Bank selling 32 Midwest branches

Bank selling 32 Midwest branches

Huntington operates nearly 1,000 bank branches across eight Midwest states. Photo via wikimedia.org

A bank with a large West Michigan presence is selling 32 out-of-state branches.

Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington National Bank — which has about 40 West Michigan branches — entered into an agreement last month to sell all of its Wisconsin branches to Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Associated Banc-Corp., the parent of Associated Bank.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the first half of 2019.

Under the terms of the deal, Associated Bank will acquire about $850 million in deposits, $134 million in loans and the 32 branch locations for a net premium of about $34 million, representing about 4 percent of the deposits.

“We are excited for the opportunity to welcome Huntington’s Wisconsin customers to Associated Bank, as we strengthen our franchise and expand services into 13 additional communities,” said Philip Flynn, president and CEO, Associated Bank.

“Ultimately, the scale and efficiencies we gain will position us to make investments to further enhance the customer experience and deliver increased value to our customers, colleagues, communities and shareholders.”

As part of the deal, 11 Huntington branches and two Associated branches will consolidate into other Associated Bank branch locations, and four Associated branches will consolidate into Huntington branch locations.

The transaction follows Huntington’s closure of 70 branches at the end of 2018 — 31 in Michigan, 30 in Ohio and the rest in undisclosed parts of the bank’s footprint.

Huntington said customers’ “evolving needs” — as evidenced by foot traffic patterns and transaction trends — were the reason for the 2018 closures.

Huntington reported “record net income” of $1.4 billion in 2018, an increase of 17 percent over the prior year.

“Our loan pipelines remain steady, and credit metrics remain strong,” said Steve Steinour, president and CEO, Huntington. “We are executing our new strategic plan and continue to drive growth.”

Huntington

Founded in 1866, Huntington National Bank — a subsidiary of Huntington Bancshares, Inc. (Nasdaq: HBAN) — has $109 billion in assets and a network of almost 1,000 traditional and supermarket branches and over 1,700 ATM locations.

Associated Banc-Corp.

Associated Banc-Corp. (NYSE: ASB) has total assets of over $33 billion.

It offers consumer financial services from more than 230 banking locations serving more than 110 communities throughout Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, as well as commercial financial services in Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Texas.