M&T Bank eyes Canadian commercial office this year

TORONTO (Reuters) - Regional bank M&T Bank Corp (MTB.N) said on Friday it plans to open a Canadian commercial banking office in the Toronto area by the end of 2008, pending regulatory approval.

M&T, based in Buffalo, New York, said the new office will initially serve 150 to 200 existing customers who do business in both the United States and Canada.

Most of them are companies with between $50 million and $200 million in annual revenue, said Brian Hickey, an executive vice president of commercial banking at M&T Bank.

"What we're hopeful to do in fairly short order is then begin pursuing additional Canada-based customers, and see if we can compete in that market," Hickey said.

There are some "enormous banks" in Canada, but M&T, with about $66 billion in assets, views itself as a community bank that is more responsive to customers than larger players, he said.

"We've grown our bank by taking business away from larger banks here in the U.S., and we'd like to see if we can take a stab at that in Toronto as well."

Canada is the United States' largest trading partner and about 30 percent of this two-way trade crosses the international border in the Buffalo, New York-Niagara Falls, Ontario area, the bank said.

Manufacturing used to dominate M&T's lending business in Upstate New York -- it was founded as Manufacturers and Traders Bank -- but the bank now lends to manufacturers, financial and service businesses and government contractors, Hickey said.

M&T hired John R. MacLeod as the principal officer for the Canadian office. MacLeod was most recently with HSBC Bank Canada