2 min read February 2022 —With a merger pending, M&T Bank is poised to become a Top 10 bank in the country with regard to size. In an interview with Invest:, Bernie Shields, regional president of Philadelphia and South Jersey at M&T Bank, discussed the attractiveness of Philadelphia, the future of work and the need to constantly keep up with the latest mousetrap.
What makes Philadelphia a great place to reside and do business?
Philadelphia has a ton to offer anyone who lives here or is considering living here. Within our city, we have everything someone would want, including four major sports teams, universities, a diversity of industry and job opportunities and renowned cultural assets. We also are in proximity to the nation’s capital, the financial capital of the world, New York City, and major cities along the East Coast.
What does the future work environment look like for M&T Bank employees who aren’t working in your branches?
The expectation is we’re going to be in some version of a hybrid environment as things move forward. We’ve split our employees into three different buckets. One is specific to the jobs that need to be in the office 100% of the time. Most of those are centrally located and are manual support roles that are difficult to execute remotely. On the other extreme, we have employees who can be remote 100% of the time. These buckets have a relatively small number of employees. The bulk of our employees fall into a hybrid job category. We anticipate having most of our employees back in the office three days a week and remote two days a week.
We recognize there is great value in the personal relationships you develop working next to someone. We can’t expect to grow our business in an environment where those relationships aren’t developed via some time in office collaborating.
At the same time, a hybrid model offers many employees more flexibility than they’ve had before. If a home or family commitment means they need to be remote, they have the flexibility to do so, rather than using vacation time. There is an expectation that quality of life and engagement will improve when we enter this new normal.
What is your outlook for technology expenditures in the banking industry?
We will continue to provide solutions to clients that are driven by technology. Whether it’s a consumer going into a branch or the CFO of a company, there is great convenience to doing things electronically and in using technology. The expectation of our clients is that we’re as cutting edge as our competitors. If someone builds a better mousetrap, the rest of us are catching up quickly to provide that same solution or a similar one. Charm only gets you so far.
Over time, the trends of increasing technological spend will advance. Once you get to a certain size, there is an expectation about what you provide and technology expenditures matter in meeting those expectations. It’s harder for smaller banks to make those investments, so some of the smaller banks are going to have to compete less with what they are offering and more with how they’re doing it.
What is on the horizon for M&T Bank and Philadelphia’s banking industry?
We have a merger pending that still requires Fed approval but once that merger is consummated, we’ll be among the largest banks in the country. However, we treat each market and each client on an individualized basis. We try to bring sophistication and the heft of a big balance sheet in a way that makes the client feel like we’re a lot smaller than we are.
Philly is a very competitive market, with great banks of every size, from the biggest in the country to locally owned, locally managed banks. The competition is fierce, has always been fierce and I don’t expect that to change.
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