M&T CEO Robert G. Wilmers

Overall, a heavy burden has been placed on the banking industry – some reasonable, some excessive – and the result has been an imposition of quantum increases in analyses, reports, systems and models. These new requirements will undoubtedly create unforeseen and unintended consequences not only for the banking industry and regulators, but for consumers, businesses and communities that were so removed from the source of the crisis we are attempting to fix. One wishes that those charged with understanding and limiting such risk would consider, too, the effect of their individual actions, not in isolation, but in the totality of their impact on the economy. Such changes were surely not in the plans of those who drafted Dodd-Frank, or in the minds of those designing its regulations – or for that matter of examiners and overseers at the many layers of government. Simply put, they are inhibiting, not helping, the economic recovery. As a banker, it has always been my understanding that a bank’s core mission is that of extending credit to the ambitious and entrepreneurial, those who have good ideas and the drive to implement them. By their nature, such loans entail risk, but they are entered into with an overwhelming desire to see the interests of all those represented in the Middle American towns, villages and cities throughout the country, both individuals and institutions, advance and thrive. Read more.

Remarks to Annual Meeting of Shareholders

Our success in navigating the perilous times in which we have been living reflects the combination of prudence, restraint, and willingness to take risk when we judge it to be appropriate which have characterized us historically.  Whether in approaching an acquisition opportunity or a small business loan, we follow no formula nor algorithm, but rely, instead, on our best judgment, following careful evaluation.  The fact that so many of our employees, and members of our management team, are also M&T shareholders reinforces our resolve to take good care of what we have built to date—and which we will, loan by loan, branch by branch, continue to build in the years to come. Read more