge in the future, Romaine says.

“We feel we will be well positioned to take advantage of other opportunities down the line in that market,” he says.

Tompkins Financial was able to retain most of VIST’s 300 employees and add them to its work force of 750. Romaine also expects to retain “the lion’s share” of VIST deposits.

Tompkins Financial, based in Ithaca, operates 46 offices in the Central, Western, and Hudson Valley regions of New York through three subsidiary banks: Tompkins Trust Co., The Bank of Castile, and Mahopac National Bank. The company also owns insurance and wealth-management subsidiaries and has total assets of more than $3.5 billion.

VIST Financial had $1.4 billion in total assets, $1.2 billion in deposits, and 

$960 million in loans. It’s the parent of VIST Bank, VIST Insurance, and VIST Capital Management.

VIST Bank operates as a community bank with 21 branch offices in southeastern Pennsylvania, serving Berks, Montgomery, Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, and Schuylkill counties. VIST now operates as a Tompkins subsidiary with local leadership.

Tompkins Financial now has $5 billion in total assets, $3.8 billion in deposits, 

$2.9 billion in loans, and 67 branches.

Tompkins Financial and VIST employees have been working together since the companies publicly announced the deal, Romaine notes. Bank leaders have been encouraged by the cultural fit between the organizations, he says.

That fit is one of Tompkins’ prime filters when considering acquisitions, Romaine adds.

“We feel good about where it’s headed,” he says.

Southeast Pennsylvania had been on Tompkins Financial’s radar screen for several years, Romaine says. It’s about the same distance as Mahopac National Bank’s market area in the Hudson Valley.

For the second quarter, Tompkins Financial earned $8.8 million, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier. Earnings per share for the period totaled 72 cents, down from 85 cents in the second quarter of 2011.

Expenses of $703,000 related to the VIST acquisition helped push profit down. The company also recorded $243,000 after-tax income related to reversal of a liability involved with a recent settlement of litigation between VISA, Inc. and certain merchants.

Excluding the merger expenses and after-tax income, Tompkins earned $9.3 million, or 76 cents per share, for the quarter.

VIST hasn’t released earnings for the first or second quarter this year.                   

DeWITT — The addition of 16 HSBC branches across Western, Central, and Northern New York will help Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE: CBU) grow in markets where it already has a strong foothold, the company’s CFO says.

DeWitt–based Community Bank completed its acquisition of the locations in July. All the branches are in markets where the bank is already a player or where it has a nearby presence, CFO Scott Kingsley says.

Community Bank leaders say they know their approach works in those markets and the acquisition will help the bank grow its business in those communities.

“We’re big believers in the power of density,” Kingsley says.

The new branch offices are in Adams, Alexandria Bay, Avon, Fulton, Geneseo, Gowanda, Lowville, Newark, Oswego, Palmyra, Plattsburgh, Springville, Watertown, Watkins Glen, and Westfield. The branches brought Community Bank $697 million in deposits and $107 million in loans.

All of the offices were part of the recently completed acquisition of 195 HSBC locations in upstate New York, Westchester County, and Connecticut by First Niagara Bank of Buffalo.

First Niagara made deals with Community Bank, KeyBank, and Five Star Bank (based in Warsaw, NY — east of Buffalo) to sell off some of the HSBC branches involved as well as some of its own offices. The bank made the divestitures to comply with anti-trust rules.

First Niagara leaders also said some of the branches were in markets, including the North Country, where they were not interested in competing.

In addition to the HSBC locations, Community Bank will acquire three First Niagara locations in Geneva and Canandaigua in September as part of the same deal. Community Bank leaders decided to separate the two groups of branches because the acquisition involves conversions from two different technical systems, Kingsley says.

It made sense to space them out, he notes.

After adding the HSBC locations, Community Bank 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.

Community Bank has a strong track record of retaining the customers it picks up in acquisitions, Kingsley says. A year after Community Bank’s 2011 purchase of Wilber National Bank of Oneonta and its 22 branches, the deposit base at those locations was actually higher, he adds.

