Oct 6, 2026 · 42 min · 10 segments
In this episode of Reroute Reflections, Andrew Ourique is joined by Perry Gordon, Organizational Change Manager at M&T Bank, to explore what organizations can learn from M&A, enterprise…
Andrew OuriqueHost
But I think for right now, for the listeners that are listening, because I know that there are quite a few in the US, so they're already pretty familiar with the US banking system.
And, you know, I've been with M&T Bank for, for 10 years, and I've really learned a lot just broadly about the financial industry in the United States.
And, and what has really happened over the last 10 years or so is we've really come from a place of traditionally there's been a lot of regional presence for banking.
And the tier three banks in the United States, you can think of those very, very localized Institutions, they include things like credit unions and, and smaller local markets.
And then, kind of when we think of beyond that, we think of more of kind of the regional level.
So we think of M&T as a regional bank, so we're a really great example of a regional bank, where we have presence in several markets, but concentrated primarily in a specific larger geographic region.
So for example, M&T Bank has presence through New England, through Mid-Atlantic, into Western New York and Pennsylvania.
We think of Bank of America, we think of W- Wells Fargo, that are, they have a presence, uh, nationally.
So when we compare it a bit to the Canadian system, you know, think of, you know, a very consolidated group of nationally present institutions, right? We think of BMO, you had mentioned, you know, RBC or, or TD, Scotiabank.
And that what we're seeing, we in the United States over the last 10 years, in particularly the tier two level, is that there's been a lot of consolidation.
So through mergers and acquisitions over the past decade, that tier two group has shrunk to, to a, a, a group that is very competitive, but also that understanding that there are the next level to move to tier one bank, that would require a lot of internal transformation within those tier two banks to be able to achieve the scale and the, you know, the capitalization required to operate at a national level.
So although these different levels speak to the diversity of the banking system, there are still limits to how much movement there is within those different tiers.
So, you know, thinking about that and the importance for us to understand how can we be M&T Bank, how can we be the most effective in serving our customers within our, our footprint? And as our footprint has grown over the years, we've realized that, you know, we, we have competitors who are also seeing it from the same lens, who are really playing and vying for customers within the same space.
Which is, from a competitive standpoint, that allows us to continue to lean in to think about ways, how can we be more innovative as a bank? How can we better serve our, our customers in those areas? And where are those growth opportunities, even within our own footprint, to be able to, to think about how we can remain competitive and lead those tier two banks? And the extent to which there are different, you know, KPIs associated with some of those tier two banks, M&T is very strong in a lot of those key performance indicators.
So we are able to track our progress and measure where we are within that competitive landscape.
I think that's super helpful, and honestly, I learned, I learned a lot around the, the differences between the two.
It's always an interesting piece because, you know, organizations w- inside and outside of, you know, banking just in general, like the, the path to, like the quickest growth, they always find is through acquisition, merge-
But I think for right now, for the listeners that are listening, because I know that there are quite a few in the US, so they're already pretty familiar with the US banking system.
And, you know, I've been with M&T Bank for, for 10 years, and I've really learned a lot just broadly about the financial industry in the United States.
And, and what has really happened over the last 10 years or so is we've really come from a place of traditionally there's been a lot of regional presence for banking.
And the tier three banks in the United States, you can think of those very, very localized Institutions, they include things like credit unions and, and smaller local markets.
And then, kind of when we think of beyond that, we think of more of kind of the regional level.
So we think of M&T as a regional bank, so we're a really great example of a regional bank, where we have presence in several markets, but concentrated primarily in a specific larger geographic region.
So for example, M&T Bank has presence through New England, through Mid-Atlantic, into Western New York and Pennsylvania.
We think of Bank of America, we think of W- Wells Fargo, that are, they have a presence, uh, nationally.
So when we compare it a bit to the Canadian system, you know, think of, you know, a very consolidated group of nationally present institutions, right? We think of BMO, you had mentioned, you know, RBC or, or TD, Scotiabank.
And that what we're seeing, we in the United States over the last 10 years, in particularly the tier two level, is that there's been a lot of consolidation.
So through mergers and acquisitions over the past decade, that tier two group has shrunk to, to a, a, a group that is very competitive, but also that understanding that there are the next level to move to tier one bank, that would require a lot of internal transformation within those tier two banks to be able to achieve the scale and the, you know, the capitalization required to operate at a national level.
So although these different levels speak to the diversity of the banking system, there are still limits to how much movement there is within those different tiers.
So, you know, thinking about that and the importance for us to understand how can we be M&T Bank, how can we be the most effective in serving our customers within our, our footprint? And as our footprint has grown over the years, we've realized that, you know, we, we have competitors who are also seeing it from the same lens, who are really playing and vying for customers within the same space.
Which is, from a competitive standpoint, that allows us to continue to lean in to think about ways, how can we be more innovative as a bank? How can we better serve our, our customers in those areas? And where are those growth opportunities, even within our own footprint, to be able to, to think about how we can remain competitive and lead those tier two banks? And the extent to which there are different, you know, KPIs associated with some of those tier two banks, M&T is very strong in a lot of those key performance indicators.
So we are able to track our progress and measure where we are within that competitive landscape.
I think that's super helpful, and honestly, I learned, I learned a lot around the, the differences between the two.
It's always an interesting piece because, you know, organizations w- inside and outside of, you know, banking just in general, like the, the path to, like the quickest growth, they always find is through acquisition, merge-
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.