Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 16, 2023 17 M&T Bank's Connecticut headquarters in Bridgeport. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED CT banks shed nearly 7% of deposits in 12 months By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com F ederally insured banks in Connecticut lost nearly 7% of their deposits over the last year, mirroring a nationwide outflow of funds from the banking system. The 52 federally insured banks doing business in Connecticut, including those headquartered inside and outside the state, reported $166.7 billion in combined deposits as of June 30, 2023, down 6.9%, or $12.4 billion from a year earlier, according to newly released data from the Federal Deposit Insur- ance Corp. Nationally, bank deposits contracted by 4.8% over the past year to $17.3 trillion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The decline occurred as bank runs contributed to three large U.S. bank failures in the first half of the year, S&P said. That led some depositors — partic- ularly individuals with accounts holding more than $250,000, the current FDIC insurance limit — to move money to different banks, or out of the banking system. This was the first year-over-year decline in deposits nationally since at least 1994, according to S&P. In Connecticut, the decline in deposits was driven by some of the larger money-center banks, including Citibank, which shed 41% of its in-state deposits from June 30, 2022, to June 30, 2023. That was the largest decline for any bank in the state holding at least $1 billion in deposits. Citibank now has $3.1 billion in Connecticut deposits, making it the 10th-largest bank in the state. M&T Bank, the state's third- largest lender, saw a 22% decline in Connecticut deposits over the past year to $19.4 billion, FDIC data shows. M&T Bank became a major player in Connecticut following its $8.3 billion takeover of People's United Bank in April 2021. However, the New York-based lender faced signifi- cant criticism and complaints shortly after closing that deal, as numerous customers experienced problems when their People's accounts were converted to M&T's system. M&T's current Connecticut deposit balance is down 32% from the $28.7 billion in deposits People's United Bank held as of June 30, 2021 — 10 months before the merger closed. M&T Bank now controls 11.6% of all Connecticut deposits, down from 13.8% in June 2022. Even the state's market share leader, Bank of America, saw its Connecticut deposits shrink by 12% over the past year, to $39.6 billion. The North Carolina-based banking giant still holds a comfortable market share lead, controlling 23.75% of all Connecticut deposits, but that's down from 25% in June 2022. Connecticut's second-largest bank, Stamford-based Webster Bank, saw one of the largest deposit increases over the past year. It held $32.9 billion in Connecticut deposits as of June 30, 2023, up 26.84% from a year earlier. Webster Bank now controls 19.73% of in-state deposits, up from 14.5% a year ago, FDIC data shows. New York-based NBT Bank, which entered the market in 2020, saw an even bigger spike (about 28%) in Connecticut deposits to $47.2 million. That number will jump significantly next year, following NBT's August purchase of Lakev- ille-based Salisbury Bank, which reported $680 million in deposits as of June 30, 2023 BANKS WITH MOST CT BRANCHES JUNE 30, 2023 BRANCHES JUNE 30, 2022 BRANCHES CHANGE M&T Bank 140 166 -26 Webster Bank 95 96 -1 Bank of America 89 90 -1 JPMorgan Chase Bank 60 54 6 TD Bank 56 56 0 TOTAL IN CT 973 1,009 -36 Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Branch trimming continues Connecticut banks also continued to trim their branch counts over the past year. The 52 banks operating in the state closed a net 36 branches from June 30, 2022, to June 30, 2023, a 3.6% decrease. Most of those closures were CT BANKS THAT SHED THE MOST DEPOSITS June 30, 2023 Deposits June 30, 2022 Deposits ($000s) ($000s) % CHANGE Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust $479,718 $863,938 -44.47% Citibank $3,135,000 $5,300,000 -40.85% M&T Bank $19,388,480 $24,802,646 -21.83% The Northern Trust Company $390,767 $463,815 -15.75% Connecticut Community Bank $488,580 $578,148 -15.49% TOTAL CT DEPOSITS $166,731,317 $179,093,490 -6.90% Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. CT BANKS THAT GAINED THE MOST DEPOSITS June 30, 2023 Deposits June 30, 2022 Deposits ($000s) ($000s) % CHANGE Bankwell Bank $2,799,094 $2,040,221 37.20% NBT Bank $47,188 $36,894 27.90% Webster Bank $32,889,830 $25,931,112 26.84% The First Bank of Greenwich $503,874 $404,441 24.59% Dr Bank $408,620 $345,194 18.37% Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. attributed to M&T Bank, which shuttered a net 26 branches over the past year, which represented 15.6% of its brick-and-mortar presence in the state. The biggest outlier was JPMorgan Chase, which added six new branches over the past year as part of a broader growth strategy.

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