HSBC Bank USA - History

History

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation acquired a 51% shareholding in Marine Midland Bank of New York State, headquartered in Buffalo, New York, in 1980 and extended to full ownership in 1987. The banks continued to operate under the Marine Midland name until 1998, when the branch offices were rebranded as HSBC Bank USA in line with the worldwide corporate identity of HSBC.

In 1994, Marine Midland acquired Spectrum Home Mortgage, which operated in eight states. Then in 1995, Marine acquired United Northern Federal Savings Bank, with branches in Watertown and Lowville, New York. Marine Midland also acquired The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation's six New York City retail branches, and the next year Hang Seng Bank's two branches in New York City.

That same year, Marine Midland acquired 11 branches from the East River Savings Bank in the New York Metropolitan area. Marine also acquired the US dollar clearing business of JPMorgan. At the same time, HSBC transferred two branches in the northwestern United States to HSBC Bank Canada. The next year, Marine completed its acquisition of First Federal Savings and Loan from Toronto-based CT Financial Services, for $620 million. First Federal Savings, headquartered in Rochester, had $7.2 billion in assets, 1,600 employees, 79 retail branches in New York State and 15 mortgage origination offices in nine states.

In 1998, Marine Midland acquired First Commercial Bank of Philadelphia, which had been established in 1989 as the first-state chartered Asian-American bank in Pennsylvania. The bank served the local Asian community, which often faced language and cultural barriers at traditional American banks. Marine paid $23.75 million for First Commercial, which had $90 million in assets and $78 million in deposits in two branches.

After the acquisition of Republic National Bank in 1999, the head office of HSBC Bank USA moved from One HSBC Center in Buffalo to 452 Fifth Avenue, New York City, although the official headquarters are in Wilmington, Delaware.

In 2004 HSBC USA sold two New York state branches to City National Bank. HSBC did not have enough nearby branches to give it economies of scale.

On July 31, 2011, First Niagara Financial Group, headquartered in Buffalo, announced that they had bought all of HSBC's upstate New York branches for $1 billion.