HSBC
In 1980, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation acquired a 51 percent controlling interest in Marine Midland Corporation. By then, it was the 13th largest commercial bank in the United States, with about 300 banking offices across New York and about 25 offices in foreign countries. HSBC acquired full ownership in 1987. In 1983, Marine Midland Bank acquired Carroll McEntee & McGinley (now HSBC Securities (USA)), a New York-based primary dealer in US government securities. 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 J P Morgan. At the same time, HSBC transferred two branches in the northwestern United States to Hongkong Bank of 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.
The bank continued to operate under the Marine Midland name until 1998, when the legal name changed to HSBC Bank USA N.A., and all branches took the HSBC name. In 1999, at the time of its consolidation and change to HSBC Bank USA, the bank had $33 billion in assets.
In 2011, HSBC sold its retail banking network in Upstate New York and Connecticut to First Niagara Financial Group, KeyBank, Community Bank, N.A. and Five Star Bank. For all intents and purposes, HSBC had jettisoned the original core of Marine Midland. In 2016 Key merged with First Niagara. In order for the Key/First Niagara merger to gain regulatory approval, Northwest Savings Bank bought 18 First Niagara branches in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area. As a result, Key owns most of the core of the old Marine Midland, with a small portion held by Northwest. Key had been one of Marine Midland's main rivals in Upstate New York for much of the 20th century. By 2013, HSBC vacated its office space in what was by now known as One HSBC Center; its former headquarters was renamed Seneca One Tower.
In an effort to refocus its operations into the Asian market, HSBC announced in 2021, that it would be exiting the U.S. retail banking business by selling off 80 branches to Citizens Bank on the East Coast (the rest of the original Marine Midland core) and 10 to Cathay Bank on the West Coast, two of which were originally Marine Midland branches.
