HUDSON CITY SAVINGS BANK TAKEOVER WOULD BOOST N.J. SMALL-BUSINESS OWNERS
By Ed Beeson/The Star-Ledger
August 28, 2012
The proposed $3.7 billion takeover of Hudson City Savings Bank announced Monday would prove a boon to small-business owners in New Jersey, bank analysts and industry watchers said, thanks to new competition the deal would create.
The acquisition of the Paramus-based savings bank, the largest headquartered in the state, by Buffalo, N.Y.-based M&T Bank also should help spur the wave of consolidation that’s expected to hit smaller commercial and community banks that are facing economic and regulatory pressures, analysts said.
“In my experience, deals beget more deals,” said Mark Fitzgibbon, an analyst with Sandler O’Neill.