Jones Lang LaSalle
Final week for Hudson United name
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
By RICHARD NEWMAN
STAFF WRITER
TD Banknorth signs will go up this weekend on some 200 Hudson United Bank branches in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
The name change, and shift to TD Banknorth's data systems, will be the icing on the cake of a $1.9 billion merger that gives Maine-based TD Banknorth 102 branches and more than $2 billion in deposits in New Jersey.
"We expect a smooth finish over this weekend," Wendy Suehrstedt, president of TD Banknorth's Mid-Atlantic Division, said Monday. "All systems will be converted by Sunday.''
Starting that day, Hudson United customers will be able to bank at any of TD Banknorth's 590 branches and 770 ATMs, which are spread from Maine to Pennsylvania.
But the transition is not without inconvenience for some Hudson United customers. Those who use online banking will have to reenroll. And those who use the bank's electronic bill-paying service will have to reenter data about payees. The enrollment period begins Sunday.
Other transitions will be more seamless. Savings and checking account numbers and PIN numbers stay the same, and customers can keep using checks issued by Hudson United until they run out. The bank said direct deposits and most other automatic transactions will continue uninterrupted. Customers can keep using their Hudson United debit or ATM cards until TD Banknorth issues new ones.
Service fees may change on some accounts, for better or worse. Monthly maintenance fees for personal checking, money market and savings accounts will be waived during the first statement cycle, the bank said on its Web site.
TD Banknorth officials said in October that they intended to cut operating costs at Hudson United Bank by one-fourth, largely through layoffs, and that severance packages would include at least 13 weeks' pay. As of Monday, 293 of 1,900 employees had left the company.
Typical of bank mergers, most of the cuts are in back office departments. Some whose jobs were eliminated have taken other jobs within the company, Suehrstedt said.
TD Banknorth, which is majority-owned by the Canadian financial services firm TD Bank Financial Group Inc., acquired Mahwah-based Hudson United in January as a springboard for expansion in the New York-New Jersey area. Since that deal closed in January, TD Banknorth has cut a deal to expand further in North Jersey, agreeing to buy Saddle Brook-based Interchange Bank, which has 30 branches, in a $480 million cash deal expected to close early next year.
TD Banknorth is expected to close eight to 12 Bergen County branches because some Hudson United and Interchange branches are in close proximity to one another.
The company said last month that it took a $10.9 million first-quarter management restructuring charge related to the Hudson United merger.
TD Banknorth's first-quarter earnings increased to $76.2 million, or 36 cents per share, up from $34.1 million, or 18 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $400.3 million, from $278.4 million.
On Monday, shares fell five cents, to $28.75.
E-mail: newman@northjersey.com
Final week for Hudson United name
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
By RICHARD NEWMAN
STAFF WRITER
TD Banknorth signs will go up this weekend on some 200 Hudson United Bank branches in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
The name change, and shift to TD Banknorth's data systems, will be the icing on the cake of a $1.9 billion merger that gives Maine-based TD Banknorth 102 branches and more than $2 billion in deposits in New Jersey.
"We expect a smooth finish over this weekend," Wendy Suehrstedt, president of TD Banknorth's Mid-Atlantic Division, said Monday. "All systems will be converted by Sunday.''
Starting that day, Hudson United customers will be able to bank at any of TD Banknorth's 590 branches and 770 ATMs, which are spread from Maine to Pennsylvania.
But the transition is not without inconvenience for some Hudson United customers. Those who use online banking will have to reenroll. And those who use the bank's electronic bill-paying service will have to reenter data about payees. The enrollment period begins Sunday.
Other transitions will be more seamless. Savings and checking account numbers and PIN numbers stay the same, and customers can keep using checks issued by Hudson United until they run out. The bank said direct deposits and most other automatic transactions will continue uninterrupted. Customers can keep using their Hudson United debit or ATM cards until TD Banknorth issues new ones.
Service fees may change on some accounts, for better or worse. Monthly maintenance fees for personal checking, money market and savings accounts will be waived during the first statement cycle, the bank said on its Web site.
TD Banknorth officials said in October that they intended to cut operating costs at Hudson United Bank by one-fourth, largely through layoffs, and that severance packages would include at least 13 weeks' pay. As of Monday, 293 of 1,900 employees had left the company.
Typical of bank mergers, most of the cuts are in back office departments. Some whose jobs were eliminated have taken other jobs within the company, Suehrstedt said.
TD Banknorth, which is majority-owned by the Canadian financial services firm TD Bank Financial Group Inc., acquired Mahwah-based Hudson United in January as a springboard for expansion in the New York-New Jersey area. Since that deal closed in January, TD Banknorth has cut a deal to expand further in North Jersey, agreeing to buy Saddle Brook-based Interchange Bank, which has 30 branches, in a $480 million cash deal expected to close early next year.
TD Banknorth is expected to close eight to 12 Bergen County branches because some Hudson United and Interchange branches are in close proximity to one another.
The company said last month that it took a $10.9 million first-quarter management restructuring charge related to the Hudson United merger.
TD Banknorth's first-quarter earnings increased to $76.2 million, or 36 cents per share, up from $34.1 million, or 18 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $400.3 million, from $278.4 million.
On Monday, shares fell five cents, to $28.75.
E-mail: newman@northjersey.com
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 3:03 PM
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