first niagara financial group type subsidary traded as nasdaq fnfg industry banking and finance fate acquired by keybank founded lockport new york 1870 headquarters larkin terminal warehouse 726 exchange street buffalo new york area served mid atlantic new england key people gary m. crosby president and ceo 1 joe saffire executive vice president greg norwood chief financial officer mark rendulic executive vice president products financial services total assets 40.02 billion 2016 2 number of employees 5 000 parent keybank first niagara financial group website www.firstniagara.com first niagara bank is a federal deposit insurance corporation insured regional banking corporation headquartered in the larkin terminal warehouse in buffalo new york . its parent company first niagara financial group inc. is the 44th largest bank in the united states with assets of over 37.1 billion as of june 30 2013 . 3 contents 1 history 2 21st century growth 2.1 national city 2.2 harleysville national 2.3 hsbc deal expands presence in northeastern u.s. 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit it was founded in 1870 as farmers and mechanics savings bank and was then re branded as lockport savings bank in 1967 . in 2000 the bank was rebranded as first niagara . the bank was based in its former home county niagara until the 1990s when it spread to nearby buffalo new york and its surrounding erie county . part of this growth could be attributed to the collapse of the buffalo centric banks goldome and empire of america . 4 most of this growth was from the recruitment of new customers as opposed to the purchase of other firms assets . although in 1998 the bank did purchase the regional insurance brokerage firm warren hoffman & associates inc. as a means of entering the insurance business . 5 first niagara headquarters located in the lco building buffalo . in september 2007 it was announced that first niagara was to purchase great lakes bancorp parent company of greater buffalo savings bank . the price to purchase the 16 branch bank was 153 million . with the nearly 900 million of assets of the great lakes bancorp first niagara became the fourth largest bank in the buffalo niagara region 1 2 . in april 2009 first niagara acquired 57 of the 61 of national city branches in erie and pittsburgh pennsylvania . they were rebranded on labor day weekend in 2009 . in conjunction with the expansion into pittsburgh first niagara bought the naming rights for a concert venue first niagara pavilion . in april 2010 first niagara financial group acquired pennsylvania based harleysville national . this created a bank with 19.7 billion in assets 254 branches and approximately 13.7 billion in deposits . in august 2010 first niagara announced its acquisition of newalliance bank of connecticut . 6 the stock holders approved the merger in december 2010 and the transaction closed on april 15 2011 . this provided first niagara with over 340 branches and 500 atms . on july 31 2011 first niagara announced that it had bought all of hsbc s upstate new york branches for 1 billion . 7 this included the bulk of what had been first niagara s longtime rival in western new york marine midland bank . on august 25 2011 first niagara bought the naming rights for hsbc arena in buffalo renaming it the first niagara center . 8 on october 30 2015 first niagara bank agreed to be acquired by keycorp . 9 18 branches in erie and niagara counties will be sold to northwest savings bank for antitrust reasons . 10 21st century growth edit national city edit on april 7 2009 first niagara agreed to buy 57 national city branches in western pennsylvania from pnc financial services 11 and officially took over those branches on september 8 after the signs were changed over from national city during labor day weekend . 12 a first niagara branch in cranberry township pennsylvania along u.s. route 19 just off the pennsylvania turnpike . this is a former national city branch . pnc which had acquired national city in late 2008 with money from the 700 billion bailout plan after national city suffered losses in the subprime mortgage crisis was required by the united states department of justice to sell 50 national city branches in the pittsburgh area and 11 more branches in and around erie to competitors 13 since the two banks had significant overlap in western pennsylvania pnc and national city were number 1 and 2 in market share respectively 14 and had potential antitrust issues in the area . even after the sale was completed pnc retained a market leading 46 % share in the pittsburgh market with citizens financial group in a distant second at 13 % . 11 a dark horse candidate the sale to first niagara was considered a surprise considering that pnc was also in negotiations with much larger banks such as jpmorgan chase wells fargo fifth third bank keybank huntington bancshares and fnb corporation for the branches . 15 fifth third huntington & fnb had existing branches in the market while jpmorgan chase s retail banking division & key were in adjacent territories and wells fargo was in the process of expanding its eastern u.s. operations by way of its acquisition of wachovia . before the deal was announced first niagara was thought to be interested only in the erie area national city branches . 15 first niagara branch footprint as of march 2013 . first niagara which had been eyeing an expansion into pittsburgh for some time 11 was immediately ranked third in market share at 8 % ahead of the longer established dollar bank and first commonwealth bank at six and five percent respectively . 11 first niagara retained all national city employees at the acquired branches in the pittsburgh and erie areas and established a regional office in downtown pittsburgh s 11 stanwix street tower . 