The story
The company was founded in 1842 as Bridgeport Savings Bank in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After acquiring People's Bank of Vernon, CT, in 1983, the company was renamed People's Bank. It then acquired several other banks in New England to become the second largest in the region.
In 1985, the company began issuing credit cards, but by 2004, it sold its credit card division to the Royal Bank of Scotland at a premium of $360 million. The company moved to a new headquarters building designed by Richard Meier in 1989.
On June 7, 2007, the bank changed its name to People's United Bank.
In February 2008, a data storage company, Archive America, lost backup tapes in transit containing the "names, birthdays, Social Security numbers and other information" of customers of the bank and of The Bank of New York Mellon. On November 22, 2010, the bank opened its first location in Boston.
People's United was notably selected to manage the core bank accounts for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in November 2016, and was also selected to manage the core bank accounts for the state of Vermont in August 2017.
On February 22, 2021, M&T Bank, based in Buffalo, New York, announced an agreement to acquire People's United Bank in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $7.6 billion.
Acquisition history
From its founding as Bridgeport Savings Bank to the present, People's United has acquired several banks and other financial institutions in New England including:
20th century
1955: acquired Southport Savings Bank
Read the full text
1981: acquired the assets of First Stamford Bank and Trust Company
1982: acquired Guardian Federal Savings and Loan Association of Bridgeport
1986: acquired First Federal Savings Bank
1991: acquired the deposits of Hartford-based Landmark Bank
1998: acquired Norwich Financial Corporation for $164 million in cash
21st century
January 1, 2008: acquired Chittenden Corporation for $1.9 billion Also in 2008, the bank acquired Ocean Bank of New Hampshire, Maine Bank & Trust, Merrill Merchants Bank, Flagship Bank, and Bank of Western Massachusetts.
February 2010: acquired Financial Federal Corporation, an equipment financing company
April 2010: acquired Butler Bank, which was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
December 2010: acquired LSB Corporation and Smithtown Bancorp
July 2011: acquired Danvers Bancorp
2012: acquired 57 branches in the greater New York metro area from Royal Bank of Scotland, including 53 branches in Stop & Shop supermarkets
October 2015: People's United subsidiary acquired Kesten-Brown Insurance
April 2017: acquired Suffolk Bancorp
July 2017: acquired LEAF Commercial Capital
June 2018: People's United Bank agreed to purchase Farmington Bank in a deal valued at $544 million
November 2019: acquired Connecticut-based United Financial Bancorp.
From Wikipedia’s article on People's United Financial, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7