Wilmington Urges That Clients Will Not Witness Disturbances During Transfer to the M&T Name

As I previously blogged, Delaware’s Wilmington Trust Company sold itself to New York’s M&T Bank last year. Wilmington’s shareholders were enraged at the time of the sale, and many smaller investors and pension funds have sued Wilmington alleging the company concealed the truth about the impact of its deteriorating commercial loan portfolio.

In an effort to appease its existing high-net-worth clients, M&T will not retire the Wilmington brand in either its private trust or corporate branches. When the deal closes, however, Wilmington’s retail branches will switch to the M&T name. Wilmington maintains that its clients will not witness disturbances in their business relationships either during or after the transition.

See Scott Martin, Wilmington’s Wealthy Clients Rattled as Loan Loss Scandal Unfolds, Forbes, Dec. 8, 2010.