11 first niagara was outbid for the four branches in crawford county pennsylvania that pnc had to divest . 16 of those four one branch in titusville was sold to emclaire financial group 17 while the other three one in conneaut lake the other two in meadville including the branch inside wal mart were sold to marquette savings bank . 18 on august 4 2009 first niagara agreed to take over the automatic teller machines atms at 95 sheetz locations throughout western pennsylvania replacing m & t bank which doesn t have any bank branches in the region . 19 the atms which officially become first niagara atms at the same time first niagara took over the former national city branches will be surcharge free from first niagara itself though people using the atms may still be charged a foreign atm fee from their primary financial institution if they charge such fees . first niagara has stated that it does have some holes in the pittsburgh metropolitan area with pnc still retaining 110 national city branches in the area and is completely absent from beaver & lawrence county . aside from the aforementioned sheetz atm deal first niagara didn t buy any national city branches in those areas since pnc was able to keep the national city branches as there were no existing pnc branches in the two counties . first niagara is looking at acquiring some former national city branches pnc will close due to close proximity to an existing pnc branch since first niagara does have the right of first refusal to buy any shuttered national city branches . first niagara may also buy out a smaller local bank . 20 harleysville national edit on july 27 2009 first niagara agreed to acquire the philadelphia area based harleysville national corporation financial services company in an all stock transaction valued at approximately us 237 000 000 or 5.50 per share allowing first niagara its first access to the philadelphia market . 21 the deal provided first niagara with 5.6 billion in assets including 3.6 billion in loans and 4.1 billion in deposits in 83 bank branches in nine eastern pennsylvania counties . the parent company of harleysville national bank also operates east penn bank millennium wealth management and cornerstone companies . first niagara maintained all harleysville national and east penn branches and the pennsylvania company s growing commercial banking and wealth management business . harleysville had over 1 100 employees . the deal was completed on april 9 2010 . 22 hsbc deal expands presence in northeastern u.s. edit on july 31 2011 first niagara announced it would purchase from uk based hsbc holdings plc nearly half of its hsbc bank usa branch network including 195 branches for a price of us 1 billion . of these 183 branches are in upstate new york six in new york city suburbs and six in connecticut ; most of these branches had been part of buffalo based marine midland bank before being re branded to hsbc bank usa in the late 1990s . the deal included us 15 billion in deposits us 2.8 billion in loans and us 4.3 billion in assets under management . the deal also nearly doubled first niagara s branch network to about 450 branches us 38 billion in assets and us 30 billion in deposits . pending regulatory approval the deal will close in early 2012 . investors had complained that hsbc had spread itself too thinly with roughly 95 million customers and 300 000 employees in 87 markets . as a result of the acquisition the united states department of justice required first niagara to divest itself of 26 branches . 23 first niagara ended up spinning off 64 branches ; 37 to keybank 19 to community bank and 8 to five star bank . 24 on october 30 2015 first niagara bank agreed to be acquired by keycorp . 9 see also edit bank of holland m & t bank references edit epstein jonathan 19 march 2013 . first niagara replaces koelmel as ceo . the buffalo news . retrieved 20 march 2013 . http www.forbes.com global2000 list 8 header assets sortreverse true search first % 20niagara top 50 holding companies hcs as of 06 30 2013 . . united states federal reserve national information center . retrieved 19 september 2013 . hartley tom april 21 1997 . lockport savings builds empire . lockport savings bank enters the insurance market ; savings bank agrees to acquire warren hoffman & associates . business wire . 1998 . http www.marketwatch.com story first niagara to buy newalliance in 15 bln deal 2010 08 19 reflink mw news stmp mider zachary r. august 1 2011 . hsbc to sell some u.s. branches for 1b . bloomberg businessweek . retrieved 31 july 2011 . sabres announce hsbc arena name change to first niagara center . wben . retrieved 25 august 2011 . a b https www.key.com about articles keybank first niagara agreement 103015 . jsp ppc q4 prfn tw http strictlybusiness.buffalonews.com 2016 04 28 keycorp names 18 first niagara branches agreed sell a b c d e http kdka.com business pnc.first.niagara.2.978660.html http kdka.com consumer first.niagara.switchover.2.1170342.html http www.usdoj.gov opa documents branches divested.pdf fitzpatrick dan september 9 2007 . smaller banks aiming to raise profiles locally . pittsburgh post gazette . a b sabatini patricia march 21 2009 . fnb won t buy national city units . pittsburgh post gazette . sabatini patricia april 8 2009 . pnc sells national city branches . pittsburgh post gazette . pnc sells branches to first niagara marquette update1 . bloomberg . april 7 2009 . http www.marquettesavings.com marquetteacquisitionrelease040709.pdf sabatini patricia august 4 2009 . first niagara gets sheetz atms . pittsburgh post gazette . sabatini patricia september 5 2009 . first niagara arrives in western pa . pittsburgh post gazette . jeff blumenthal august 14 2012 first niagara bank appealing to college students philadelphia business journal bizjournals.com retrieved september 9 2012 blumenthal jeff 9 april 2010 . first niagara completes