Fulton Financial is closing 19 branches in southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and New York City three months after the bank’s emergency acquisition of failed Philadelphia lender Republic First Bank, a deal that deepened Fulton’s reach in the state’s largest market.
Lancaster-based Fulton is closing 13 of its own branches and six former Republic branches, according to Fulton spokesperson Stephen Trapnell.
Republic had 32 branches at the time of the acquisition. Fulton has more than 200 branches.
The Fulton offices are set to close on Nov. 22, while the former Republic offices are closing Sept. 16.
Where are they: The Fulton branches are spread across Philadelphia and Bensalem in Pennsylvania; and Cherry Hill, Hainesport, Marlton, Mullica Hill, Northfield, Sewell, Voorhees and West Berlin in New Jersey.
Fulton is closing both of Republic’s former New York City branches, as well as branches in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and Marlton and Ocean City, New Jersey.
One of the Republic offices is a branch at 1601 Walnut St. in Philadelphia that was closed at the time of the acquisition due to a water main break, Trapnell said. It will not be reopening.
After the consolidations, Fulton will have about 60 branches in greater Philadelphia and South Jersey, Trapnell said.
Why is this happening: Trapnell said it is never an easy decision to close branches but that it is sometimes necessary.
“Consolidations like these enable us to operate more efficiently and invest in new financial services, while maintaining a network of financial centers where we meet with customers, listen and understand their needs, and recommend the best financial solutions for them,” he said.
The bank is notifying affected customers of other branches they can use, and it is working with affected employees to help them find new roles in the company, Trapnell said.
The closures of the 13 Fulton branches are expected to cost the bank $10 million in pre-tax expenses, including about $1 million in employee severance, according to a securities filing.
Starting in 2025, the moves are expected to generate about $8 million in annual pre-tax savings.
The First Republic closures are related to the April transaction, brokered by state and federal regulators, and were deemed not to require a similar disclosure, Trapnell said.
In an earnings release, the bank said it recorded $13.8 million in merger-related costs for the second quarter of this year.
The earnings: Fulton reported net income of $92.4 million for the second quarter of 2024, up from $77 million from the same period in 2023, according to its second-quarter release.
The results include a sale-leaseback deal involving 40 Fulton branches, a transaction that generated a pre-tax gain of $20.3 million.
The bank’s assets were $31.8 billion as of June 30, up from $27.4 billion a year earlier.
The new hire: Fulton has named a new CFO, Richard Kraemer, who is slated to join the bank Sept. 3, according to a press release.
Kraemer is currently chief banking officer at Valley National Bank, a $61 billion-asset lender based in New Jersey. He was previously Valley’s CFO.
He succeeds Fulton’s interim CFO, Betsy Chivinski, who is retiring at the end of this year.
Chivinski has worked at Fulton since 1994 and was previously the bank’s chief risk officer. She was filling in as CFO following the February resignation of Mark McCollom.
