M&T Bank has torn down Allfirst signs and lettering and replaced them with its own logo on the 261 bank branches that belonged to the formerly AIB-owned Baltimore bank in the mid-Atlantic region.
The process, which also involved converting Allfirst's 600 automated teller machines to the M&T name, was completed over the July 4th weekend.
This is the culmination of a series of conversion activities since M&T announced it was buying Allfirst in September.
The bank had been called First National Bank of Maryland for more than a century when AIB completed its purchase in 1989. The name was changed to Allfirst in 1999 at a cost of $8-$12 million and was never popular in Maryland. Former Allfirst chief executive Susan Keating admitted that customers wondered if the new logo was a laptop or a pizza box.
M&T was now launching a $3.5 million (€3.1 million) marketing campaign to popularise its brand name in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington and Virginia, the company said.
The M&T purchase of Allfirst from AIB came seven months after it revealed that currency trader John Rusnak had hidden losses of $691.2 million over five years to protect his salary and bonuses.
The $3.1 billion acquisition made Buffalo, New York-based M&T the 18th-largest US bank.
M&T has transferred the headquarters of some of its businesses to Baltimore, including asset-based lending, investment banking and bond underwriting and international trade services.