And in Community Bank’s 2008 acquisition of 18 branches in Northern New York from Citizens Financial Group, Inc., the bank retained 99 percent of the deposit base.

The HSBC deal includes somewhat higher risk for customer defections, Kingsley says. The acquisition involved a number of moving parts and the multiple deals sparked confusion among some customers over whether they would end up at First Niagara, KeyBank, Five Star, or Community Bank.

The deal added 120 employees to Community Bank, which now employs more than 1,800 people. Community Bank was able to retain nearly all of the HSBC employees involved, Kingsley says.

The bank may look to consolidate some of the branches in the deal with existing locations, but Community leaders generally prefer to make those decisions after they have a chance to gauge customer traffic and response at the new branches, Kingsley says.

Even if some locations close down the line, Kingsley says Community Bank would probably have a spot for all affected employees.

Community Bank has been able to expand in the current banking and economic environment even as other banks have pulled back by paring their branch networks or trimming expenses.

“We haven’t been slowed down by that,” Kingsley says.

Community’s performance has been stable and earnings have increased in one of the more challenging periods for the banking industry in recent years, he adds. In addition, bank leaders talk with potential acquisition targets even before a definite opportunity to buy them arises.

It’s not a conversation to be had with just anyone, Kingsley says, but if Community’s executives see a potential match, they explore it proactively.

The strategy has positioned the banking company well for expansion, he contends.    

SYRACUSE — KeyBank’s plan to close as much as 5 percent of its nationwide branch network over the next 18 months isn’t likely to hit Central New York too hard, the bank’s local leader says.

The branch closings will probably have an “incremental” impact locally, says Stephen Fournier, president of KeyBank’s Central New York district. He notes the bank has worked steadily to keep its area branches in line with business conditions.

Key closed a location in Dannemora (near Plattsburgh) earlier this year, for example. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Key has more than 1,000 branches in 14 states and assets of more than $87 billion.

The bank has looked to invest in Central New York in the past and will continue to do so, Fournier says. KeyBank is currently adding a new branch office in Manlius and has relocated branches in Cazenovia and Fayetteville to new sites in recent years.

Fournier declined to discuss any specific details of local branch closings or job cuts. When branches do close, the bank tries to find positions for affected employees elsewhere within Key, he says.

Closing some locations will help Key reposition its network to better fit where customer traffic and population trends are headed, Fournier adds.

“We’re pretty pleased as far as where we are,” he says of Key’s Central New York business. “We’re pretty bullish in light of demand and what’s going on nationally.”

The bank has continued to see loan growth and improving credit quality, he says.

The branch closures are part of a broader effort at KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) to save the banking company $150 million to 

$200 million in expenses by the end of 2013. The company announced the initiative when it released its second-quarter earnings on July 19.

The cost-cutting moves will also include a focus on organizational design and strategic sourcing, according to Key.

“This is a proactive and purposeful response to the changes that continue to take place in our industry,” Key Chairwoman and CEO Beth Mooney said during a conference call on the company’s second-quarter results.

The effort will help Key become more efficient and allow the bank to respond more quickly to changes in its markets, she added.

“In the face of the present environment, we recognize the need to rationalize branches while repositioning them in a way that allows us to provide convenience for customers where they are,” William Koehler, president of Key’s community bank operations, said during the conference call.

The bank will continue to invest in priority markets, he added. Key has already taken steps to close 17 branches as part of the cost-cutting effort, he said.

KeyBank is number two in the Syracuse–area deposit market with 28 branch offices, more than $1.7 billion in deposits, and a market share of more than 16 percent. In the Utica–Rome area, Key has two branches, more than $64.4 million in deposits, and a deposit market share of more than 1.7 percent, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

For the second quarter, Key generated net income from continuing operations attributable to common shareholders of 

$221 million in the second quarter, down from $243 million a year earlier.

Earnings per share for the period totaled 23 cents, down from 26 cents in the second quarter of 2011.

During the quarter, Key completed an acquisition of 37 HSBC locations in the Buffalo and Rochester markets.