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Atwood "Woody" Collins has an imaginary instrument panel in front of him with gauges slowly inching toward the right He looks at it everyday.
The gauges represent the progress Buffalo-based M&T Bank has made since its $3.1 billion acquisition more than a year ago of Allfirst Financial Inc. Collins, president and chief operating officer of M&T's Mid-Atlantic division, calls the Allfirst acquisition the most successful of the banks dozen or so purchases. in the last few years.
One of the most challenging aspects of a bank acquisition is retention of customers. Collins reports that M&T has retained more than 95 percent of Allfirst's customers.
Collins recently spoke with Business First's sister paper in Baltimore about other milestones met M&T's first year in this market and what's to come.
Baltimore Business Journal: What are some of the milestones that have occurred over the last year?
Collins: If you look at what we've done in terms of retaining customers - that's always a big thing with almost any acquisition - this has been the most successful acquisition to date. We've retained about...