Hudson City Bancorp

On August 27, 2012, Hudson City Bancorp agreed to a buy-out by Buffalo, New York–based M&T Bank for $3.7 billion. M&T was to gain $25 billion in deposits and $28 billion in loans, along with 135 branch locations, 97 of which are located in New Jersey. Thereafter, Hudson City Bancorp became a better buyer of all specified pools. The buy-out was delayed for more than three years due to concerns by the Federal Reserve Board about M&T's anti-money laundering compliance.

The Federal Reserve finally approved the acquisition in September 2015, and on November 1, 2015, Hudson City Bancorp became an M&T subsidiary. At 1,129 days, it is by far the longest delayed bank merger in history. Since November 1, Hudson City has operated as a subsidiary of M&T. M&T plans to completely integrate and rebrand branch locations by February 16.

Financial and legal problems

During the subprime mortgage crisis, Hudson City was cited as an example of good management. They continued to require a good credit score and down payments of 10 to 20 percent, and avoided "exotic mortgages" allowing no income verification and/or no down-payment. Forbes called the bank the "best managed bank of 2007." Hudson City was the largest American bank to refuse federal bailout money, which unfortunately led to its downfall. While initially better off, the other large banks offloaded their bad loans to the government, leaving Hudson City with more debt than their competitors. While not plagued by the credit quality of its loans, by 2012 the bank was weakened as the continued lower mortgage rates encouraged a wave of refinancing to the lower rates.

Hudson City was successful in avoiding the mortgage and banking meltdown made by prudent lending. However, "actions taken by the government to rescue the banking system proved to be Hudson City's undoing." It borrowed at 4% in 2005 and successfully avoided the rise in interest rates in 2006 but suffered from an unprecedented reduction in interest rates implemented by the Fed to bail out the banking system. Its portfolio of jumbo loans was previously ineligible to refinance into a conforming loan, giving the bank a stable long-term asset base. After the housing crisis, the rules changed raising the conforming limit, which enabled the high credit quality jumbo loans to refinance to the lower rate available to GSE-purchased mortgages. The lengthy foreclosure process left Hudson City with a large number of non-performing loans. A loss of high-quality borrowers, an inability to issue new mortgages at reasonable rates, and a portfolio of non-performing loans encouraged the bank to accept a buy-out.

On September 12, 2014, after the death of Ronald Hermance, Hudson City Bancorp appointed Denis J. Salamone as chief executive officer in accordance with the company's succession plan.

In September 2015 the corporation agreed to a settlement of $5,500,000 for mortgage lending practices which discriminated against largely Black and Latin-American neighborhoods.